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I much rather crack my own pepper. I buy the whole peppercorns at Costco and bought an electric coffee grinder. I set it to the most coarse setting and let it rip. Really quick and easy, but still inexpensive.
There's just something about a good freshly ground/cracked black tellicherry pepper...
If I'm doing a large batch of something like wings seasoning, I'll use the preground stuff for ease of use and the fact that I'm probably going to hit the meat with a pungent sauce.
Honest opinion here...We have a pepper mill on the table because we prefer the taste of the fresh ground pepper directly on the food over the pre-ground, but I can’t tell the difference with fresh vs pre-ground pepper in my rubs, even in higher concentration like my 1:1 S&P Texas Brisket rub.
Love fresh cracked pepper. Tried a number of mills over the years and settled on this as my favorite. Excellent for coarse sea salt also. Ceramic grinding stone and infinitely adjustable. This is the small model. They make a larger version. I have both.
Most certainly there is a difference. Once you have tried it you will understand.
However, for expedience I do,at times, use the already ground stuff.
I will use the "ground stuff in a can" when I am cooking something liquid. If I am going to use pre-ground on meat ... I use the "course restaurant grind" from the big plastic jar from Sam's Club.
Although not the same as fresh ground, it is way better for surface application than the fine powder in the can.
And what about recipes like Steak au Poivre which tell you to crush whole peppercorns under a cast iron skillet - bigger chunks. You think they do that for fun - or FLAVOR?
Fresh is best.
I use different peppers and different grinds for different things, but this is probably my favorite one. One of my favorite smells in the world is a heaping helping of this stuff on fresh-plated hot cheesy scrambled eggs. I eat a lot of eggs in all different forms and this is my favorite black pepper for them.