How can I remove whole peppercorns from a sauce after cooking?

Question

I've heard that whole black pepper is put in sauces for flavour, but it is not supposed to stay there in a finished dish, because it's quite unpleasant to bite on one during a meal. But how does one remove all of it from a sauce / gravy, especially a thick one?

Answer 1

Strain it, or put the peppercorns in cheesecloth which you can easily remove. Obviously both ideas would work better if the sauce was thin then thickened after the peppercorns were removed.

Answer 2

One way to steep peppercorns in a sauce is to put them in a tea ball or a tied up piece of cloth which is submerged into the sauce and then removed before serving. If they are just dropped into the sauce they'll have to be strained out, which only works if the sauce is smooth.

Answer 3

When doing a stew or a Cocido (kind of soup) in Spain, it is common to use bags similar to the ones some people use to wash their clothes without mixing them. We call them cooking mesh.

As you can see, it can be useful for many things, like using the ingredients separately for other food later, or easier separation.

The same works for any food, but the mesh has to change. A tea bag, a thin cloth, any kind of mesh will work! Just make sure the holes are small enough!