If there’s one thing that Alton Brown cares about when it comes to preparing food, it’s seasonings. The Food Network star and James Beard Award winner has always been vocal about his love of spices and dried herbs. He carries a whole nutmeg and a little vat of kosher salt on his keyring, and vows to never buy spices from supermarkets. So when his recipe calls for three different kinds of pepper, he’s not being dramatic — and that’s exactly what he says to use to make a perfect long-smoked brisket.
In Brown’s smoked brisket recipe, he recommends using black pepper, dried green peppercorn, and white peppercorn, with all three being freshly ground. The peppers are rubbed all over the meat with some kosher salt, and that’s all the cookbook author uses to create the brisket crust. It’s no secret that you have to properly salt and pepper brisket before cooking, but there are specific reasons for using different peppercorns. Believe it or not, they all taste different, despite coming from the same plant.
Each peppercorn provides a unique flavor
Peppercorns are berries that grow on flowering vines called piper nigrum. Black peppercorns are picked right before they’ve ripened, giving them the strongest flavor of the three types. White peppercorns are picked after ripening and their skin is removed, giving them a slightly smoother shape and color. The process also creates a slightly fermented flavor that’s popular is South Asian and European kitchens.
White peppercorns are less pungent when left whole, but they taste a lot stronger than black peppercorns when they’ve been ground. This is why recipes usually call for less white pepper than black pepper. For example, Brown’s brisket recipe calls for ¼ cup black peppercorn and just one tablespoon of white. Green peppercorns, meanwhile, are under-ripened pepper berries and Brown uses two tablespoons in his brisket recipe. They also have more heat than black peppercorns but the taste is zestier. Green peppercorns also have a slightly hoppy flavor, and they’re often used in Thai dishes and cream sauces.
Each peppercorn has its place. You may want to avoid using black pepper in white sauces, but Brown likes to make a green peppercorn corn sauce for steaks. He also utilizes all three peppers as a swap for paprika in deviled eggs, and says using all three together is the reason his brisket gets such a great flavor. Try it out with this smoked brisket recipe, and let us know if you end up carrying any of the peppercorns in containers on your keyrings.
