Sichuan pepper
A citrusy, tingling, numbing husk from the Sichuan region of China, unrelated to true pepper.
Also: huajiao, timur, sansho, flower pepper
Sichuan pepper, huajiao in Chinese, is the dried husk of the prickly ash, Zanthoxylum species, with the small black seed removed. It gives little heat but a bright, lemony fragrance and a buzzing, numbing tingle caused by a compound called sanshool. Together with chilli it forms the ma la taste of Sichuan cooking. Relatives appear as sansho in Japan, timur in Nepal and tirphal in Konkan cooking. Cooks toast the husks and grind them, discarding gritty seeds. Sichuan pepper was banned from import to the United States for years over concerns about citrus canker, until heat-treatment rules were adopted.