What’s The Difference Between White Pepper And Black Pepper?

There are white peppercorns and black peppercorns, Sichuan peppercorns and green peppercorns. Both ground black pepper and ground white pepper are readily available at supermarkets and grocery stores around the country. You may also have a pepper grinder that you refill as needed with acrid black peppercorns. White pepper, like black pepper, is made from the berries of the pepper plant, or the Piper nigrum. 

• Black pepper is a flowering vine that’s prized for its fruit (peppercorns!). The black peppercorns are picked before they’re ripe, dried and sold whole (crinkly and wrinkled from the drying process) or ground.
• White peppercorns, meanwhile, are the seeds of the ripe black peppercorn fruit. They are picked from the plant when it is ripe, the peppercorns are then soaked in water to ferment, at which point the outer (black) layer is removed to reveal the white peppercorn. The removal of the skin takes away some of the pungency inherent in black pepper. 

Chances are you have some form of both white pepper and black pepper in your kitchen. But whereas you might be accustomed to using black pepper liberally — ground on salads, added to dishes while cooking, and then seasoning afterwards along with salt — your comfort level with white pepper may be somewhat lacking. 

Julia Skinner is an Atlanta-based, award-winning author and founder of Root, offering fermentation and culinary research, classes, and events, helps break down the differences between the two peppers and how and when to employ each.

The Differences Between White Pepper And Black Pepper

“Black pepper has the classic ‘pepper’ taste we think of with salt and pepper, it’s fruity and spicy, while white pepper tends to be more mild,” explains Skinner. White pepper is also often described as tasting musty or grassy and earthy.

That said, there are multiple varieties of each and the range of flavors can vary. The reason you rarely see white peppercorns come out of a pepper grinder is because of their generally gentle flavor profile. What this means is “they can’t stand up to the bold flavors of some dishes,” explains Skinner. 

But if you don’t like heat and prefer the more subtle flavor of white pepper, you could certainly try them in a pepper grinder. 

Can White Pepper And Black Pepper Be Used Interchangeably?

No, says Skinner. White pepper and black pepper cannot be used interchangeably. While subbing one for the other probably won’t ruin a dish, you’re bound to notice a difference if, for example, you substitute white pepper for black pepper in cacio e pepe, an Italian pasta dish that features black pepper prominently. Likewise in this comeback sauce, which calls for a quarter teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper.

“Choose white pepper when you want something mild, and black when you want the signature peppery kick that people think of when peppering a dish,” notes Skinner.