Saturday, August 26, 2006

Peppercorns


Black, white, pink, green. I imagine that most cooks, much like me, use pepper everyday and don't think much about it. Not like the thought that goes into adding a favorite herb to a dish, or, indeed, creating a dish to spotlight a favored herb. Pepper is simply a "well, of course" spice that is added to most savory dishes without a second thought.
When I was a child, the only pepper in my parents' house was from the Schilling or McCormick can, already ground. I never liked it and consequently never used pepper in my cooking until I was well into adulthood and discovered the joys of freshly-cracked black pepper. Now I can't imagine not using pepper, either as a condiment on top of, or as part of the deep, warming spices of a savory dish as it's cooking. My favorite black pepper is Tellicherry. The taste is deep, smokey, pungently intense, with just the right amount of bite.

Wikipedia tells me that "Black pepper is produced from the still-green unripe berries of the pepper plant. The berries are cooked briefly in hot water, both to clean them and to prepare them for drying. The heat ruptures cell walls in the fruit, speeding the work of browning enzymes during drying. The berries are dried in the sun or by machine for several days, during which the fruit around the seed shrinks and darkens into a thin, wrinkled black layer around the seed. Once dried, the fruits are called black peppercorns." Originally grown only in the Malabar area of southern India, black pepper is now also grown in Malaysia, Brazil and Indonesia.

My husband puts freshly cracked black pepper on his cantaloup then proceeds to eat every slurpy bite while groaning in ecstasy. I am horrified. As I was growing up, my parents put salt on their home-grown cantaloup. I followed suit until I realized that a good melon actually tastes better to me without salt. Since then I've eaten my melon unadorned. Until the other day.
Yep, I can still learn a thing or two about taste. As I was cutting up a luscious, honey-scented melon for breakfast and watched my husband grind pepper all over his serving, I thought of the taste of the Tellicherry peppercorns. I thought of the taste of a chilled, ripe melon. Lo and behold, the light bulb went on. I tried it. I liked it. All these years... Who knew?

Although I realize that pepper is a spice, I'm hoping this post qualifies for Kalyn's Weekend Herb blogging. Check out what other herbs food bloggers are talking about this weekend at Kalyn's Kitchen. If you're a blogger and want to join in, read about WHB here.

6 comments:

  1. Haven't read my e-mail yet this morning to see if you sent me this, but if not, I found it. Pepper comes from a plant, and any plant qualifies for WHB, so no worries there. And I use Tellicherry black pepper too, from Penzeys, which I bet might be where you and Sher get it too. More channeling each other. I've always been partial to salt on cantelope, but I'm open to the idea of pepper. Will give it a try.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmm..I'm sold. I'll have to try the Tellicherry pepper. Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi sher,
    I got your email (just today) about the meme. I'm honored. I've never done one before so thanks for the opportunity!

    Kalyn,
    Glad my post qualifies, thanks. You wouldn't believe the time I've had getting photos up with blogger. I have 3 others that should have been included with this post but blogger just wouldn't cooperate. Bummer!
    And believe it or not, I get my Tellicherry peppercorns from (my favorite) Peet's Coffee in Davis. I'll have to check out Penzey's prices.

    Catherine,
    It is the diva of black pepper!

    ReplyDelete
  4. My mother puts pepper on her cantaloupe and salt on her watermelon. I guess I'll give the pepper a try sometime.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'll bet a sprinkle of Maldon Sea Salt would be delish on watermelon! Thanks for the tip Cyndi.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Interesting post! I have seen people put salt on watermelon, and hot chile powder on mangoes, and I thought that was strange. But I am intrigued by this and want to try it.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by! I will do my best to respond to your comments and questions so feel free to write to me here. Sorry for the comment moderation but it helps to keep the spammers at bay.