Abalone substitute

Best substitute

King oyster mushroom stems, scored and braised

Use the same amount by weight as the abalone you are replacing

Best for braised abalone in oyster sauce

Different taste

The thick white stem of a king oyster mushroom, cut into rounds or slabs and crosshatched.

Other abalone substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Large sea scallops, sliced into discs
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Big scallops cut horizontally into two or three rounds so each piece resembles a slice of abalone.
What changes
Best for
Korean abalone porridge and juk, stir-fries, clear soups, sashimi-style dishes, quick braises
The best shellfish match for flavour, and the easiest to buy. Scallop has the same clean, sweet, faintly mineral character abalone does, only more pronounced, and sliced into discs it looks right on the plate. The difference is entirely in the bite: scallop is soft and yielding while abalone is firm and springy, so a rice porridge made with scallop tastes right but feels much softer, with none of that pleasant resistance. Sear or simmer it for barely a minute, since scallop overcooks into something dry and stringy while abalone tolerates long braising.
3Conch, whelk or periwinkle
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Other large sea snails, sold cooked and frozen, canned, or in the shell at Caribbean, Chinese and Korean markets.
What changes
Best for
braised dishes, salads and cold appetisers, soups, stir-fries, anywhere the chew matters
Botanically the nearest thing you can buy, since these are all sea snails like abalone, and the texture is genuinely comparable: firm, dense and springy. Two honest differences. The flavour is stronger and more distinctly snail-like, briny and a shade iodine-tinged rather than abalone's delicate sweetness, so a subtle dish gets louder. And they are tougher, so they need either a very quick sear or a long slow braise, with nothing in between. Canned conch is already tender and only needs warming; frozen whelk meat benefits from being sliced thinly across the grain.
4Geoduck or surf clam (hokkigai)
Close match
Use the same amount by weight
Large clams with firm, pale, crunchy siphon meat, sold fresh at Asian fishmongers or frozen in blanched slices.
What changes
Best for
sashimi and cold plates, quick stir-fries, hot pot, clear soups, salads
An excellent choice when the abalone was going to be eaten raw or barely cooked. Geoduck siphon and surf clam both have that unusual crisp-then-springy snap that makes abalone sashimi interesting, and they are sweet and clean tasting. They are more watery than abalone and less rich, and they toughen fast, so they belong in dishes measured in seconds rather than hours: blanch for ten to twenty seconds, or slice thin and serve raw. They are a poor choice for a long banquet braise, where they simply seize up.
5Squid or cuttlefish, scored
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Cleaned squid bodies opened flat, crosshatched on the inside and cut into pieces.
What changes
Best for
stir-fries, braises, hot pot, budget versions of abalone dishes
The cheap answer that works surprisingly well in a stir-fry, because scored squid curls into ridged pieces that look a great deal like abalone and have a comparably springy bite. It is milder and slightly sweeter, with a distinct squid flavour that a delicate broth will show up. The real risk is texture: squid is tender for the first minute of cooking and again after forty minutes of braising, and unpleasantly rubbery in between, so commit to one or the other. Score deeply on the inside surface, cook it in a very hot wok for sixty seconds, and get it out.
6Dried oysters or dried scallops (conpoy), soaked
Taste and texture differ
Use 20 to 30 g dried for every 200 g abalone
Intensely savoury dried shellfish, rehydrated and used with their soaking liquid.
What changes
Best for
banquet braises, clay pot rice, abalone-style sauces, long-simmered soups, New Year dishes
Reach for these when what you actually need is the deep savoury luxury of an abalone dish rather than abalone-shaped pieces. Dried oysters and conpoy carry an enormous concentrated shellfish flavour and their soaking water becomes a superb braising liquid, which is closer to the role canned abalone plays in a Cantonese banquet dish than any fresh seafood is. They look nothing alike, being small dark shrivelled nuggets, and the flavour is far more intense and slightly funky rather than clean and delicate. Use them together with king oyster mushroom for the texture and the dish comes together convincingly.

What is Abalone?

Abalone is Abalone, known as awabi in Japan and paua in New Zealand, is a large single-shelled sea snail sold live, dried, or most often canned, prized for a dense springy foot of meat with a clean, mildly sweet ocean flavour.

