Boquerones substitute

Best substitute

Pickled Herring, Drained and Sliced

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

Best for pintxos and tapas

Different taste

Before you pick a swap, know what the fish is doing: a boqueron is mild, soft and mostly acid and salt, there to cut through olive oil, bread and potato, not to deliver the concentrated umami of a brown salt-cured anchovy. So reach for another vinegar-cured fish, not a stronger one. Drained pickled herring sliced into strips is the best supermarket swap and works 1:1 by weight. Italian alici marinate is the same preparation on a slightly larger fish and needs no adjustment at all. Brown salt-cured anchovies can work if you soak them in cold water for 15 minutes and re-dress them with vinegar and oil, but use half as many, because otherwise the anchovy becomes the flavour of the dish instead of a bright note in it.

Other boquerones substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Alici Marinate or Marinated Fresh Sardines
Close match
Use the same amount
The Italian version of the same vinegar-marinated small fish.
What changes
Best for
antipasti, tapas, bruschetta, salads
Effectively the same product under a different name, sold in tubs in Italian delis, and often literally the same fish. Marinated sardines are a shade oilier and stronger. Both are interchangeable with boquerones with no adjustment at all.
3Salt-Cured Anchovy Fillets, Soaked and Re-Dressed
Taste and texture differ
Half the number of fillets
Ordinary brown anchovies in oil, soaked to draw out salt then marinated in vinegar.
What changes
Best for
pintxos, salads, on bread with tomato
Soak the fillets in cold water for 10 to 15 minutes, pat dry, then dress with a teaspoon of white wine vinegar and a tablespoon of olive oil per six fillets and rest for 30 minutes. They will still be browner, saltier and much more assertive, so the dish tastes of anchovy rather than of vinegar, olive oil and fresh fish. Use half as many and do not salt the plate.
4Pickled or Soused Mackerel
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Vinegar-cured mackerel fillets, oilier and more robust.
What changes
Best for
on toast, potato salad, open sandwiches
Right cure, bigger and much oilier fish. It stands up well to bread, potato and egg, but it will dominate a delicate pintxo, so cut the pieces small. The flavour is noticeably more fishy and rich than a boqueron's clean tang.
5Thin Strips of Sea Bass or Bream in Vinegar
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight
Fresh white fish sliced thin and dressed with vinegar and salt for 20 minutes.
What changes
Best for
fresh tapas plates, salads, crudo-style dishes
Covers the fresh, tangy, soft-textured role and looks the part on a plate. What is missing is any cured depth or oily richness at all, so it tastes clean and sweet rather than savoury. Salt it properly and dress it generously with good olive oil. Use fish your supplier sells for raw consumption.
6Chopped Capers With Good Olive Oil
Taste and texture differ
Use 1 tsp chopped capers for every 2 fillets
A flavour-only stand-in for the brine and acid, with no fish at all.
What changes
Best for
salads, dressings, topping toast or potatoes
Worth knowing when boquerones are a garnish rather than the point. Capers deliver the sharp, briny, vinegary hit and none of the softness, richness or fish flavour, so a salad still tastes bright but not remotely of the sea. Add a little extra olive oil to make up for the missing fat.

What is Boquerones?

Boquerones is Boquerones are the Spanish tapas staple of fresh anchovy fillets cured in vinegar and salt rather than salt alone, so they stay white, soft and tangy instead of turning brown and intensely savoury, and their job on the plate is a soft, mild hit of acid and salt that cuts through olive oil, bread and potato rather than the concentrated umami a brown salt-cured anchovy delivers.

Cooking tips

Do not cook them. Heat turns boquerones grey and mushy almost immediately. They are a cold or room-temperature ingredient, and any recipe that has them near a pan is really asking for salt-cured anchovies instead.
Match the cure, not the fish. Any small oily fish cured in vinegar and salt behaves like a boqueron: soft, white, tangy and mild. Any fish cured in salt alone, however good, is a different ingredient with three or four times the savoury punch, and swapping it in one for one will flatten everything else on the plate.
Take them out of the fridge 15 minutes before serving. Straight from cold the olive oil is cloudy and half-set and the flavour is muted; at room temperature the oil clears and the fish tastes twice as good.
If the tub tastes flat or tinny, rinse the fillets, pat them dry and dress them again with fresh olive oil, a sliced clove of garlic and chopped parsley. That is how most tapas bars serve them and it takes five minutes.
Pair them with something starchy and something sweet, because they are almost all acid and salt. Bread, boiled potato, hard-boiled egg, roasted red pepper and green olives are all classic pintxo partners for exactly that reason.
They are a fresh product, not a preserve: keep them chilled, keep them submerged in their oil, and eat them within a few days of opening.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between boquerones and anchovies?

Both are the same fish, cured two different ways. Boquerones are cured in vinegar and salt for a short time, staying white, soft and tangy, and they are eaten whole as a tapa. The brown anchovies in tins and jars are packed in salt for months, which makes them dark, intensely savoury and salty enough to dissolve into a sauce. They are not interchangeable without adjustment.

Can I use tinned anchovies instead of boquerones?

You can get surprisingly close. Soak the fillets in cold water for 10 to 15 minutes to pull out salt, pat them dry, then marinate them in white wine vinegar and olive oil for half an hour. They stay browner and stronger, so use about half as many as the recipe asks for and do not add extra salt.

Are boquerones raw?

They are cured rather than cooked. The vinegar and salt firm the flesh and turn it white, which is a chemical rather than a heat process. That is why they have a short chilled shelf life and are sold in the fridge rather than on a shelf.

What are boquerones actually adding to a dish?

Acid, salt and a soft, fatty mouthful, in about that order. On a pintxo they are the sharp element that stops bread, potato, egg or roasted pepper tasting heavy, and the olive oil they sit in carries that brightness across the whole bite. That is why the good substitutes are other vinegar-cured fish rather than stronger anchovies: if you swap in something that leads with savoury depth instead of tang, the dish loses its lift even though it still tastes of fish.

Can I make boquerones at home?

It is traditional, but there is a food-safety step you must not skip. Vinegar does not kill parasites, so commercial producers freeze the anchovies solid first, and home cooks should do the same: freeze the fresh fish for several days before marinating. Follow a tested recipe as written and do not reduce the vinegar or the salt, since the cure is what makes the fish safe to eat and keeps it that way.

Can I just leave them out?

If they are one item on a tapas spread, yes, and nothing else changes. If the dish is boquerones themselves, or a salad built around their acid and salt, then no: use drained pickled herring, which is the nearest supermarket product, or add capers and extra olive oil to keep the brightness even though the fish is gone.

Related substitutes

More seafood substitutes

Boquerones substitute

Other boquerones substitutes

2Alici Marinate or Marinated Fresh Sardines

3Salt-Cured Anchovy Fillets, Soaked and Re-Dressed

4Pickled or Soused Mackerel

5Thin Strips of Sea Bass or Bream in Vinegar

6Chopped Capers With Good Olive Oil