Black pepper

Piper nigrum, PiperAlso called piper, peppercorn and перцы

Black pepper is a spice made from fruit, with citrus, floral, and woody aromas. Cooks use it to season food and pair it with table salt.

Category: Herbs & spices
Part used: Fruit
Family: Piperaceae
Cooked most in: Asia, Europe, Africa
Top country: Indonesia
Dishes: 48 in the catalogue
Energy: 251 kcal per 100 g

Photo: Hubertl · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

In the kitchen

How to use black pepper

Typical ways to cook or use it

Season

Preparing it

Grind whole peppercorns just before using them to preserve their aroma.

Goes well with

table salt

Flavour

Taste and texture

Aroma

Citrus
Floral
Woody

Nutrition

What 100 g of black pepper holds

Per 100 g. Averages from USDA; real values vary by variety, season and growing conditions.

Protein 13%Fat 4%Carbohydrate 82%of the macronutrients by weight

Nutrition per 100 g of black pepper
Energy	251 kcal · 1,050 kJ
Protein	10 g
Fat	3.3 g
of which saturated	1.4 g
Carbohydrate	64 g
of which sugars	0.64 g
Fibre	25 g
Sodium	20 mg
Cholesterol	0 mg

Nutrition per 100 g of black pepper: minerals and vitamins
Potassium	1,329 mg
Calcium	443 mg
Iron	9.7 mg
Magnesium	171 mg
Zinc	1.2 mg
Vitamin A (RAE)	27 µg
Folate	17 µg

Source: USDA FoodData Central (food 170931), public domain. Minerals and vitamins are listed only where USDA measured a non-zero amount.

Around the world

Where black pepper is cooked

48 dishes in the catalogue use black pepper. Here is where they come from.

Dishes by continent

Countries whose dishes use it most

Counts are catalogued dishes from each country that list black pepper among their ingredients.

Origins

Native to: India

2,000 BCE · India
Black pepper was used in Indian cooking at least as early as 2000 BCE.
The 1100s · China
By the 12th century, wealthy people in China commonly used black pepper in cooking.
The 1400s · China
Large shipments from Zheng He's expeditions helped make black pepper a common commodity in China.

On the table

Dishes made with black pepper

43 of the 48 catalogued dishes that use it, spread across the countries they come from.

Dish lists come from Wikidata; a dish counts when its recorded ingredients include black pepper.

Family

Related forms

Made from it: white pepper (dried)

Around the world

What black pepper is called

Names in 22 languages, from Wikidata.

Spanish
pimienta negra · pimiento negro
French
poivre noir
Italian
pepe nero
Portuguese
pimenta preta
German
schwarzes Pfefferkorn · schwarze Pfefferkörner · schwarzer Pfeffer
Turkish
karabiber
Russian
черный перец
Japanese
黒胡椒
Indonesian
lada hitam
Basque
piper beltz
Burmese
ငြုပ်ကောင်း
Cebuano
pimyentang itom

Show all 22 languages

Czech
pepř černý · černý pepř
Irish
piobar dubh
Minangkabau
marica itam
Moroccan Arabic
بزار
Norwegian Bokmål
sort pepper
Shan
ၽိတ်ႉပွမ်ႈ · မၢၵ်ႇၽိတ်ႉပွမ်ႈ
Slovak
Čierne korenie
Slovenian
črni poper
Swedish
svartpeppar · svartpepparkorn
Venetian
pévar mòro · pévar negro · pévare mòro · pévare negro

Sources and credits

Data

GlobeCooks editorial: descriptions, kitchen notes and classification, written by GlobeCooks from checked sources
USDA FoodData Central (Foundation, SR Legacy): nutrition values (Public domain (US government work, CC0))
Wikidata: names, classification and dishes (CC0 1.0)
Wikimedia Commons: photos
Wikipedia (English) (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Wikidata item: Q22915010

Photos

Photo: Hubertl · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons