Kassler substitute

Best substitute

Smoked pork chops or smoked pork loin

Use the same amount as the kassler you are replacing

Best for Kassler mit Sauerkraut

Close match

Ask for smoked pork chops or smoked pork loin, which in most English-speaking countries is the identical product under a plainer name, and use it 1:1. A thick-cut ham steak or gammon steak is the next best thing at 1:1 and works well in sauerkraut and pea soup, though it is wetter and sweeter. For long-simmered pots, a smoked ham hock gives you the same salt-and-smoke backbone. If you can only get fresh pork loin, understand what you are giving up: Kassler is cured, which is what makes it pink, springy and savoury all the way through, and fresh pork will taste like roast pork rather than like ham no matter what you do to it. Salt it a day ahead and add smoked paprika to get as close as you can.

Other kassler substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Thick-cut ham steak or gammon steak
Different texture
Use the same amount
Cured pork leg cut into slabs, sold raw or ready cooked depending on the shop.
What changes
Best for
sauerkraut pots, pea, bean and lentil soup, cabbage dishes, with mashed potato and mustard, quick weeknight versions of German one-pots
Prep. If using raw gammon, simmer it in the sauerkraut or soup for 30 to 40 minutes; if precooked, add it in the last 15.
The everywhere-available answer. It is cured, so you keep the pink colour, the springy bite and the ham-like savouriness that makes the dish taste right. What changes is that leg is leaner and finer-grained than loin, the brine is usually sweeter, and most ham steaks are only lightly smoked or not smoked at all, so the dish comes out rounder and sweeter and less woody. Add a quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika to the pot per 500 g of meat and it closes most of the gap. Unsmoked gammon is worth seeking out if you want to control the smoke yourself.
3Smoked ham hock or smoked pork shank
Different texture
Use 1 hock for every 500 g of Kassler called for
Cured and smoked lower leg, full of bone, skin and connective tissue.
What changes
Best for
sauerkraut simmered for an hour or more, split pea and lentil soup, bean pots, braised cabbage, stock and broth
Prep. Simmer 90 minutes to two hours, then strip the meat and return it to the pot.
For anything that simmers, this is arguably better than Kassler, because the bone and collagen give the pot a body and glossiness that a lean loin cannot. It delivers exactly the same salt and smoke. The catch is service: a hock yields much less sliceable meat, and what it does yield comes off in shreds rather than in neat pink slices, so a recipe that means to plate a chop next to potatoes will not work. It also needs 90 minutes to two hours, where Kassler needs 20. Pull the meat off the bone, discard the skin, and stir the shreds back in.
4Canadian bacon or back bacon
Different texture
Use the same amount by weight
Cured, lightly smoked pork loin sliced thin, the same cut and cure as Kassler in a different format.
What changes
Best for
quick sauerkraut pans, soups where the meat is diced, potato and cabbage fry-ups, sandwich versions of the dish
Prep. Cut into strips or cubes and add in the last five minutes of cooking.
Same cut, same idea, different thickness. It is cured loin, so the flavour is genuinely in the right family, and it is cheap and everywhere. Because it is sliced thin and trimmed very lean, it cannot stand in for a chop on a plate, and it overcooks in a couple of minutes, turning tight and rubbery. It is also usually milder and sweeter than German Kassler. Dice it, add it late, and use the pan fat.
5Fresh pork loin chops, salted ahead and helped with smoke
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight, plus 1 tsp salt per 500 g and ½ tsp smoked paprika
Uncured pork, seasoned to imitate some of what the cure was doing.
What changes
Best for
when nothing cured is available, sauerkraut and cabbage dishes, roast pork with potatoes, cooks avoiding nitrites
Prep. Dry-salt overnight, sear, then add late so it does not overcook.
This is the least-bad option rather than a good one, and it is worth saying plainly why. Curing does three things fresh pork cannot fake: it sets the colour pink, it makes the protein firm and springy so the meat stays juicy through a long simmer, and it builds a deep savoury ham flavour. Fresh loin will be grey-white, will taste like roast pork, and will go dry and stringy if you simmer it as long as you would simmer Kassler. To get as close as possible, salt the chops with a teaspoon of salt per 500 g and leave them uncovered in the fridge overnight, brown them properly for colour and flavour, then add them to the pot for only the last 20 minutes. Stir smoked paprika into the cooking liquid, or add a small piece of smoked bacon to the pot to lend real smoke. Do not attempt to improvise a nitrite cure at home from a half-remembered ratio; curing salts are dosed by weight for safety reasons, so if you want to cure your own, follow a tested recipe exactly.
6Smoked turkey thigh or smoked turkey drumstick
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Cured and smoked poultry, widely sold and often the only smoked meat in a supermarket that is not pork.
What changes
Best for
sauerkraut pots, pea and bean soups, greens and cabbage, cooks who do not eat pork
Prep. Simmer 45 to 60 minutes, strip the meat from the bone, return it to the pot.
For anyone avoiding pork, this is the practical choice, and in a long-simmered sauerkraut or pea soup it performs surprisingly well because it is genuinely cured and genuinely smoked, so the salt and smoke are real rather than imitated. It is leaner and its flavour is lighter and slightly sweeter, and it lacks the pork fat that normally rounds out these dishes, so the pot can taste a little thin. Add a spoonful of butter or a drizzle of oil at the end. As with a hock, the meat shreds rather than slices, so it suits pots more than plates.

