Black pepper

[guzzirider]

Hi folks,

New gullet member here. I was browsing through the topics and this one caught my eye. I've always considered using pepper in food sort of like using salt in chocolate chip cookies - you may not think you need it, and if you use the right amount, you may not really *notice* it in the final result, but if you omit it entirely, you probably won't like it.

The dish that really opened my eyes to what pepper can do was probably Marco Carrozza's deviled strawberries here in philly a while back. If memory serves, on the bottom of the plate was a basalmic reduction. On top of that were a couple small scoops of blood orange sorbetto, and some fresh sliced strawberries. Then it was finished with chocolate shavings and cracked black pepper. I had no idea what to expect, but it blew me away. In this context, the black pepper gave the dessert a sort of spicy quality - similar to using cinnamon, or something of that nature.

Gave me a whole new respect for pepper!

__Jason

Edited May 26, 2004 by guzzirider (log)

[Marlene]

I adore pepper. I have several different pepper grinders in my house I actually started using it when I gave up using salt a few years ago, and now, I can really taste the difference without it.

I put salt on cantaloupe though

[eunny jang]

I love melon and pepper.

While some may think that "salt and pepper" in recipes is ubiquitous and perhaps unnecessary, salt and pepper, alone, is a whole flavor that is underappreciated. Utz Salt and Pepper potato chips. Steak au poivre, or peppercorn-crusted anything, for that matter. A properly baked potato is wonderful to eat with nothing but salt and pepper.

[Enzian]

I can't wait to try the salt and pepper on watermelon, this summer.

Am I the only one who thinks that a nuked "baked" potato is nothing more than a pepper delivery system? A little fleur du sel, and a ton of black pepper.

For the record, I have a 12" Mr. Dudley for black pepper and a small mill for white pepper.

I like the flavor of white pepper; it seems more subdued to me, and I use it at the table - but not on baked potatos. However, when I grind it, I get a strong scent of, well... a barnyard. Matter of fact, that's what my wife calls it - "The Barnyard", as in, "Please pass The Barnyard."

I've chalked it up to the "aromatic" quality of white pepper, and have grown to enjoy it's scent, to a degree. I can't help but feel like I'm playing the part of Townsman #5234 in "The Emperor's New Clothes"...

Is this the normal aroma of white pepper?

[andiesenji]

I also use various types of pepper, although my favorite black (at present) is the Tellicherry extra bold from Penzey's.

I have a small shaker in which I mix fresh ground pepper and kosher salt and carry in my pocket when I am meandering around my garden just in case a ripe tomato should happen to fall into my hand. And of course there are the Persian cucumbers that are coming along just fine.

Apricots from my old heirloom tree also benefit from a judicious application of pepper and salt, not to mention the ripe peaches which will be coming along in July.

Much of this goes back to my childhood when my cousins and I used to sneak out of the house with a salt shaker and visit the apple orchard. Green apples with salt.....lovely, as long as one remembered that there was a limit, otherwise a tummy ache. The green corn, the little ears that were entirely edible, cob and all. Nothing like the rather tasteless canned baby corn that shows up in salad bars... Geez, now I am hungry. You guys are a bad influence.

[bobmac]

I have wondered the same thing. I have often added it "cuz you're sposed to" and wondered why or, couldn't see that it added anything, or could see that it added inappropriate black specs but didn't do anything for flavor.

Black specks sounds like pre-ground pepper. My wife laughs at me for carrying my own small pepper mill to restaurants that might not have one, but I add pepper because I like the taste.