Smoked peppercorns is something I’ve been wanting to make for quite some time. I was waiting until I used up the last of the bottle of smoked peppercorns I picked up at Jungle Jim’s outside of Cincinnati. The end result was definitely a lot better than and a lot cheaper than store-bought. This being my first time making these I also learned a lot along the way. I kept some of the peppercorns whole for grinding or cooking later, and some I ground fine for this week’s dishes.
The first thing I needed was some sort of rack to place them on when I put them on the smoker. Someone suggested using a grease splash screen. I found one at Wal-Mart, twisted the handle up, and bam! The perfect tool for smoking peppercorns! I also think this screen will work well when I give smoked salt a try soon!
How long you should smoke the peppercorns is up to you. Obviously the longer you smoke them the stronger the smoke flavor. You can go for quite some time, just make sure you keep the temperature around 90 F. You want a cold smoke for the peppercorns, similar to what you’d do for smoking cheese.
After the peppercorns are done (and you’ve also smoked some sea salt), open up your smoker vents, get the temps up a bit, and try smoking some grits!
Smoked Peppercorns
Ingredients
Instructions
- Set up your smoker for cold smoking, 80-90 F. I used 4 lit charcoal briquettes and a large piece of hickory wood. Keep some unlit charcoal on hand for when the charcoal starts to burn out, you may need to add more depending on how long you smoke the peppercorns. You can add unlit charcoal, just make sure you do it soon enough that it gets time to get well-lit from the already-burning coals.
- Add the peppercorns to a food-safe screen and place onto the smoker.
- Smoke at least 4 hours depending on how much smoke you want. You may want to remove a few peppercorns and grind them to taste for smokiness.
- Remove and let cool before storing or grinding.
- Store in an air-right container.
Nutritional values are approximate.