What is Kassler?

Kassler is Kassler, also spelled Kasseler and sold as Kasseler Rippchen when it is cut into chops, is pork loin or rib that has been brine-cured with curing salt and then lightly smoked, so it comes out of the pack already pink, salty, faintly smoky and essentially cooked through.

Cooking tips

Kassler is sold already cooked, so your job is to warm it, not to cook it. Twenty minutes in simmering sauerkraut or fifteen in a covered pan with a splash of stock is plenty. Treated like a raw chop and seared hard or roasted for an hour, it turns dry, tight and salty, which is the most common complaint about the dish and is almost always the cook's fault rather than the meat's.
Taste before you salt anything. Kassler and every cured substitute for it are already carrying a lot of salt, and they release it into the pot. Season sauerkraut, soup or potatoes only after the meat has been in for a while, or you will end up with something inedible.
The cooking liquid is the best part of the dish, so do not throw it away. Simmering Kassler in sauerkraut or with cabbage and apple leaves you with a salty, smoky, faintly sour liquid that is exactly what you want to spoon over mashed potato. If you use a substitute that is less smoky, such as a ham steak, stir a quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika into that liquid rather than rubbing it on the meat.
If the meat is too salty, blanch it. Cover the chops or the ham steak with cold water, bring it just to a simmer, drain, then carry on with the recipe. This pulls out a surprising amount of salt without doing much to the smoke or the texture, and it is the standard fix for a very heavily cured piece.
Buy it by appearance, not by name. Whatever the label says, cured smoked loin is uniformly rose-pink right through the raw cut and feels firm and slightly springy. Fresh pork loin is pale pinkish-grey and soft. That one visual check tells you whether you have found the right product, in any country and any language.

Frequently asked questions

What exactly is Kassler and why can I not find it?

Kassler, also written Kasseler, is pork loin or pork rib that has been cured in a salt brine and then lightly smoked, which is why it is pink and firm rather than pale and soft. When it is cut into chops it is called Kasseler Rippchen. The reason you cannot find it is almost always the name rather than the product: outside German-speaking countries the same thing is sold as smoked pork chops or smoked pork loin, and Polish, Czech and German delis all stock it. If your supermarket has smoked pork chops in the chilled section, you have found Kassler.

Can I use a normal pork chop instead of Kassler?

You can make a good dinner, but it will not taste like the recipe. A fresh chop has never been cured, so it cooks up grey-white instead of pink, tastes like roast pork instead of ham, and dries out badly if you simmer it as long as Kassler needs. To get as close as you can: salt the chops a day in advance, about a teaspoon per 500 g, and leave them uncovered on a rack in the fridge; brown them well; add smoked paprika or a piece of smoked bacon to the pot for the smoke; and put the chops in for only the last twenty minutes so they stay juicy.

Can I just leave the meat out of Kassler mit Sauerkraut?

The dish is named after the meat, so no, not without changing what you are making. What you would be losing is salt, smoke and fat, which together are what stop long-cooked sauerkraut tasting harsh and sour. If you want a meat-free version, build those three back: cook the sauerkraut with plenty of butter or oil, a diced onion browned properly, a peeled grated apple for sweetness, and half a teaspoon of smoked paprika or a small amount of smoked salt. It becomes a good vegetarian braised sauerkraut, which is a nice thing, rather than a version of Kassler.

Is Kassler the same as ham?

It is made the same way but from a different cut, which is why the substitution is so easy. Ham is cured leg; Kassler is cured loin or rib. Loin is a single lean muscle with a fat cap, so Kassler comes out as a chop with a coarser, meatier grain, while ham leg is finer-textured and often sweeter because leg brines tend to carry sugar. In practical terms a thick ham steak will do almost everything Kassler does in a pot, and the differences you will notice are that it is a little sweeter, a little softer and usually less smoky.

What is the best Kassler substitute for pea soup or lentil soup?

A smoked ham hock, and in this one application it is better than Kassler rather than merely acceptable. Soups want the bone, the skin and the collagen, which turn the broth silky in a way a lean cured loin cannot, and the hock gives exactly the same salt and smoke. Simmer it in the soup for 90 minutes to two hours, lift it out, strip and chop the meat, discard the skin and bone, and stir the meat back in at the end. A ham steak diced small is the fast alternative if you only have half an hour.

Related substitutes

More meat & protein substitutes

Kassler substitute

Other kassler substitutes

2Thick-cut ham steak or gammon steak

3Smoked ham hock or smoked pork shank

4Canadian bacon or back bacon

5Fresh pork loin chops, salted ahead and helped with smoke

6Smoked turkey thigh or smoked turkey drumstick