White Pepper, Ground

One US cup of white pepper, ground weighs 113.6 grams. Going the other way, 100 grams is about 0.88 cups.

Also called ground white pepper, white pepper powder, Piper nigrum white.

White pepper packs at about 114 g per US cup, roughly three percent heavier than black pepper. USDA FoodData Central, USDA Branded records, and Chef's Resources all agree within three percent of each other, so this entry publishes a single figure with medium confidence.

White pepper is the same berry as black pepper (Piper nigrum), harvested when ripe rather than green and then processed to remove the outer skin. The ripe berries are soaked in water for a week or more, the softened husk is rubbed away, and the pale inner kernel is dried and ground. Removing the black husk changes both the density and the flavor. The husk carries most of the coarse fiber and the sharp piperine notes, so ground white pepper is a heavier, denser powder with a milder, earthier flavor and often a slightly musty aroma from the fermentation step during dehulling.

Sources converge tightly on the density. USDA FoodData Central's SR Legacy record for Spices, pepper, white (ground) gives 120 g per metric cup, which works out to 114 g per US cup at a density of 0.480 g/mL. A USDA Branded Foods record (UPC 725677221489) reports 122 g per metric cup, essentially matching. Chef's Resources publishes 4.12 oz per US cup (117 g), also within tolerance. The three sources span just three percent, a normal spread for a well-defined ground spice with a fairly fixed particle-size class.

The comparison to black pepper is worth drawing because bakers and cooks often substitute one for the other. USDA's SR Legacy for Spices, pepper, black (ground) gives 116 g per metric cup, so white pepper is a few percent denser than black by USDA's own measurement. The physical reason is the missing husk: black pepper's dark outer skin is a fibrous layer that entrains air pockets across a cup of ground powder, while white pepper is essentially ground endosperm — denser starch and alkaloids without the structural husk fiber. This holds across brands. Black pepper published values span a wider range (roughly 111 to 134 g per US cup in the records collected for this database, published as a range because the spread exceeds the 10 percent spice tolerance) because the husk-to-kernel ratio varies with berry size, drying method, and grind coarseness. White pepper is a more processed and more standardized product, so brand-to-brand variance is smaller and a single figure captures the reality accurately.

King Arthur's Ingredient Weight Chart does not list either white pepper or black pepper. The chart is silent on both. There is no correction opportunity here; the site simply publishes what USDA and the reference chart already agree on.

White pepper is used where black pepper's dark specks would be visible against a pale sauce or purée (cream sauces, béchamel, mashed potatoes, vanilla custards with peppery accents) or where its milder, earthier flavor is wanted in place of black pepper's sharper piperine bite. It is standard in several Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisines, particularly in soups like hot and sour where the fermented-earthy note is part of the flavor profile. Substitution to black pepper is roughly one-to-one by weight, but because white pepper is a few percent denser, a teaspoon of white pepper delivers slightly more spice by mass than a teaspoon of black. For most recipes this is within rounding error; for tightly balanced spice blends the difference can matter, and weighing is the reliable answer.