cubeb a largely obsolete spice, is a kind of pepper from a climbing plant, Piper cubeba, which is native to Indonesia (hence sometimes called Java pepper) and has been cultivated there in the past. It is occasionally called for in medieval Arabic cookery books, nearly always as one component of a mixture of hot spices. In Europe the cubeb was a minor spice of late medieval times and the 17th century and was still being mentioned (sometimes as Benin pepper) in some recipes in 18th-century European cookery books.
