Kippers substitutes

Ready-to-eat hot-smoked oily fish fillets, sold vacuum-packed in every supermarket and already cooked through, so they cover all three of the things a kipper contributes: salt, smoke and enough natural oil to make rice or potatoes taste rich.

Best for

kedgeree, pate, fishcakes, salads

The nearest thing in a normal supermarket. It is oilier and richer than a kipper but less salty and less sharply smoky, so a kedgeree made with it tastes rounder and softer rather than bracing. There is nothing to cook, so fold it in at the end off the heat.

Cold-smoked white fish, cured the same way a kipper is and therefore needing to be cooked, but firm, lean and pale rather than oily, which makes it the smoke-and-salt half of a kipper without the richness.

Best for

kedgeree, fish pie, poaching in milk, chowder

Actually the classic kedgeree fish, so this is a swap with a pedigree. It is much leaner and whiter, which makes the dish cleaner and lighter but noticeably less rich; add an extra knob of butter to compensate. Poach it in milk for 5 to 6 minutes, then flake. Avoid the bright yellow dyed sort if you can.

The same kippered herring, already cooked in the tin and packed in oil or brine, so the salt, smoke and oil are all exactly right and only the firmness has gone.

Best for

pate, kedgeree, toast, fishcakes

Identical flavour, so this is the closest option of all, but the texture is soft and wet rather than firm, and the fillets break apart when you handle them. Fine wherever the fish gets flaked or mashed; wrong for a plated breakfast where you want a whole fish with butter melting into it.

Milder hot-smoked fish, already cooked and easy to flake into large pieces, with the right oiliness and texture but only a fraction of a kipper's salt and smoke.

Best for

kedgeree, pate, salads, scrambled eggs

The gentlest option and the one to pick if kippers are too strong for the people you are feeding. It is sweeter, much less salty and far less smoky, so add a good pinch of salt, a squeeze of lemon and, if you want the smoke back, a quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika.

The same herring, cured and smoked by slightly different methods across Britain and northern Europe, so the salt-and-smoke balance a kipper provides arrives more or less intact whichever one you find.

Best for

breakfast, kedgeree, pate, rye bread and butter

Same fish, same job, so use them interchangeably. Buckling is hot-smoked and therefore ready to eat; bloaters are lightly salted and whole-smoked, so they taste gamier and stronger. Dutch and Scandinavian smoked herring will do the job too.

Small oily tinned fish that stand in for the oiliness and some of the salt but bring none of the oak smoke, which is why the smoked paprika is part of the ratio rather than an optional extra.

Best for

pate, toast, fishcakes

The store-cupboard fallback. The oiliness is right and sprats in particular are often smoked already, but plain sardines need help: add smoked paprika, and salt to taste since kippers are much saltier. The flesh is softer and more mineral, so mash rather than flake.