Do the grind

When Jenny mentioned that she needed to get some black pepper, I seized the chance to pitch for whole over her usual pre-ground.

“Is there a difference?”

“Only a world of it.”

Really. The act of grinding pepper causes the natural oils within the berry to be released — that is, these oils are exposed to air, which accounts for that zingy aroma that stimulates your olfactory nerves (and, in turn, your salivary glands). On the other hand, continued exposure to air degrades those oils — think of perfume or cologne on skin — so that over time they completely dry up and their smell fades away. That is what you get with factory-ground pepper.

The only way to get the best out of any dried pepper berry is for it to be ground as needed. A mortar and pestle can do the job, if not as uniformly, efficiently, and cleanly as a pepper mill does. A wooden pepper mill comes cheap and lasts a lifetime with minimal maintenance. Fill it with enough peppercorns to last a few days, say, and freeze the rest of the peppers to preserve flavor. Some peppercorns also come in a glass or plastic container with built-in grinder, although some brands (like Kirkland) are dismayingly not refillable.

So say what you will about all those fancy kitchen implements featured in television cooking shows, but leave the pepper mill out of it. For something so sensible, it deserves to look the best it can. The one pictured here was a gift from one of my mother’s friends (she must have noticed how roughed-up my old grinder was); it’s taller than I’m used to, like the kind waiters at some Italian restaurants lug around, as if daring diners to request for more pepper than the chef had seen fit to put in the food. Well, one of these days I would love to see their faces when I ask for black pepper on my ice cream.

Really:

Believe me, the combination works. But right now all I’m asking is for you, if you haven’t already, to try freshly ground black pepper alongside store-bought pre-ground. Like Jenny had said, “You’re right; I never thought.”