Chemesthesis is simply the irritation of our nerve endings inside the mouth that occurs when they’re exposed to the flavor substances in ginger and pepper during eating our bodies have evolved to appreciate this “irritation” as a pleasurable and tasty sensation. The flavor chemicals in ginger and pepper work on our senses by a phenomenon called chemesthesis. In these cookies, the addition of black pepper helps tie the heat from the different forms of ginger together. In addition, piperine loses its pungent potency over time because of spontaneous chemical changes that’s a big reason why most recipes will ask you to use freshly ground black pepper and avoid holding on to peppercorns in the spice cabinet for several months. One interesting thing of note, piperine is light sensitive and changes into non-pungent substances (by a process called isomerization), so always store peppercorns and ground away from light in a cool, dark corner of your kitchen. Black pepper gets its heat and pungency from a chemical called piperine. The heat and aroma from the black pepper often hold up really nicely to sweetness. I often add black pepper to a lot of my sweets, especially cookies and ice cream. Each of these ginger flavor molecules differs from each other in their degree of heat, and zingerone, in comparison to the other two, is also sweeter (from a food chemistry perspective to see how one molecule can change slightly and produce such a dramatic effect, see my illustration (this was one of the sketches that didn’t make it into The Flavor Equation cookbook)) In contrast, in crystallized ginger (prepared through pressure cooking), gingerol turns into zingerone. When fresh ginger is dried to produce the ground ginger in our spice jars, the gingerol changes into shagaol. Ginger is a fascinating ingredient as it’s processed and converted into various forms, the critical chemical gingerol responsible for its gingery heat transforms into new substances. The overall effect is a robust ginger flavor with a beautiful contrast of heat and sweetness. I’ve also added one extra ingredient to build on the heat from the ginger, and that’s ground black pepper. I’ve strayed from the classic gingersnap recipes that use the ground form of dried ginger and amped up the ginger flavor by incorporating three different forms of ginger ground dried ginger, grated fresh ginger, and crystallized ginger. The Hallmark of a Gingersnap Cookie is the Pleasant Wave of Heat: Gingersnaps, ginger snaps, gingernuts, ginger nuts, or ginger biscuits (no relation to the Ginger Snaps horror movie franchise) are one of those cookies I find to be the perfect companion to a cup of hot tea or coffee. If there is a cookie that I love a lot more than the other holiday cookies, it’s got to be gingersnaps.
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