Cubeb Pepper Substitutes, Ranked by the Job Cubeb Is Doing

No single spice copies cubeb, so the best stand-in depends on what it’s doing in your recipe. For the bite, use black pepper, but start with about half as much: a 1918 pharmacy reference called cubeb “much less powerful.”¹ For the warm, clove-like aroma in pastries and sweet-savory dishes, mix allspice and black pepper. Cubeb itself is hot and bitter, with an aroma Gernot Katzer describes as dry and woody, warm and camphor-like, or spicy and peppery.² These days it turns up mostly in North Africa, especially Tunisia and Morocco, where Moroccan cooks put it in savory dishes and in pastries like markouts.

Quick answer

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. You get each one, side by side.
• Method: our starting point, based on how the two compare. Taste and adjust.

Why cubeb is hard to copy

Cubeb’s heat comes from a different kind of compound than black pepper’s, and Katzer notes that nobody has identified the source of cubeb’s bitterness,² so there’s no known compound to match.

The aroma overlaps with two common spices, depending on which analysis you read:

• With black pepper. In Katzer’s account, cubeb oil is led by sabinene,² which is also a big part of black pepper oil.³
• With allspice. One cubeb oil analysis cited in a 2022 review found it led by methyl eugenol and eugenol,⁴ and eugenol also leads allspice oil.⁵

Those two cubeb analyses come from different samples and disagree sharply, so neither tells you exactly how your jar will taste. Together, though, they explain why cooks reach for black pepper and allspice.

If cubeb is the peppery bite

1. Black pepper

Historically, cubeb stood in for black pepper. Katzer calls cubeb a once-popular black pepper substitute that later fell out of favor, and the 1918 Dispensatory of the United States said cubeb had been used like black pepper but was “much less powerful.”¹

You lose the bitterness and the resinous, woody note.² Black pepper’s flavor comes mainly from piperine, so you’ll get something cleaner and sharper.

Ratio (Method): The 1918 Dispensatory calls cubeb much less powerful than black pepper, so start with about half as much black pepper as cubeb, taste, and add more.

Whole or ground (Computed): If the recipe calls for crushed whole berries and you only have ground pepper, McCormick’s conversion is 1 teaspoon peppercorns = 1½ teaspoons ground pepper.⁶ That’s a volume figure for black pepper alone. It says nothing about how black pepper compares with cubeb.

2. Grains of paradise

Grains of paradise were once a common black pepper substitute too. Katzer calls their taste spicy, hot and warm, a little bitter, with heat that’s less strong than pepper’s but more subtle. That bitterness puts them a touch closer to cubeb than black pepper is. Their heat comes from ginger-family compounds,⁷ so the flavor leans toward ginger, not resin.

Ratio (Method): Start with about three quarters of the cubeb amount, freshly ground, and taste.

If cubeb is a warm, clove-like aroma

1. Allspice with black pepper

Allspice covers the eugenol side of cubeb’s aroma. It got its name because it tastes like a combination of cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. It brings warmth but not much bite, so a share of black pepper puts the heat back.

The two berries are easy to mix up. The giveaway is the stalk: cubeb has one, 5 to 7 mm long, and allspice doesn’t.¹

Ratio (Method): Mix allspice and black pepper in equal parts, use half as much of the mix as the cubeb called for, then taste. Go lighter on the allspice in savory dishes and heavier in pastries.

Whole or ground (Computed): For allspice, McCormick gives 1 teaspoon allspice berries (5 whole berries) = 1 teaspoon ground allspice.⁶

2. Allspice alone

If the dish already has plenty of pepper, allspice on its own covers the aroma.

Ratio (Method): Start with a quarter to a half of the cubeb amount. Allspice’s clove note takes over fast.

If cubeb is one spice in a blend

In a long blend like ras el hanout, cubeb is one voice among many. Use a pepper-led blend in its place, or just leave it out.

1. Quatre épices

Quatre épices means “four spices.” Katzer lists lots of white pepper (some versions use black), nutmeg, cloves and ginger. He calls it a kind of fortified pepper you can use anywhere black pepper is called for but you want a richer aroma.⁸ Saveur says the blend usually has cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and pepper, and its recipe is half pepper by weight (10 of 20 grams).⁹ That pepper-plus-clove profile is close to the allspice and black pepper mix above. You may read that some versions contain cubeb; we couldn’t trace that to any source.

Ratio (Method): Start with half the cubeb amount.

2. Leave it out

Ratio (Method): If the blend already has black pepper, allspice or cloves, add a pinch more of one of them, finish the dish, and taste before adding anything else.

If you want the closest berry

Ashanti pepper (Piper guineense)

Katzer identifies the so-called false cubeb, also called Ashanti pepper, as the Central African species Piper guineense. He writes that Ashanti pepper tastes similar to cubeb pepper, “but fresher and less bitter.”² It’s the nearest match here, but it’s no easier to find than cubeb. For how it’s used in West African cooking, see Nigerian spices.

Ratio (Method): Start with an equal amount, crushed, and taste.

A substitute to use with care: Sichuan pepper

Sichuan pepper isn’t a pepper at all. Katzer describes its smell as lemony with warm, woody overtones, and notes the numbing, almost anaesthetic feeling it leaves on the tongue.¹⁰ No source we read calls cubeb numbing. The woody note can echo cubeb’s, but the tingle will be new to the dish.

Ratio (Method): Start with about a quarter of the cubeb amount, ground, and only in dishes where a tingle would be welcome.

What isn’t known

• Published analyses of cubeb oil disagree on its main compounds (sabinene in one account, methyl eugenol and eugenol in another),²⁴ and the sources we could open don’t explain why.
• You’ll sometimes hear that cubeb tastes of nutmeg. Katzer’s description doesn’t mention it, and no source we found supports it.

Related

• Cubeb pepper, the full profile
• Black pepper, black pepper substitutes and allspice vs. black pepper
• Allspice, allspice substitutes and too much allspice
• Grains of paradise and grains of paradise substitutes
• Quatre épices, Sichuan pepper, long pepper
• Moroccan spices, Tunisian spices, ras el hanout

Footnotes

1. Cubeba, The Dispensatory of the United States of America, 1918 (transcription, Henriette’s Herbal Homepage). henriettes-herb.com · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Gernot Katzer, Cubeb Pepper (Piper cubeba), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. Piper nigrum (PROSEA), Pl@ntUse. uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩

4. Cubeb (Piper cubeba L.f.): A comprehensive review, Frontiers in Nutrition, 2022. frontiersin.org · Peer-reviewed ↩ ↩²

5. Pimenta dioica (PROSEA), Pl@ntUse. uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩

6. How to Grind Your Own Spices, McCormick. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²

7. Gernot Katzer, Grains of Paradise (Aframomum melegueta), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩

8. Gernot Katzer, Nutmeg and Mace (Myristica fragrans), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩

9. Papach, Quatre Épices, Saveur. saveur.com · Publication ↩

10. Gernot Katzer, Sichuan pepper (Zanthoxylum species), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩

Also drawn on

• Black pepper (Britannica Editors, revised by Sohini Dasgupta, updated 11 Sep 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com
• Allspice (Britannica Editors, updated 3 Sep 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com