Raki substitutes

The Greek member of the same family: a clear grape-based anise spirit that louches white with water.

Best for

seafood and shellfish dishes, deglazing a pan, flambe, marinades for fish, desserts and syrups

The nearest thing on a normal liquor shelf and the easiest swap to make. The difference is sugar: most ouzo is lightly sweetened while raki is not, so a savoury sauce made with ouzo tastes marginally sweeter and softer, and a dessert may need slightly less sugar than the recipe says. Anise intensity varies between brands more than the difference between the two spirits does.

The Levantine equivalent, a dry grape spirit heavily flavoured with aniseed and often bottled at a higher strength than raki.

Best for

fish and seafood, flambe, deglazing, long-cooked lamb dishes, sipping with meze

Functionally interchangeable, and unsweetened like raki, which makes it the most accurate swap of all in savoury cooking. Arak is often stronger and can carry a slightly more resinous, drier anise character, so it flames more readily and reduces harder in the pan. Add it off the heat and stand back if you are flaming it, since a higher-proof spirit ignites faster.

French anise spirits built on anise plus fennel and other botanicals rather than on grape distillate alone.

Best for

seafood stews and mussels, cream and butter sauces, deglazing, cocktails, fennel and tomato dishes

Both louche cloudy with water exactly as raki does, so they behave the same way in a pan. Pernod is drier, more herbal and faintly bitter with a yellow-green colour that will tint a pale sauce, and pastis leans sweeter and closer to raki's register. Either makes a dish taste slightly more complex and less purely aniseed, which in a fish stew is usually an improvement rather than a compromise.

Italian and French anise liqueurs: the right flavour family carrying a great deal of added sugar.

Best for

desserts and syrups, pan sauces for shellfish, cocktails, soaking cakes

Poured in at 1:1 these make a savoury sauce taste candied, because raki is bone dry and these are sweet liqueurs. Use three-quarters the amount, make up the volume with water, and reduce sugar elsewhere in the recipe. In a dessert they are close to ideal and you can go straight 1:1 if you cut the recipe's sugar by a teaspoon or two per tablespoon used.

Building the flavour yourself when you have spirits but no anise bottle.

Best for

deglazing and pan sauces, marinades, flambe, seafood

This does raki's alcohol job well, and the steeped seed gives a clean, honest anise aroma that is less perfumed and less sweet than the real thing. It will not louche, so a sauce stays clear rather than turning faintly milky, and the flavour is one-dimensional next to a distilled anise spirit. Crush the seeds first with the flat of a knife, and strain well or you will find seeds in the sauce.

The best non-alcoholic answer, and a genuinely good one in most cooked dishes.

Best for

marinades for fish, sauces and braises, dessert syrups, cooking for anyone avoiding alcohol

The aroma comes through clearly and it costs almost nothing. What you lose is the alcohol's work: it will not flame, it deglazes less effectively because water lifts fewer of the browned compounds than spirit does, and it lacks the slight bite that raki leaves in a sauce. Add a squeeze of lemon to sharpen it, and reduce the sauce a little longer to make up for the extra water. Some brands of non-alcoholic anise aperitif also exist and work well in cocktails.

If the raki is not going into a pan but into a glass beside grilled fish and meze, the substitution question narrows.

Best for

setting expectations, choosing a bottle

Arak and ouzo are the only two spirits that reproduce the experience: high strength, dry or near-dry, and the same milky louche when water hits them. Pastis is close but noticeably more herbal. Sambuca is far too sweet to drink through a long meal, and a vodka infusion, while fine in cooking, tastes thin and homemade in a glass. This entry is about alcohol as a drink, so it applies only to adults choosing to drink.