Long Pepper vs. Black Pepper: Two Piper Species, One Pungent Compound

The English word pepper traces back through Latin to pippali, the Sanskrit name for long pepper.¹ Long pepper probably reached Europe before black pepper did, and in the Roman Empire it cost about three times as much.² It’s a whole fruiting spike of tiny fused fruits, about 2 cm long, warmer and sweeter than black pepper’s round berry, with a different smell. Both get their bite from piperine, but whether long pepper is hotter is something the sources can’t agree on.

Side by side

The piperine figures come from different sources and samples. They put the two in the same range, but they can’t tell you which one is higher. For each spice in depth, see long pepper and black pepper.

The differences that change a dish

Heat: the sources disagree

Piperine is the heat they share. It acts on TRPV1, the same heat receptor capsaicin hits, though in a study on human receptors in cultured cells it was far less potent than capsaicin.⁹ Whether long pepper is hotter or milder than black pepper isn’t settled:

The piperine numbers don’t settle it either. Katzer puts long pepper at about 6%, “slightly higher than in black pepper.” A 2026 review gives 3 to 5% of dry weight, and PROSEA gives 4.9 to 7.7% for black pepper.²⁴⁵ Those come from different samples and methods, and we couldn’t find a study measuring both side by side. In practice, start with less of whichever one you’re swapping in, and taste.

Aroma: different compounds

This is the clearer difference. Black pepper’s essential oil is about 90% monoterpene and sesquiterpene hydrocarbons, with limonene, sabinene and β-pinene leading in one Indian sample reported by PROSEA.⁵ Katzer says long pepper’s aroma is missing those terpene components, and that’s why he says ordinary black pepper can’t replace it.² The 2026 review lists long pepper’s major volatiles as β-caryophyllene, bisabolene, pentadecane, zingiberene and α-zingiberene.⁴ The Spice House picks up nutmeg, cinnamon and ginger;¹⁰ Atlas Obscura, a citrusy bite.⁷ In short, black pepper smells brighter and more resinous, long pepper warmer and sweeter.

Form and grinding

A long pepper spike is a rod of tiny fused fruits, not a hard little ball. The Spice House says it works in most peppermills that grind black pepper, and you can drop it whole into a stew or a slow-roasted lamb dish.¹⁰ It can also be used whole, crushed in a mortar, or broken up for a spice grinder.

How each is used

Long pepper. Katzer says its main use in India is in spicy vegetable pickles. It usually shows up in traditional Ethiopian meat stews (wat) and sometimes in the complex spice mixtures of Morocco.² PepperScale’s ras el hanout explainer draws the same line between the two: black pepper goes into most blends, while long pepper is optional.¹² Atlas Obscura names rasam, lentil curries and Indian pickles, and calls it essential to the mutton stew nihari.⁷ See berbere seasoning and ras el hanout.

Black pepper. It’s one of the earliest known and most widely used spices in the world. You’ll find it in finishing, in crusts like steak au poivre, in dressings and in spice blends. See black pepper.

History: the older European pepper

Katzer says long pepper probably reached Europe before black pepper did, and that in the Roman Empire it cost about three times as much.² Hancock calls it the most popular pepper in Rome.¹¹ It went into hippocras, a mulled medicinal wine, until the 1500s, and it nearly vanished from European cooking after Columbus brought chiles back from the Americas. Black pepper’s story is the better-known one. Tributes were paid in pepper in ancient Greece and Rome, and Venetian and Genoese merchants became its main distributors in medieval Europe. And the English word pepper traces back through Latin to the Sanskrit name for long pepper, pippali.¹

Can one stand in for the other?

The sources split here too. Every amount below is a starting point.

• Black pepper in place of long pepper. Katzer says ordinary black pepper can’t replace long pepper, and suggests white pepper plus a little mace instead.² Our long pepper substitutes page ranks that combination above plain black pepper. Ratio (Method): if black pepper is all you have, start with about 3/4 as much, freshly ground, and taste. A pinch of mace or nutmeg covers some of the missing warmth.
• Long pepper in place of black pepper. Zingerman’s, which sells long pepper, says to use it any way you’d use black pepper,¹³ and The Spice House says it works in most peppermills.¹⁰ Ratio (Method): three of the four heat sources above call it hotter, so start with about 3/4 as much long pepper as the black pepper called for, then taste. In a dish built on black pepper’s bright smell, like cacio e pepe or steak au poivre, expect something sweeter and warmer.
• Grades of black pepper. Wondering whether a premium black pepper changes things? See Tellicherry pepper vs. black pepper.

What isn’t known

• No study has measured piperine in long pepper and black pepper side by side, and published figures for long pepper disagree (about 3 to 5% versus about 6%).
• The sources above disagree on whether long pepper is hotter or milder than black pepper.
• We couldn’t find a source comparing the color of dried long pepper with black pepper.
• No source supports a recent revival of long pepper, its use in Chinese cooking, or its use in garam masala.
• We couldn’t find a dated, sourced price comparison.

Related

• Long pepper and long pepper substitutes
• Black pepper, black pepper substitutes, white pepper vs. black pepper, cracked vs. ground black pepper
• Other peppery spices: cubeb pepper, grains of paradise, allspice vs. black pepper, black pepper vs. cayenne
• Too much pepper? How to fix the dish.