Cooking tips

Remember the two-speed rule and apply it to your substitute. Abalone is tender for the first minute of cooking, then tough for hours, then tender again after a long braise. Conch, whelk and squid behave exactly the same way, which is why so many people find them rubbery: they were cooked for five minutes. Decide up front whether the dish is a sixty-second stir-fry or a two-hour braise, and never land in the middle.
Save the liquid from the can. Canned abalone is packed in a lightly savoury brine that many Chinese recipes use as the base of the sauce, and it is often more important to the finished dish than the meat itself. If you are substituting, replace that with something equivalent rather than water: oyster sauce loosened with stock, a little clam juice, the soaking water from dried shellfish or mushrooms, or a strip of kombu steeped in hot water.
Score whatever you use in a crosshatch. Cutting a shallow diamond pattern into king oyster mushroom, squid or a thick slice of conch does three things: it helps the piece curl attractively the way abalone does, it lets the sauce penetrate a dense ingredient, and it shortens the cooking time so the outside does not toughen while the middle catches up. Cut about a third of the way through and no deeper.
For Korean abalone porridge, treat the two jobs separately. In that dish abalone contributes sweet seafood flavour to the rice and a firm bite in the spoon. Scallops or clams handle the flavour beautifully, and the green abalone innards that traditionally colour the porridge can be approximated with a spoonful of toasted sesame oil and a little chopped perilla or spinach. Add the shellfish only in the last two minutes so it does not toughen in the long-cooked rice.
Slice against the grain and slice thin. Abalone and every dense mollusc on this list have a directional muscle structure, and a two-millimetre slice cut across it is tender where a five-millimetre slice cut along it is chewy. This single knife decision matters more than any marinade, and it is the usual reason a substitute feels rubbery when the recipe promised otherwise.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best substitute for abalone?

For most dishes, thick slices of king oyster mushroom stem, scored in a crosshatch and braised in oyster sauce. That sounds unlikely until you understand that abalone is prized above all for a dense, springy, faintly crunchy texture that no other seafood really has, and the mushroom stem does have it. If you want actual shellfish, large scallops sliced into discs match the sweet clean flavour, and conch, whelk or geoduck match the chew. Which one you pick depends on whether the recipe was buying abalone for its bite or for its flavour.

Can I use canned abalone instead of fresh, and does it need cooking?

Yes, canned abalone is what the great majority of home cooks and many restaurants use, and it is already fully tender, so it only needs warming through at the end of a dish. Simmering it hard for twenty minutes will make it tough, which is the most common mistake. Slice it thinly, add it in the final two or three minutes, and use the liquid from the tin in the sauce. Dried abalone is a different proposition altogether, requiring days of soaking and hours of braising, and it is not interchangeable with the canned kind.

Can I just leave the abalone out?

Often yes, more easily than with most expensive ingredients, because abalone's flavour contribution is subtle. A braise of mushrooms, chicken and greens in oyster sauce is delicious without it, and it is essentially what an abalone braise tastes like anyway. What you lose is the springy bite and the sense of occasion. If you leave it out, add something with structure in its place, such as king oyster mushroom, bamboo shoots, wood ear or rehydrated shiitake, and make sure the sauce carries some shellfish depth from oyster sauce or dried shrimp.

Why does my abalone or substitute turn out rubbery?

Almost always because it was cooked for the wrong length of time rather than at the wrong temperature. Abalone, conch, whelk and squid are all tender within the first minute, then tighten into rubber for a long stretch, then relax again after an hour or more of gentle braising. Five to fifteen minutes of cooking is the worst possible choice. Either flash-cook it in a very hot pan for under a minute, or braise it low and slow for well over an hour. Slicing thinly across the grain also makes a large difference.

Are king oyster mushrooms really used as vegan abalone?

Yes, and it is a long-standing practice in Chinese vegetarian and Buddhist cooking rather than a modern internet trick. The thick stem is cut into rounds, scored, seared and braised, and the result has a genuinely comparable dense springy bite. Because the mushroom brings earthiness instead of sea sweetness, the braising liquid does the heavy lifting: a vegan version usually leans on soy sauce, mushroom seasoning, a piece of kombu and a splash of Shaoxing wine, while a non-vegan one uses oyster sauce and stock.

Related substitutes

More seafood substitutes

Abalone substitute

Other abalone substitutes

2Large sea scallops, sliced into discs

3Conch, whelk or periwinkle

4Geoduck or surf clam (hokkigai)

5Squid or cuttlefish, scored

6Dried oysters or dried scallops (conpoy), soaked