Re: Why doesn't pepper disslove in water?

Hi!

Pepper is a seed that is ground. This means that it contains lots of fiber from the seed (cell walls, etc.) - materials that don't dissolve.

When you put pepper on food, you are "extracting" the solubles from the seed, which includes the heat component, capsicum. This process acts very much like what you do when making tea from dried tea leaves. However, in this case you eat the solids sprinkled over the food. When you purchase a "pepper sauce," the company has already performed the extraction for you, removing some of the capscium from the seeds to make the sauce. These companies then sell the "residual" solids for use in commercial food products as only some of the heat is extracted.

Cheers.