Black Pepper!!!

[MT Gianni]

My now wife thought I was putting pepper on fries to prevent her from eating them. I told her I could not imagine eating them without pepper.

I was at a Thai restaurant and was served something I didn't recognize. I ate it whole and got a crazy burn. It turned out to be a pepper stalk with a dozen immature corns added for flavor. It was the only one in a pot meant for 40 people and I have never seen another one.

[Winger Ed.]

There are some peppers from Asia that make jalapenos taste like sugar candy by comparison.

[45workhorse]

There are some peppers from Asia that make jalapenos taste like sugar candy by comparison.

Winger Ed
Don't have to go to Aisa, just buy some Carolina reapers!!!
I tried every pepper I could in my travels on the gray taxis.

[Joe K]

Mt Gianni,

I am laughing in tears over the pepper stalk story. Thank you.

[Wayne Smith]

I have a black pepper grinder, a white pepper grinder, and a smoked salt grinder in the kitchen. Got the grinder bodies from pennstateind.com and turned the wooden bodies. They are well used.

[Rapier]

Well, I must be a pepper person then, have five grinders, crank, twist and electric battery operated plus a coffee grinder I use for dried Thai Bird Pepers, see, I am good and did not use the real Thai term. I do grow rat ship peppers and dry them in the sun, grind them in the coffee grinder, makes interesting cup of coffee....even ground they will liven up a dish. I carry a pill bottle of them ground, in my pocket. No such thing as too much pepper.
I do oil and vinegar on a salad with ground sea salt and ground pepper.

Grew up in the Everglades, big pepper plants everywhere, acetic soil, so not very many folks that were raised there do not eat peppers in some fashion three meals a day. Peppers are a staple in areas with a hot climate.

Almost forgot, Lintel and Italian sausage stew. I use hot Italian sausage and add ground Thai pepper to it for me, rest of the folks get just stew. Fresh Italian bread. Anything with gravy or grits, gets a good dose.

[Electrod47]

My go to source for tellicherry peppercorns https://www.thespicehouse.com/produc...ry-peppercorns

Just bought some, Thanks!!.....PS I use a coffee grinder just like my mother since the 50's

[Randy Bohannon]

Amen on using a coffee grinder for pepper corns, when I need more than just a few twists from a pepper mill.

[Bmi48219]

Black, white and green peppercorns all come from the same plant. The color results from the stage of ripeness and curing process. Like garlic, most peppercorn sold in the USA is imported from China.
I draw the line at Chinese garlic. The attached link explains why.

https://www.agentnateur.com/blogs/ag...-garlic-is-bad

[45workhorse]

Black, white and green peppercorns all come from the same plant. The color results from the stage of ripeness and curing process. Like garlic, most peppercorn sold in the USA is imported from China.
I draw the line at Chinese garlic. The attached link explains why.

https://www.agentnateur.com/blogs/ag...-garlic-is-bad

Good information, thanks!

[Electrod47]

Black, white and green peppercorns all come from the same plant. The color results from the stage of ripeness and curing process. Like garlic, most peppercorn sold in the USA is imported from China.
I draw the line at Chinese garlic. The attached link explains why.

https://www.agentnateur.com/blogs/ag...-garlic-is-bad

Holy Cow!!!

[Randy Bohannon]

Tellicherry Pepper corns are from the Malabar Coast of India not Chinese. https://www.savoryspiceshop.com/prod...rry-peppercorn

[Minerat]

Pepper on watermelon and cantaloupe with the salt the more the better.

[firefly1957]

I have long had pepper corn grinders in the house one often has black pepper and the other the multi colors of pepper . Just recently a over stock store had decent looking grinders with a mix of pepper flakes (not to be confused with pepper corns) and Sea Salt I bought three . When the salt was used up in one I put in pepper corns and it does a good job making a course grind of them for great flavor.

Hint sometimes I put that coarse salt and pepper on Bacon before I fry it up it adds a lot of flavor .

[Winger Ed.]

Our local grocery store sells 'peppered bacon'.
The pork belly is rolled/coated in a thick layer of coarse ground black pepper as part of the cure and before its sliced.
If they ever run out--- it could cause a riot.

[Charlie Horse]

Alton Brown's Pepper Drill

[rockrat]

Never hardly used black pepper for decades. Till my kid tried her hand at cooking and brought something for me to try that had a bunch of pepper on it. I cringed at the pepper, but to not hurt her feelings, I took a bite. Thought , not bad. Now, I use black pepper for a bunch of stuff.

[36g]

I worked in the spice industry for over 26 years and tested tons of black, red and green peppercorns. We would get the peppercorns in 200 lb. burlap bags (later woven polyester), fumigate (used methyl bromide at the time), pull samples and test, then grind, sift and package.

Until ethylene oxide and irradiation were widely available the plate counts on black pepper were allowed at somewhere around 1 million SPC (Standard Plate Count). There was an allowance for rodent droppings as well as dead insects and insect parts. Black pepper was one of the filthiest spices around. I still use it though...

[Winger Ed.]

That reminds me:

Years ago, there was a one page cartoon of a chef and executive way up on top of this big giant vat.
You had to climb what looked like 100 stairs to get to the top. It must have held about 20,000 gallons.
It had a sign on it that read 'Such & such Soup company'.
The executive is tasting a spoon full from the vat.
He is looking at the chef and say, "Not bad. But I think it needs a little more rodent feces".

[DougGuy]

I used a few different grinders, maybe a dozen or so over many years but what i have now is an Alessi Black Peppercorn grinder you get in the spice aisle at the store, one on the table, and another one on the food prep shelf. I have a different ceramic burr grinder that has the pink Chinese corns but I just don't stray too far from the Alessi grinders. It's pretty much an every meal thing here too.