Ok… we just never thought of it as “fancy.” This was 1980. We had thrift stores where we could fine them. I know because I went with my mom thrift shopping all the time.
Yes, I also prefer black pepper because it is hotter and more aromatic than white pepper, which is milder. I don’t bother with white pepper and use only fresh ground black pepper in my kitchen. Sometimes I do the cooking at my parents’ house, and those times I just exchange the black pepper with my mothers’ white pepper in my recipes, I just take a good bit more of it. Really doesn’t make much of a difference.
I always crush dried herbs in my hands before adding them to a dish. It makes a difference there, but I have no idea how it works for salt.
White pepper for me just has a very different flavor and aroma. It’s kind of musty and earthy with a bit of funk – quite different. I personally also find white pepper a bit “hotter” than black. I use white pepper for Thai and Chinese dishes, and (among other things) along with black pepper for fried chicken breading. There’s also the whole white pepper for white sauces thing, but I generally prefer the flavor of black pepper in sauces. That said, I love white pepper, but I don’t treat it the same as black pepper.
I remember having a pepper grinder on the table in the early 70s, and I don’t recall thinking it was all that unusual.
I don’t know, I find black pepper a bit stronger than white, maybe it’s just a different type of hotness, it’s hard to describe. And I’ve never heard about “white pepper for white sauces”. Is that some unwritten age-old cooking rule that doesn’t make sense? Because I’ve never cared for those, only what’s to my taste.
The spiciness of the black and white pepper will differ by pepper type, yes. My kampot black peppercorns are probably spicier than the white peppercorns of unknown type I get from the Chinese market, but the Tellicherry or Malibars (which I use normally) are less spicy. The white can get pretty hot, but it doesn’t have the fruit and floral notes (or however you want to describe it) that black pepper has. So it’s absolutely possible your black pepper is hotter than your white pepper.
The deal with white sauces is to avoid black specks in them. I want to say it comes from French cooking, but I’m not sure. I’ve never actually read Escoffier. A lot of cookbooks will say to use white pepper in your light-colored sauces for this reason.
Well, in this case I really don’t care, I prefer taste over aesthetics when it comes to food. I also don’t care about black vanilla spots in my white vanilla ice cream.
The Chinese probably pre-dated the French in using white pepper as it’s a staple in many types of Chinese cooking.
Yeah, I’m looking online, and it seems to have come from French cooking, but even French schooled chefs could disagree. Julia Child liked white pepper in her sauces and apparently teased Jacques Pepin, because he did not like white pepper (from what I could tell, at all), and only used black pepper no matter the sauce. And on the which is hotter front, it seems like some sites say black pepper is hotter than white; others say the other way around. I’m guessing like I said above it depends on the particular black pepper and white pepper you’re comparing. White pepper just has a very distinct taste to it. I just remembered one specific use: hot & sour soup. As far as I understand, traditionally the heat in hot and sour comes from white pepper (and the sour from Chinese rice vinegar). Many recipes will also add hot red peppers to it, but it tastes great with just white pepper. Black pepper would not taste right – to me – in this soup. That distinctive earthy funk that white pepper has (which I assume is what Jacques Pepin dislikes) needs to be there.
I worked for a top-quality spice importer. Consumers would call disappointed in the white peppercorns, not expecting the “mustiness” of the flavor. It’s more pronounced the fresher the pepper. And I suspect it’s one of those tastes that some people can detect more easily than others.
Yes, exactly. A friend and his family run a local Chinese restaurant, and he’s often in the kitchen. I once asked him, “What is it that gives hot and sour soup the heat?” His reply was simple: “White pepper.” He went on to state that white pepper is a subtle heat that works very well in east and southeast Asian cooking.
I really cannot think of anything he prepares that would go well with black pepper. Well, maybe one or two dishes, but those would be “westernized” Chinese dishes, and the chef would be the one adding it, not the diner at the table.
That reminds me: I also asked him once that if it’s the chef who adds the pepper, and other seasonings, and not the diner, then why do the tables in his restaurant have salt and pre-ground black pepper shakers on them? He replied, “Because some people just don’t get it.”
Non-iodized ground salt tends to clump.
I was pleased to see that Singapore noodles were on the menu when his restaurant opened up, and indeed they were: delicately curried as they should be, with shrimp and pork, and very tasty. Then one day, they weren’t. They were just bland–basically lo mein and onions. No curry, shrimp, or pork, or anything else, as he had before. I asked what happened.
“Customers were complaining that they were too spicy,” he said. “The curry was a real problem. I guess local people just don’t like curry.” And that’s understandable, given that we’re in southern Alberta, where “Chinese cuisine” typically means “sweet and sour chicken balls” and “pork fried rice” and “beef and broccoli” and other boring interpretations of Chinese cuisine.
But all was not lost. He told me to phone before I came to his restaurant, and he’d prepare a real dish of Singapore noodles just for me, and made with the curry, the pork, and the shrimp, the way it should be made. I’ve taken him up on that offer a few times, and each time, the dish has been excellent.
Enough of that hijack. Let’s get back to grinding pepper.
White pepper and black pepper are dried berries from the same plant, Piper nigrum. The difference is how they are processed.
[W]hite peppercorns are berries that have been picked at a peak ripeness, soaked in water, and then had the outer layer removed.
Black peppercorns on the other hand are unripe berries from the pepper plant that are then dried, causing the skin to blacken. While black pepper gives off more of a spicy heat (due to the piperine), white pepper’s flavor is described as more earthy and musty.
I do know that. Similarly, green peppercorns are unripe peppercorns that haven’t been cooked and dried. And red peppercorns (not often seen) are the ripe peppercorn version of the same. Not to be confused with pink peppercorns – which are the common ones. Pink peppercorns are a completely different plant. Also, Sichuan peppercorn – completely different plant.
I want to be a celebrity chef with a gimmick like Salt Bae, but instead of trickling the salt down my forearm onto the steak, I’d put it on my head and bend over the steak and rub my scalp.
Are you Ally Sheedy?
I’ve likened it to a bit of a ‘barnyard fragrance.’ I cannot explain why people canno ex[;an My primary use for it is Roadside Chicken, a marinade and baste where it is essential:
Roadside Chicken | The Virtual Weber Bulletin Board
I haven’t made it myself before, but that particular flavor is key to Hot & Sour as mentioned by @pulykamell above. I associate white pepper far less with dishes where appearance counts like white sauces and mashed potatoes.