Timur

Zanthoxylum armatum · thingay · thingey · Nepal pepper · Sichuan pepper

The seasoning that stands where a masala would be.

What it is

Timur is the dried outer husk of a small mountain berry, picked off a thorny shrub and sun-dried until it rattles. The black seed inside is gritty and gets discarded. What you want is the husk, which carries a sharp citrus-pine smell and a compound that sets off a cold tingling buzz on the lips and tongue. It is not heat. Chilli burns where timur numbs, and the two do completely different jobs in a pot.

Where it comes from

The shrub grows wild through the middle hills of Nepal and across the eastern Himalaya, and the berries are gathered wild, not farmed. It is the same genus as the Sichuan peppercorn of western China, so the two are interchangeable in a UK kitchen, though timur runs sharper and more citric where Sichuan pepper runs rounder and more floral.

What it's called

Timur (Nepali) · thingay (Dzongkha) · Nepal pepper. Botanically Zanthoxylum armatum, a close cousin of the Sichuan peppercorn, Zanthoxylum bungeanum.

In the kitchen

Ground at the last minute and stirred in off the heat, because the tingle is volatile and a long simmer kills it. It goes into momo achar, into the broths, through sukuti and gundruk sadeko, and into ezay. In a zone with almost no spice blending, timur is doing the work a masala does elsewhere, and a dish can taste unmistakably of the hills with nothing in it but garlic, salt and this.

What we know about the claims

Folk medicine across the Himalaya uses timur for toothache and digestion, and the numbing effect makes the toothache claim at least comprehensible. In cooking quantities treat it as a flavouring. One practical point: the buzz fades fast in storage, so a jar that has sat open for a year will taste of not much.

Choosing and buying

Nepali online grocers in the UK sell timur itself, including Nepalese Centre. Otherwise Sichuan peppercorns from any Chinese grocer are the same berry and work directly. In the US, Sichuan peppercorns from an Asian grocery or online. Buy whole husks, never ready-ground, and sift out the black seeds and twigs before you grind.