Bulka wrote:

> On a Rick Bayliss show, one of his cooks made a garnish he called
> "black pepper air" - ground pepper in an emulsion, whipped with a
> stabelizer. I must have missed something. A very fluffy cloud of, I
> guess, pepper flavored air. Looks a little silly for my normal table,
> but could be a useful trick for my stunt cook bag.
>
> Have you heard of this?

I saw the show you're talking about, and Bayless wasn't exactly wild about
the idea. But black pepper foam is easy enough to make; here's one method:
Combine heavy cream and finely-ground (preferably FRESHLY ground) black
pepper. Allow to steep for half an hour, then strain. Put infused cream into
a foamer, charge, chill for at least an hour, and dispense.

If you don't want to use cream, you can use other foam-friendly media. I
used egg whites to make a maple foam for my birthday dinner a couple years
ago. I know that foams can be made using soy lecithin or other emulsifiers,
but I have yet to try that. (I just got a container of the lecithin today,
though, so in a month maybe I'll have more experience with the process.) I
have recipes for using gelatin or agar-agar to make foams, but I haven't
tried those yet either.

Are they worth the trouble? For most uses, probably not. But it is a way to
show off.

Bob