The Best Peppercorns for Cooking
A Peek into Peppercorns
At first glance, ground pepper is usually seen as just your saltshaker’s pal. But peppercorns are so much more than that. Depending on your peppercorn of choice, you can experience fresh, spicy, zesty, herbaceous, floral, and even sweet notes that bloom beautifully in a variety of dishes.
The Penultimate Peppercorn Guide
From spicy and potent to sweet and mild, there are a variety of peppercorns that you can cook with to unlock a world of flavor. However, if you want to prep your kitchen with the peppercorn basics, you can start with black, white, and Tellicherry. How do these differ, you may ask? Allow us to pepper your mind with knowledge.
Want This? Use That.
Any logical person would look at a white peppercorn versus a black peppercorn and think that they are two different plants. In reality, they are the same berries that have been picked and processed differently to enhance your meals with two distinct flavors.
If you want a grassy, fermented taste, white pepper is the way to go. White peppercorns are harvested fresh and soaked in a fermentation process. This creates an intense, pungent flavor that is perfect for creamy sauces, soups, potatoes, pasta, and seafood.
If you want a flavor that is woody, piney, and sharp, black pepper is the best bet. Since black peppercorns are picked before they are ripened, they offer a concentrated, intense taste that enhances cuisines like meat, fish, veggies, salad dressings, and stir-fries.
Finally, if you want a pungent, complex flavor with citrus notes, you will love Tellicherry peppercorns. Slightly bigger than a black peppercorn, Tellicherry peppercorns are excellent with soups, stews, and meat dishes.
No matter your preference for peppercorns, there is a world of deeply flavorful dishes waiting to be discovered with a variety of spices, including our very own RawSpiceBar Blends to help get you started or enhance your mealtime. You can also check out the best peppercorns at Peppermate.
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