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Other than color, what is the difference between white pepper and black pepper? I thought it was purely a color thing so that black pepper wouldn't ruin the color of, say, a white sauce. We tried white pepper in a few dishes and in all cases, they were wretched. (FWIW: one recipe was Alfredo sauce.) The only things I can come up with are:

  • There is a substantial difference between the 2 and we apparently do not like white pepper
  • There is not a substantial difference but we got a bad batch of white pepper
  • There may or may not be a difference, but the recipes we tried should not have included this spice

Which is correct?

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    I wouldn't put pepper in Alfredo sauce. Why do recipes always call for "salt and pepper to taste". I whole lot of food that I cook is better sans pepper and should never include it. I always ignore that line. Salt is important, and I agree with the "to taste" part, since different people have vastly different thresholds for what they consider salty enough (based on the amount of salt regularly consumed).
    – Adam Shiemke
    Commented Aug 27, 2010 at 14:18
  • My in-laws only use white pepper. I like it fine, but a little goes a really long way. They will use it as if it were black pepper, which means that some things that would be delicious with a large amount of black pepper are uniformly wretched at their house.
    – bikeboy389
    Commented Nov 19, 2010 at 22:09

10 Answers 10

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They don't taste identical at all, and even more important, they don't smell the same. White pepper has a distinct "barnyard" odor. People do indeed use them when black flecks might be unpleasant, but in most cases I'd rather go pepperless or just live with the color.

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    @JustRightMenus - It's OK in moderation and in combination with other ingredients, where it blends into a more palatable aroma and flavor. It's a good "supporting actor" sort of spice, but can't carry the show on its own.
    – RI Swamp Yankee
    Commented Oct 30, 2015 at 16:47
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Same plant for both. Black pepper is unripe fruit (green), picked and sun dried til it turns black. White pepper is the fully ripe seed stripped of its outer husk.

Here's the first link that google gave me to verify. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_pepper#White_pepper

Also, Harold McGee has a couple of pages in "On Food and Cooking" for further detail.

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  • I am not sure the white pepper is made from the fully ripened fruit. Further, white pepper is not the fruit itself but rather the seed stripped of the surrounding flesh.
    – iman1003
    Commented Aug 27, 2010 at 20:16
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    "White pepper consists of the seed of the pepper plant alone, with the darker colored skin of the pepper fruit removed. This is usually accomplished by a process known as retting, where fully ripe peppers are soaked in water for about a week, during which the flesh of the pepper softens and decomposes."
    – wdypdx22
    Commented Aug 27, 2010 at 20:43
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Black pepper and white pepper are differing preparations of the fruit of the Piper nigrum plant.

Black pepper is made from the unripened, green fruit. It is dried, whereupon the fruit shrivels leaving the distinctive black, wrinkly exterior.

White pepper is the fruit's dried seed without the encapsulating flesh. The flesh is removed by a process called retting, essentially the process of allowing microbes to eat away the tissues surrounding the seed.

The two variants do have a differing flavor as the flesh of the fruit contains terpenes which give pepper much of its scent and flavor. White pepper's flavor can differ depending on how long the retting process was allowed to take place. This may be what produced the off flavors you found.

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I found an interesting article by Harold McGee, where he writes that the substance rotundone is contained in much higher concentrations in white pepper than in black, and goes on to note:

...they tested 49 people and found that about 20 percent of them could not detect rotundone at all, even at concentrations far above what’s found in white pepper. The scientists say this shows the different experiences two people can have of the same wine, or of the same pepper-seasoned food.

So the recipe you tried may well have been created by someone far less sensitive to the flavor than yourself and your family. Something worth keeping in mind when seasoning food for a group...

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    I'll also add that some people (myself included) really don't like the taste of rotundone (and too much white pepper as a result). The New York Times wrote an article about it. I've even white pepper referred to as "manure sprinkles" :-)
    – Chris Macksey
    Commented Apr 7, 2017 at 0:17
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Yes white pepper has a very distinct flavour. Many people perceive it to have a "hotter" flavour, while having less complex flavours than black. If the white pepper flavour seems to dominate a specific dish, I'd simply use less. A lot of recipes call for it simply because of the colour. Personally, I think that's ridiculous as the flavour is very different. I quite like the flavour, but wouldn't add it to everything. If you're trying to find a use for it... find flavours that better compliment the usage of it. It is used in a lot of Cantonese soups and sauces, for example.

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I find that the "wetter" the food is when it is served, the more I prefer white pepper. However I prefer black pepper whilst the food is being cooked. Okay, maybe I'm weird but that's what I like. Also, keep ground white pepper in the freezer, it doesn't go solid and lasts ages without getting at all "barnyardy",

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I think they taste a little different. It seems to me that black pepper is more spicy when you first eat it and white pepper seems to be more of a lingering spiciness.

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When I eat black pepper it numbs my tongue and I cannot taste the food (not only the food that has the pepper, but also anything else I'm eating.) white pepper doesn't do this.

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There are substantial differences between the two.

White pepper is produced with ripened pepper, while black pepper is not. White pepper has a more spicy taste, and it might have an odor if it's not well dried because, when producing white pepper, it is kept in water for many days to ease the removal of the outer layer.

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Personally, I prefer the taste of white pepper on things like potato chips - and as a benefit, fine white pepper sticks better to the chips, where no matter how fine I grind my black pepper, they do not stick to the chips well enough.

On the flip side, grainy black pepper on top of a well-grilled steak... Just something to die for.

So, my comments address point 3 in your question, as well as the "to taste" element of some of the answers above.

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    Can someone enlighten me about the reason for the downvote? Comparing some of the other answers above that were not downvoted? My answer is relevant to a degree?
    – Kobus Myburgh
    Commented Nov 8, 2013 at 10:56

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