"WhitePepper" news and stories

When I went to Indonesia in the summer of 2001, my mom's best friend Maria requested that I bring her back some white peppercorns. Towards the end of my five weeks there, I hit a grocery store in order to do a little gift-buying (because who doesn't like to receive gifts of random foodstuffs from other countries? It's always my favorite thing to receive). I got several bags of white peppercorns, some for Maria and then some so that I could play around with them as well.

When I returned, I discovered that I didn't really like the taste of white peppercorns. They had a woodiness that I didn't enjoy and since I've never minded sullying light colored sauces and soups with flecks of black pepper, I've just sort ignored the existence of white peppercorns and gone on my merry way. However, I discovered last week, as I trawled the vast expanse of food writing available to me on the internet that white peppercorns are just black ones that have been soaked and had their outer hull removed. They do get a bit fermented in the process of being stripped of their black outsides, which may lend the taste that I found so unappealing.

Do you have a pepper-color preference? And while we're at it, what's your favorite grind? I tend to go for a coarser grind, but I keep several pepper mills around at all times, set to different grinds, so that I always have plenty of options.

[via Chicago Sun-Times]
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