What’s the Best Pepper to Use in Pasta? Chefs Say It’s This One Kampot peppercorns give an added layer of citrus and fruity flavors.

Peppercorns are the unheralded heroes of the pantry. Home cooks happy to obsess over the provenance of their salt or the scorching heat of their chile flakes usually pay scant attention to the pepper they grind from dawn to dusk. But there’s a wide world of peppercorns, and their range of flavors can have a powerful impact on scrambled eggs, spaghetti, and T-bone steaks. These unassuming dried Kampot peppercorns, available from the marvelous spice hideout SOS Chefs ($15 for 2 oz), don’t look like anything special, but they pack a bright spiciness that delivers an intensely fragrant punch to everything they touch.

THE COMPETITION

• Grown on a coffee farm in central Vietnam, Burlap & Barrel’s Robusta black pepper ($9 for 1.8 oz) evokes java with a wallop of ginger.

• White Penja peppercorns ($16 for 2.5 oz) are a specialty at the New York spice company La Boîte. Sourced from Cameroon, on Africa’s west coast, they have a light fermented taste and are especially good on seafood and vegetables.

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