It is my understanding that spores of C. botulinum can survive all of our homemaking efforts and conditions and settle in a comfy environment of a cheese wheel. As acidity varies, moisture also and third factor being more or less anaerobic confined space there is a considerable threat that those spores could survive, start to grow, reproduce and release toxin. Store bought peppercorns are dry, for sure, but there is absolutely nothing that could prevent spores to get into peppercorns/package in postdrying/prepackaging phase. I must add that I live in a "second world country" (in hygiene, consumer safety and similar regards). In my view, toasting, boiling and/or additional drying destroys or at least negatively changes the taste of peppercorns. Furthermore, there is no guarantee that peppercorns are now free of potential spores as they are mixed with the curds. The only thing that I could find as a reliable disinfecting agent is chlorine (in different cleaning/disinfecting products, bleaches and other locally produced chlorine-based stuff). That is out of the question for using in cheese. So I thought maybe Hydrogen peroxide could be used as it is a simple chemical solution that should kill all spores. What are your thoughts? Use clean 3% solution bought in drugstore or dilute it further? Soak it or simply spray it? If soak, for how long? Clean it through water afterwards and dry it or not? Only time I used peppercorns I boiled them and then dried them in oven on low heat. Too much fuss. And it didn't really contribute to even the simplest disinfection as I had grave problems with moulds growing around all the peppercorns in the cheese (the peppercorns were obviously the source of moulding in form of greenish brown circles growing around the peppercorns). It was caciotta attempt, but failed as it was way too acidic. The irony is that if there were some spores of C. botulinum, they couldn't have survived. That cheese was so brittle, crumbly and rather sour. It was a small form, almost like a hockey puck. In the end, when it was dry enough to be thoroughly cleaned and free of mould, it was still usable as a cooking cheese thanks to peppercorns mostly. Now I am thinking again to try with peppercorns, in an Asiago recipe.
