Ditching Black Pepper

There was a rumor around my high school about a certain unfortunate kid, who indulged a bit too much, and wound up meeting his maker at the tender age of 16 in a car wreck along the Pacific Coast Highway. The rumor wasn’t as much about his untimely death, but about what his friends allegedly did with his ashes. As were his wishes, he wanted his remains spread out and filled into the various pepper shakers customarily placed on every table at the coffee shop Denny’s. Some say his friends did it; some say it was just an urban myth. Either way, when considering the flavor profile of the usually stale ground black pepper that usually filled those shakers, the odds are no one would have tasted the difference.

Fact is, pre-ground black pepper, regardless of its ubiquity doesn’t add that much to food, other than some contrast and a bit of sharpness. Back in the 1970s American diners got hip to the virtues of fresh ground pepper and the possibility of black pepper tasting vital and pungent, rather than gritty and caustic. For a while, fresh-ground black pepper was elevated to something that required a certain amount of pageantry, often resulting in comedic showiness. See below:

SNL – Fresh a pepper- Most Hilarious scene EVER! by Abasmonarchie

But whether you hand crack your pepper with a $75 peppermill or just shake on whatever is left in the glass shaker sitting on the table, black pepper is a table mainstay, right there next to the salt. Well not everyone thinks black pepper deserves to have such Cadillac placement next to the saltshaker on every table in America. Case in point: Slate.com writer Sara Dickerman outright questions black pepper’s routine placement and wonders if we should dispense with the grind in favor of something with a little more panache, and a little more flavor. Dickerman makes a case for black pepper and its ability to offer pungency and inherent muskiness, but contends that it is largely overused, sometimes overbearing and certainly not good for everything. “Why should this brawny spice be kept on the countertop at all?” Dickerman contends, “Why not stash it in the rack with the fennel seed, the mustard seed, and the cinnamon—all the wonderful spices that add life to our food but are by no means all-purpose? I think we’d appreciate pepper’s qualities all the more if we used it just for specific dishes, not universally.”

To be sure, black pepper has a long storied history and deserves some respect. In her article, Dickerman claims that black pepper was largely a stand in for the far superior long pepper. In ancient times, when spices were both medicine and food, a different member of the piperaceae family ruled. A grain of piper longum, or “long pepper,” looks like the tiny, bushy tail of some woodland creature; in powder form, it gives a spicy slap to the palate, with a bit of citrus and churchy incense in the background. Better still, long pepper was believed to reduce phlegm and increase semen. As a result, the spice was popular in ancient Greece and Rome. Long pepper’s high status also laid the ground for other pungent spices, like black pepper. But black pepper was far easier to obtain than long pepper on the spice routes, so guess what…black pepper won its prized place on every diner table in the country.

No one can really argue the versatility of salt (but I am sure some will) but black pepper, while it certainly has its place, might need to be somewhat downgraded considering the considerable access we now have to a myriad of spices. My personal favorite and possible successor to black pepper – Turkish Aleppo pepper. It is pungent, with some heat, and citrus notes. Sure it is not perfect in everything, but in a pinch, far more interesting than black pepper. What would be your substitute for black pepper? Do you feel that black pepper deserves to remain a counterpart to salt?

Read more: Basics, Blogs, Following Food, Food, black pepper, pepper, salt, seasonings

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Sarah M.

4:33PM PST on Jan 29, 2012

Hilarious skit. I really don't like black pepper.

send a green star

New G.

11:15PM PST on Jan 28, 2012

Interesting, thank you.

Cat N.

4:27PM PST on Jan 27, 2012

Love black pepper, sometimes even more than salt.

Sue H.

5:49PM PST on Jan 24, 2012

I have never been a black pepper fan.... even in the 70's. In fact, I haven't had any in my kitchen for decades. As the article states, there are other far more exciting spices.

Lynne S.

12:39PM PST on Jan 20, 2012

This is news to me.I'm a pepper lover.I get organic peppercorns when I can.In aryvedic medicine
kapha types are supposed to benefit from hot flavors. I am a vatta-kapha combo so thought I was doing o.k. I cant imagine life without pepper!

Melinda K.

4:10PM PST on Jan 18, 2012

Surely with all the important issues, this taking up space as a non issue?

Why write an article against pepper?

Brian M.

1:31PM PST on Jan 17, 2012

I will give up Care2 before I give up good quality black peppercorns, crushed, ground, and/or whole.

Larry L.

2:16AM PST on Jan 16, 2012

Black pepper, like many spices, contains some valuable substances that can make us healthier. That said, use of any spice is, and should be, a matter for personal taste. If I am eating food someone else has prepared, I would much rather have the spices be on the table where I can choose which to use and how much, rather than added to the food so I have no choice. I would not remove black pepper; rather, I would add a rack of many spices to my table.

And when I have guests eating at my place, I ask them in advance before adding any spices to cooking. If there is any lack of consent, I do not add the spice(s) to the cooking, but I put out the spices on the table so every diner can choose what they want, and how much.

By the way, salt is essential for human nutrition. Animals will travel long distances to gain access to salt licks, because their survival depends on it! So does our survival. Salt may be added to processed foods -- maybe too much salt. But not everyone eats processed foods -- I do not. Those of us who cook with real raw food need to add salt to our diet, or we will get sick (I did, foolishly following the bogus advice of fanatics who assume everyone eats the same as they do), or we can even die from malnutrition. Don't believe everything you read! Pay attention to your body and do your own research before messing up your health by following bogus advice.

Mrs S.

12:21AM PST on Jan 16, 2012

I love the story about the ashes in the pepper shakers O_O How epic!