Pepper

When recipes in this book call for pepper, I generally mean freshly ground black pepper. Fresh grinding gives you an intense aromatic flavor you simply don’t find in preground pepper. You can use a peppercorn grinder, of course, but you may find it easier and more convenient to grind a large batch of peppercorns in a spice mill or coffee grinder every couple of weeks, so that you always have freshly ground pepper on hand. In the interest of objective reporting, let me say that most of the world’s grill jockeys use preground black pepper and produce excellent barbecue in the process. If this is easier for you, by all means use it. By the way, white pepper is black pepper with the dark skin removed. It’s less flavorful, but a little hotter, than black pepper. Cayenne pepper and hot red pepper flakes aren’t true peppercorns at all but ground or flaked cayenne chile peppers.