Pike substitutes

The nearest fish to pike in both flavour and behaviour, and the standard swap in European and Midwestern kitchens alike.

Best for

quenelles, fish balls and dumplings, gefilte fish, pan-frying, fish terrines

Same clean, faintly sweet freshwater flavour and the same lean, firm flesh, with the enormous practical advantage of ordinary pin bones instead of pike's forked Y-bones. Ground walleye binds nearly as tightly as pike, so a quenelle mixture needs no adjustment. It is also better than pike as a plain pan-fried fillet, since there is nothing to pick out at the table.

The other traditional gefilte fish and fish-dumpling fish - lean, sweet and reliably sticky when ground.

Best for

gefilte fish, quenelles, fish balls, poached fish loaves, fish cakes

Whitefish is slightly softer and a little fattier than pike, which makes the finished dumpling marginally richer and more tender rather than springy. In gefilte fish it is often used alongside pike and carp precisely for that softness. Grind it cold, keep the bowl over ice, and it binds without any extra egg.

Available everywhere and usable, but wetter and less naturally tacky than pike.

Best for

quenelles, fish balls, gefilte fish, fish cakes, poached fish loaves

These carry considerably more water than pike, so a mixture made with them can slump instead of setting into a light dumpling. Two fixes, and use both: press the ground fish in a sieve or squeeze it in a clean towel to drive off free water, and add one extra egg white per pound of fish, or a tablespoon of matzo meal, to tighten the bind. Flavour is milder and less sweet - correct with a little more onion, white pepper and salt.

The other classic gefilte fish - richer, more gelatinous and noticeably stronger tasting.

Best for

gefilte fish, fish balls, poached fish loaves, braised whole fish

Carp is fattier and more gelatinous than pike, so a mixture made with it sets very firmly and the poaching liquid jells strongly on cooling - which many people consider the point of gefilte fish. The flavour is fuller and can be faintly muddy depending on where the fish came from; extra onion, sugar and pepper is the traditional correction. Most classic recipes use a blend of pike, whitefish and carp, so substituting one for another shifts the balance rather than breaking the dish.

Expensive, but the finest-textured quenelle you will make outside of pike itself.

Best for

quenelles, fish mousse, terrines, poached dumplings

Halibut is lean and firm like pike and grinds to a smooth, pale, well-behaved paste, so a quenelle mixture holds without extra egg. The flavour is cleaner and less sweet than pike, so the sauce - a Nantua or a crayfish butter in the classic version - carries more of the character. Cost is the only real objection; a pound of halibut for a batch of dumplings is a serious outlay.

Very firm and slightly sweet, giving a denser and chewier result than pike does.

Best for

fish balls, fish terrines, stews, skewers

Monkfish is the densest of these options, so a ground mixture sets solid and a dumpling made from it eats more like a fish meatball than a light quenelle. That suits Asian-style fish balls and firm terrines very well and suits a delicate quenelle de brochet less well. It is boneless, which makes it easy to work with, and it is sweeter than cod.