Black Pepper

Pepper is the most heavily used spice in Greek cooking and the least talked about, since salt and pepper are very often the entire seasoning of a grilled fish, a plate of chops or a pot of beans. Greek keeps a useful distinction that English blurs: piperi is the spice, piperia is the capsicum, and the two words are easy to confuse when reading a recipe in Greek.

White pepper, ground from the same berry with its outer skin removed, has one clear job in the Greek kitchen: it seasons the bechamel on moussaka and pastitsio without leaving dark specks through a pale sauce. Whole peppercorns, lightly crushed, belong in long braises and in the brine for olives, where they release slowly rather than turning sharp over an hour of simmering.

Pre-ground pepper loses its aroma within weeks and leaves only the heat behind, which is why a recipe that lists pepper as a headline seasoning rather than an afterthought is worth grinding fresh for. Several Greek recipes also ask for salt and pepper to be added late, near the end of a long cook, since salt added early to a pot of beans keeps the skins tough.