White Pepper (Safed Mirch)

Because of its color, white pepper is ideal for use in white sauces, pasta salads and seafood dishes. White pepper retains the full pungency of black pepper, but has an altered flavour due to partial loss of aroma compounds.White pepper starts out the same as the black, but is allowed to ripen more fully on the vine, while black pepper is made from green berries. The outer shell is then removed either by soaking the berries in water until the shell falls off, or by placing them under flowing spring water, yielding a whiter, cleaner pepper.