Hello, isw!
You wrote on Fri, 01 Sep 2006 21:16:51 -0700:
??>> I make an infused oil rather than putting in the
??>> peppercorns. One off-putting thing about putting them in
??>> is the stone-like seed, which gives a horribly gritty
??>> texture to anything in which they're put. How do you
??>> get around that?

i> Crack the pods open and remove the black kernels. The amount
i> you use in a typical dish isn't large enough for that to be
i> much of a problem.

In my house, the standard method for preparation is an old
fashioned pepper grinder; that seems to remove grittiness.

As far as finding out about szechuan (I'm not really endorsing
one particular spelling since I've seen several different :-)
pepper, look at
http://www.uni-graz.at/~katzer/engl/Zant_pip.html
which also has pictures. Gernot Katzer's spice pages are, IMHO,
the very best place for getting details and pictures for *all*
spices.

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not