Raki substitute

Substitutes for Raki with ratios

1. 2Arak

   Close match

   Use the same amount

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

   What changes

   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.

2. 3Pernod or pastis

   Close match

   Use the same amount

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

   What changes

   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.

3. 4Sambuca or anisette

   Different taste

   ¾ the amount, topped up with water to the full volume

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

   What changes

   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.

4. 5Vodka or another neutral spirit steeped with aniseed

   Close match

   2 tbsp vodka + ¼ tsp crushed aniseed or fennel seed, steeped 10 minutes and strained

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

   What changes

   Best for

   deglazing and pan sauces, marinades, flambe, seafood

   This does raki's alcohol job perfectly, 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.

5. 6Aniseed or fennel-seed tea, for an alcohol-free version

   Different texture

   1 tsp crushed seed steeped in 2 tbsp boiling water for 10 minutes, strained, used 1:1

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

   What changes

   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.

6. 7The honest case for drinking raki

   Close match

   Least-bad option: ouzo or arak, poured over ice and topped with cold water

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

   What changes

   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.