You may have noticed that some recipes call for white pepper and some call for black pepper. What is the deal? Well I asked myself the same question and did a little research and here's what I found out. The peppercorns are berries that come from the same plant, the piper nigrum! Much like red and green bell peppers, so the color relates to their ripeness.
Black peppercorns are picked when still green and dried in the sun until it turns black.
A white peppercorn ripens fully on the vine into matured peppercorns (turning into yellow green, orange or red with seed properly formed) before it is picked, then the shells are removed and the seeds are dried in the hot sun.
Black pepper has a slightly hotter flavor and more complex aroma, but most people don't notice the difference, so really white pepper is most often called for in a recipe for a light-colored food or sauce for aesthetic reasons, i.e. no black specks floating around.
So there we have it.
I actually replaced the straight black pepper in my grinder with a blend. We noticed right away and do NOT like the white. I think they taste a little different. Also, Jerome and Sebs, both who have black spots on their faces, are very offended this is not a desirable look.
ReplyDelete