A few of my recipes call for freshly-ground black pepper. I can differentiate the smell of freshly-ground pepper from pepper that is pre-ground. I wasn't sure that flavor followed the same logic. So I thought to do some research. I found this article which I found very helpful.
Here's one part that I found helpful:
> THE CASE AGAINST PRE-GROUND PEPPER
> If you think you don’t like black pepper, then what you truly dislike might be the dusty vibe of months-old, pre-ground pepper. Tinned pre-ground pepper is like a dub of a dub of a dub of a cassette tape—a vague echo of its original glory.
> Grind fresh peppercorns, and the flavor will be like listening to your favorite band from 1992 digitally remastered and on a very nice stereo. In other words, wow.
This reminds me of something else I learned a while ago. Ground spices lose potency over time, but worse than that, they can also gain bad flavor. I heard this from others and I also noticed it myself (at least with respect to smell). I had a many years old container of spices and the smell was awful -- nothing like what I expected it to be.
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