John Dory substitutes

The nearest everyday match - firm, sweet, fine-flaked, and sold as similarly thin fillets.

Best for

pan-frying, roasting fillets, butter and caper sauces, en papillote, Mediterranean recipes

Bream is a shade less sweet and its flake is slightly coarser, which no one at the table will notice under a sauce. Fillets are close in thickness, so keep the cooking time the same: 2-3 minutes skin side down, a minute on the flesh side. If you buy the fish whole, remember bream yields more usable flesh than John Dory does, so 2 lb of whole bream feeds more people than 2 lb of whole John Dory.

The proper high-end substitute - firmer, sweeter and slightly gelatinous, which is a genuine upgrade.

Best for

restaurant-style fillets, roasting on the bone, beurre blanc, poaching

Turbot has the same reputation, the same price bracket and the same ability to sit under a butter sauce without collapsing. The flesh is richer and has more natural gelatin, so it stays moist even if you leave it a minute too long - the opposite of John Dory, which turns dry quickly. Brill is turbot's cheaper relative and behaves almost identically.

Widely available and equally firm, but leaner and drier with a plainer flavour.

Best for

pan-searing, roasting, grilling, butter sauces

Halibut holds its shape as well as John Dory does, which is the main thing a delicate recipe needs. What it lacks is the sweetness, and it punishes overcooking harder than almost any white fish - a halibut fillet goes from just right to chalky in about 60 seconds. Halibut fillets are usually thicker, so allow 4-6 minutes a side and pull it while the very centre is still barely translucent.

Firm, slightly more assertive fish that behave well with skin on and crisp up beautifully.

Best for

crisp skin fillets, pan-frying, Asian-style steamed or fried fish, grilling

Both are a step up in flavour intensity: snapper has a distinct savoury note and barramundi is a touch richer and oilier, so a very delicate sauce like a beurre blanc will be slightly overshadowed. Both have thicker fillets and tougher skin than John Dory, which is an advantage if you want a crisp skin and a disadvantage if you wanted the fish to disappear into the sauce.

The right thinness and delicacy, but noticeably softer and easier to break.

Best for

meuniere, shallow frying, delicate butter sauces, rolled fillets

These match John Dory's thin fillet and mild sweetness but not its firmness - where a John Dory fillet lifts out of the pan in one piece, a plaice fillet may not. Turn them once only, with a wide spatula, and cut a minute off the cooking time. Flavour is close enough that a sauce hides the difference completely.

Not remotely the same fish, but it is what most people find when they go looking for dory - so here is how to make it work.

Best for

battered or breaded fish, curries, stews where the sauce leads

Cream dory, river cobbler and basa are all pangasius, a farmed freshwater catfish. It is soft, holds a lot of water and tastes considerably flatter, sometimes faintly muddy. Thaw fully, press dry, salt for 15 minutes to firm the flesh, and cook it in something with a coating or a strong sauce. It cannot carry a plain butter-and-lemon treatment the way real John Dory does.