Green Peppercorn Substitutes, Ranked by the Job They Are Doing

Green peppercorns are the unripe berries of the black pepper vine, which makes black and white pepper the natural stand-ins for their pepper side. Start with less than the recipe calls for, since Katzer rates green pepper the least pungent of the three. What dry pepper can’t copy is the soft, briny pop of brined peppercorns in a pâté or compound butter. For that, rinsed capers come closest, and for a Thai jungle curry that wants fresh clusters, brined green peppercorns do the job.

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.

Brined peppercorns are hard to measure against dry spices, because part of their volume is water and salt.

One vine, three peppers

The Codex standard defines all three by how they’re processed:¹

How hot each one is next to the others isn’t settled:

Britannica doesn’t rate green pepper. Katzer rates it the least pungent of the three, which is why every pepper substitute below starts with less.

If green peppercorns are the pepper bite

1. Black peppercorns, cracked

Black pepper is the same berry, dried with its outer layer intact.¹ It’s the same family of flavor, with more bite and less of the fresh, green note. For a peppercorn sauce, crack the peppercorns coarsely instead of grinding them fine, so they act more like whole green berries in the sauce.

Ratio (Method): Since Katzer rates green pepper the least pungent of the three,² start with about half as much cracked black pepper as dried green peppercorns, taste, and add more. For brined green peppercorns, start with even less, since part of what you’re measuring is brine.

Whole or ground (Computed): If all you have is ground black pepper, McCormick’s conversion is 1 teaspoon peppercorns = 1½ teaspoons ground pepper.⁴ That’s a volume figure for black pepper alone, and it tells you nothing about green peppercorns.

2. White pepper

White pepper also comes from the black pepper vine. Katzer suggests it for cream sauces where black pepper could spoil the color, and that’s often exactly where green peppercorns go.

The trade-off is aroma. Black and green peppercorns are more aromatic than white, so white pepper gives you heat with less of the fresh, green character. Katzer also warns that white pepper kept too long can develop a fecal, musty note,² so smell the jar first.

Ratio (Method): Katzer rates white pepper the most pungent of the three,² so start with about half as much as the green peppercorns called for, then taste.

If green peppercorns are soft, briny pops

Brined green peppercorns are a wet ingredient, stored in a salt solution that can have vinegar added. Studded through a pâté or a compound butter, they give soft bursts of salt and heat. Dry pepper can’t do that.

1. Capers

Capers are the flower buds of the caperbush, pickled in vinegar and used as a pungent condiment. Katzer notes that capers are never dried. They’re pickled in oil, brine or vinegar, or less often packed in coarse salt, which you have to rinse off.⁵

Their bite is a different kind from pepper’s: Katzer describes pickled capers as tasting slightly astringent and pungent, from a mustard oil compound.⁵ So capers give you the brine and a sharp, mustardy edge, but no pepper heat.

The smallest grades are close in size. Katzer says nonpareilles and surfines are under one centimeter across, and Codex allows whole green pepper from 2.0 to 6.0 mm.¹ Katzer also says to add capers to a sauce as late as you can, because heat quickly destroys their aroma.⁵

Ratio (Method): Rinse the capers, start with an equal amount (chopped, if they’re bigger than the peppercorns), and add a little cracked black pepper if you want heat too.

2. Green olives

Chopped green olives can stand in for the color, firmness and brine in a terrine or relish. They bring no pepper heat at all, so pair them with cracked black pepper.

Ratio (Method): Use roughly the same volume, chopped, and season with black pepper to taste.

If you are replacing fresh green peppercorns

Fresh green peppercorns on the stem go into Thai jungle curry. Suwanee, who writes the Thai cooking site Simply Suwanee, says they add “a sharp, herbal heat that’s different from dried pepper or chilies.” She notes that fresh clusters are rare in the U.S., points to green peppercorns in brine at Asian grocery stores, and says to drain them lightly before using.⁶ Her recipe calls for ¼ cup, about 3 to 4 long stems.⁶

Ratio (Method): Start with the same amount of brined peppercorns as the fresh ones called for, then taste for salt.

Pink peppercorns: for color, not flavor

Pink peppercorns aren’t related to black pepper. Katzer says they’re named for their shape only, not their flavor, and describes the taste as sweet and aromatic, similar to juniper.⁷ Atlas Obscura calls the flavor only slightly peppery.⁸ They brighten the look of a cream sauce, but they don’t taste like green peppercorns. Atlas Obscura also reports an allergic reaction in a person with a tree nut allergy.⁸

Ratio (Method): Crush a few for color and add black pepper for the bite.

What isn’t known

• You’ll often hear that green peppercorns are much milder than black. Katzer does rank them the least pungent,² but we found no measurement.
• You’ll sometimes see 3 tablespoons of brined green peppercorns equated with 1 ounce of black peppercorns. No source we found gives that figure.

Related

• Green peppercorns, the full profile, and green peppercorns vs. capers
• Black pepper, black pepper substitutes, cracked vs. ground black pepper
• White peppercorns, white pepper vs. black pepper, white pepper substitutes
• Pink pepper, peppercorn medley vs. black pepper
• Too much pepper? How to fix the dish

Footnotes

1. Standard for Black, White and Green Peppers, CXS 326-2017, Codex Alimentarius. fao.org · Standard ↩ ↩² ↩³

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

3. Black pepper, Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com · Reference work ↩

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

5. Gernot Katzer, Caper (Capparis spinosa), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³

6. Suwanee, Jungle curry (gaeng pa), Simply Suwanee. simplysuwanee.com · Publication ↩ ↩²

7. Gernot Katzer, Pink Pepper (Schinus), Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩

8. Ewbank, When People Panicked Over Pink Peppercorns, Atlas Obscura, 2018. atlasobscura.com · Publication ↩ ↩²

Also drawn on

• Pepper (Piper nigrum): Processing & Value Addition, Centre for E-Learning, Kerala Agricultural University (Information Gateway on Agriculture). celkau.in
• Caper (Britannica Editors, revised by Melissa Petruzzello, updated 20 Aug 2026), Encyclopaedia Britannica. britannica.com