Mellowing whole peppercorns

Question

I'm developing something with whole green peppercorns in it. I've done a test that began with cooking up veggies in 1 liter of water, no fats, with 2 teaspoons of pepper. The dried corns had been watered for softening (though ended up way too soft after cooking) and the water had become spicy hot. In cooking they gave off flavor but only the slightest hint of heat, while the corns themselves remained pretty hot.

Yet I got my idea when I ate a supermarket meat spread with green pepper that is still somewhat aromatic but not hot at all, nor is the spread ostensibly hot. I've eaten other sausages with the same properties but that I tend to trust hadn't treated the pepper with its own flavoring or anything.

Though I do not intend to buy brined pepper but use what I have, would it do the trick? Now, should I squeeze the peppercorns first, or would that allow all aroma to leave them along with the heat during long cooking? What are the home and the industrial processes here?

Answer 1

Piperine, the most important compound in black/green pepper, is only weakly soluble in water. It is quite soluble in alcohol.

A lot of traditional peppercorn sauces cook the peppercorns in something like brandy, which will extract piperine into the liquid, i.e. this takes heat from the peppercorns themselves and puts it in the sauce. The further addition of cream to many sauces dilutes the heat; fat acts to reduce the sensation as it does with capsaicin.

Cooking directly in oil should have a similar effect, but the heat of cooking also reduces the spicy heat. That's also true of simmering in water, but the higher temperatures in oil accelerate the process.

I reckon you need to gently cook the pepper in a little oil, or simmer it in a little alcohol before adding it. Oil especially should allow it to keep more texture. You might just get away with a longer simmer in water than your veg needs, but that might lead to too much softening.