With the ones I have, many of the red "shells" contain hard, black,
nearly flavorless seeds (or whatever), that I can't believe add anything
to the final dish.

Separating them out is a pain. Anybody know an easy way to prep them?

Isaac

isw wrote:
> With the ones I have, many of the red "shells" contain hard, black,
> nearly flavorless seeds (or whatever), that I can't believe add anything
> to the final dish.
>
> Separating them out is a pain. Anybody know an easy way to prep them?
>
Industrial scale I'd run them through a crusher, and use airflow to
separate seeds and husks. How to scale this down to domestic without
having to retrieve the husks from every corner of the kitchen is another
question.

Never tried it, but do the seeds seeds float? If not, crush gently,
throw the lot in a bowl of water, and skim off the husks.

-j

isw wrote on Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:01:43 -0700:

> Separating them out is a pain. Anybody know an easy way to
> prep them?

Grind them up anf forget about them!


--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not

On 2010-07-02, isw > wrote:
> With the ones I have, many of the red "shells" contain hard, black,
> nearly flavorless seeds (or whatever), that I can't believe add anything
> to the final dish.

I suspect you may have somthing other than true szechuan peppers.

I just partially crushed some szechuan peppers (not a true pepper) I
bought from a little Chinese import store, which they had just
received from mainland China. No little black seeds. I dug out my
loupes and magnifiers and saw something that looked like a REALLY
SMALL black seed, about the size of the POINT of a pin, but further
scrutiny revealed them to be merely parts of the interior meat of the
pepper. Beside, even this near microscopic particle had enough flavor
to discern as being szechuan pepperish.

You may have one of the bogus szechuan pepper substitutes which were sold as szechuan
peppers back when they were banned from importation into the US,
something grown in Hawaii, as I vaguely recall.

nb

In article >,
notbob > wrote:

> On 2010-07-02, isw > wrote:
> > With the ones I have, many of the red "shells" contain hard, black,
> > nearly flavorless seeds (or whatever), that I can't believe add anything
> > to the final dish.
>
> I suspect you may have somthing other than true szechuan peppers.
>
> I just partially crushed some szechuan peppers (not a true pepper) I
> bought from a little Chinese import store, which they had just
> received from mainland China. No little black seeds. I dug out my
> loupes and magnifiers and saw something that looked like a REALLY
> SMALL black seed, about the size of the POINT of a pin, but further
> scrutiny revealed them to be merely parts of the interior meat of the
> pepper. Beside, even this near microscopic particle had enough flavor
> to discern as being szechuan pepperish.
>
> You may have one of the bogus szechuan pepper substitutes which were sold as
> szechuan
> peppers back when they were banned from importation into the US,
> something grown in Hawaii, as I vaguely recall.

Take a look he http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper

That looks like exactly what I have, black seeds and all. Tastes right,
too. And I have bought them both before and after the ban (but not
during). These are from after.

Isaac

In article >,
Christine Dabney > wrote:

> On Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:01:43 -0700, isw > wrote:
>
> >With the ones I have, many of the red "shells" contain hard, black,
> >nearly flavorless seeds (or whatever), that I can't believe add anything
> >to the final dish.
>
> Wow, those don't sound like the peppercorns I know... The ones I know
> are extremely flavorful..and the aroma is heavenly!

They're flavorful enough (at least, the husks are).

This looks exactly like what I have:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan_pepper

Isaac

On 2010-07-03, isw > wrote:
>
> That looks like exactly what I have, black seeds and all.

Take the closer look:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Po...chuaan_001.jpg

What black seeds?

nb

notbob wrote:
> On 2010-07-03, isw > wrote:
>> That looks like exactly what I have, black seeds and all.
>
> Take the closer look:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Po...chuaan_001.jpg
>
> What black seeds?
>
The ones that the article under that photo mentions in 'culinary uses':

"Recipes often suggest lightly toasting and then crushing the tiny
seedpods before adding them to food. Only the husks are used; the shiny
black seeds are discarded or ignored as they have a very gritty
sand-like texture. It is generally added at the last moment."

-j

On 2010-07-03, jack > wrote:
>
> "Recipes often suggest lightly toasting and then crushing the tiny
> seedpods before adding them to food. Only the husks are used; the shiny
> black seeds are discarded or ignored as they have a very gritty
> sand-like texture. It is generally added at the last moment."

Maybe it is I who have bogus peppers. OTOH, I get tons of
lemony/citrus flavor and definitely the numbing of the tongue/mouth.
Yet, I see no seeds, discern no "sand-like texture", the pod halves
have been separated, and what remains is mostly husk.

Damn! I think I may have de-seeded szechuan peppers.

nb