A clean, pungent heat that opens a dish up rather than crowding it.
In the pot
Whole peppercorns, ground at the moment of use. Pre-ground pepper loses its top notes within weeks and is mostly heat by the time it reaches the pan. A coarse grind at the end of cooking is different work to a fine grind stirred through.
I add cracked pepper to rasam at the very end, off the heat, with curry leaves and a final spoon of ghee. The pepper is what makes rasam rasam.
In the body
Black pepper is pungent and heating, and it kindles agni (digestive fire) cleanly. It suits vata (the air constitution) and kapha (the earth and water constitution), and is used in small amounts for pitta.
I always add a pinch of black pepper to anything with turmeric, in milk or in cooking. The two work together in a way that neither does alone, and Ayurveda has known this for a long time.
