For years, my kitchen altar—the little marble tray full of cooking essentials that sits next to my stove—has looked exactly the same. It includes a wooden utensil crock, squeeze bottles of olive and vegetable oil, a butter keeper, a salt cellar, and a large wooden pepper grinder. But recently, I’ve made a noteworthy change, swapping out the pepper grinder for a small bowl of pre-ground pepper.
I, like many of you, have long been under the impression that pre-ground black pepper is somehow inferior to freshly ground, but after these past few months of cooking with pre-ground pepper, I have to admit…it might be time to reconsider. After all, why should we be beholden to the cult of “freshly cracked” pep? Is the Big Grinder lobby to blame? Is the phrase “freshly cracked” akin to Lucky Strike’s tagline, “It’s Toasted,” technically true, but signifying nothing?