Before chillies: where Thai food got its heat, and when chillies arrived
Chillies came from the Americas and reached Asia with Portuguese traders in the 16th century. Before that, Thai heat came from pepper, long pepper, ginger and galangal.
- Chillies (Capsicum) are native only to the Americas. The first Portuguese reached Ayutthaya in 1511, and chillies came with 16th- and 17th-century trade.
- Before that, heat came mainly from black pepper, helped by long pepper (dipli), ginger, galangal, garlic, shallots and other spices.
- Thai speakers are thought to have called pepper simply 'phrik' until chillies arrived; then pepper became 'phrik thai', 'Thai phrik'.
- Comparing the pure compounds, piperine in pepper is roughly 1/100 as hot as capsaicin in chillies.
The chillies that appear at almost every Thai meal are an American plant that arrived only about 500 years ago. Yet Thai people were eating hot food long before that. Before chillies, the heat came mostly from black pepper, helped by long pepper, ginger, galangal, garlic and shallots. This article covers how chillies arrived, what old records say, and how the two kinds of heat compare in numbers.
Chillies came from the Americas
The genus Capsicum, which includes bird’s eye chillies, long red chillies and sweet peppers, is native only to the Americas, and capsaicin, the compound that makes chillies hot, is made by no other plants. People in the Americas had been growing chillies for over 6,000 years. After Columbus’s voyage around 1492, chillies began to travel to Europe and on to Africa and Asia aboard Spanish and Portuguese ships.
On the Siamese side, the first Portuguese to arrive was Duarte Fernandes, in October 1511, an envoy sent after the Portuguese captured Malacca. A treaty of friendship and commerce followed in 1518. Trade in the 16th and 17th centuries brought many American crops, including cassava, papaya, pineapple, sweet potato and chillies.
The year the first chilli reached Ayutthaya is not given in any of the sources behind this article. Reliable sources agree only that chillies “probably” came with Portuguese traders and envoys in the 16th century.
What made food hot before chillies
Thai food was hot before chillies, without doubt. The Traiphum Phra Ruang, a Sukhothai-era text, already uses the word for “spicy”. The sources point to these ingredients:
| Ingredient | Plant | Where the heat comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Black pepper (phrik thai) | Vine, Piper nigrum, native from India to Southeast Asia | Piperine |
| Long pepper (dipli) | Piper retrofractum, dried fruit used as a spice | Piperine (less than black pepper) |
| Ginger, galangal | Rhizomes of the ginger family | Pungent compounds in the rhizome |
| Garlic, shallots | Bulbs | Sharpness and heat when raw |
| Makhwaen | Zanthoxylum limonella, same genus as Sichuan pepper | Fruit used as a spice in the North |
In his book Nam Phrik, the writer and former prime minister M.R. Kukrit Pramoj inferred from the paste of kaeng liang that Sukhothai cooks pounded black pepper for heat. That is an inference, not direct evidence. Wikipedia’s nam phrik page says that before chillies, Thai cooks used black pepper, long pepper and Sichuan pepper. Thai sources do not mention Sichuan pepper itself, but do mention makhwaen, its relative in the same genus.
“Phrik” used to mean pepper
The usual explanation is that Thai speakers once called black pepper just phrik. When chillies arrived, kitchens had two hot ingredients, and the words split into phrik thai (“Thai phrik”, black pepper) and phrik thet (“foreign phrik”, chillies), also called fresh phrik. “Thai” here does not mean pepper grew only in Thailand; it is native to the whole region. It marked the old ingredient against the new one from abroad.
Firm evidence that Thai kitchens used both by the early Bangkok period comes from a poem on savoury and sweet dishes written by King Rama II, which mentions both phrik thai and phrik sot (fresh chilli).
Reading Ayutthaya-era records with care
Several foreigners who visited Ayutthaya wrote about its food, and their accounts are often quoted as evidence. They need careful reading.
- Jeremias van Vliet, a Dutch merchant, recorded that the Siamese ate fermented fish (pla chom) seasoned with pepper and salt, and a “fish and pepper sauce”. The Thai translation renders this as nam pla phrik. But “pepper” can mean black pepper, so the translation alone does not show chillies were in use.
- Father Nicolas Gervaise, travelling with the La Loubère embassy, wrote that Siamese curries contained salt and coconut milk and were made hot with pepper, plants and herbs.
- Simon de La Loubère, the French envoy, in 1687-88 was the first Westerner to describe nam phrik, as a mustard-like sauce made from fermented fish that locals called kapi.
When you read an old account in Thai translation, “phrik” may be a rendering of “pepper”, which can just as well mean black pepper.
Worked example: how far apart are the two kinds of heat?
Capsaicin in chillies and piperine in pepper both create a burning feeling through the same receptor, TRPV1. Their strength is very different. Here are the numbers.
- Pure compounds. Pure capsaicin = 16,000,000 SHU (Scoville heat units). Piperine = 150,000 SHU. Divide: 16,000,000 ÷ 150,000 ≈ 107. Chilli’s compound is roughly 100 times stronger.
- Black pepper vs long pepper. Black pepper holds about 5-10% piperine, long pepper about 1-2%. So 1 g of black pepper carries 50-100 mg of piperine; 1 g of long pepper carries 10-20 mg. That is 2.5 to 10 times more in black pepper.
- What this means in the kitchen. To reach the same heat you need many times more pepper than chilli, and pepper always brings its own sharp, resinous aroma with it.
Steps 1 and 2 are values for the compounds, not the heat of a given chilli or peppercorn, because the amount in real plants varies with variety and growing conditions. For the heat of different chillies and how to order the level you want, see How hot? Thai phrases for spice level.
Common mistakes
- Thinking pepper and chillies are related. Different genera, different continents. The names overlap because of language.
- Thinking Thai food was mild before chillies. Heat goes back to Sukhothai; it just came from pepper and other spices.
- Giving an exact year for chillies reaching Ayutthaya. The documented year, 1511, is when the Portuguese arrived, not the chillies.
- Assuming “mai phet” (not hot) means no heat at all. Dishes built on pepper or long pepper can still be hot. If you cannot take heat, ask about pepper too.
Summary
Chillies are an American plant that reached Siam with Portuguese trade in the 16th century. Before that, Thai heat came mainly from black pepper, helped by long pepper, ginger, galangal, garlic and shallots. The name phrik thai arose to tell the old spice from the new foreign one, and in numbers, chilli’s hot compound is roughly 100 times stronger than pepper’s.
Sources
FAQ
Are black pepper and bird's eye chillies related?
No. Black pepper is a vine of the genus Piper, hot from piperine. Bird's eye chillies are Capsicum from the Americas, hot from capsaicin. The Thai names are similar because of language, not family.
An Ayutthaya-era record mentions 'fish and pepper sauce'. Does that prove chillies were in use?
Not on its own. 'Pepper' in an English translation of a Dutch account can mean black pepper. The Thai translation renders it as 'nam pla phrik', but that word choice cannot settle the question.
Are there Thai dishes today whose heat comes mostly from pepper?
Yes, such as kaeng liang, whose paste uses pepper, and dishes with whole sprigs of green peppercorns. If you cannot eat any heat, ask about pepper as well as chili.
Ingredients and heat vary by kitchen and recipe. If you have a food allergy, ask before you order, every time.