Ground Pepper

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Ground Pepper is peppercorns that have been ground. Generally, it comes already ground, in black or white versions.

There is currently a mania for -- nay, a tyranny of -- "freshly" Ground Pepper. Some feel that thought it all started off reasonably enough, it then got out of hand.

Take salt as a starting point. There are what is called "finishing salts" -- those are the more expensive salts that you use for presentation at the table or add at the very last minute so that their texture or taste doesn't get dissolved right into and lost in the dish. Crunchy Maldon salt on a steak fresh off the barbeque is heaven; tossed into water to boil pasta in is pointless (pace Nigella Lawson.) It just shows no basic understanding of that ingredient that you paid good money for.

Freshly Ground Pepper is the same. Why labour to grind pepper over a teaspoon for 5 minutes, hoping that most of it actually lands in the teaspoon, when you're about to simmer it for two hours? When you're incorporating Ground Pepper into a recipe that is going to be cooked, just use the already ground pepper. Don't abandon the freshly ground -- but put the grinder on the table as a "finishing pepper", right next to your "finishing salt", so that your guests can enjoy its freshness.


Literature & Lore
The Roman writer Apicius frequently called for Ground Pepper ("piper tritum") in his recipes. The use of pepper is one of the many signs that his recipes were for the very rich, because only the very rich could afford pepper -- tritum or otherwise.

Also called:
Poivre moulu (French); Pepe macinato (Italian); Pimienta molida (Spanish); Pimenta do reino (Portuguese); Piper tritum (Roman) Top...