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Salmon Roe substitute

Best substitute

Trout roe

Use the same amount by volume as the salmon roe you are replacing

Best for sushi and hand rolls

Close match

Trout roe is the best substitute for salmon roe and swaps measure for measure, with slightly smaller beads, a milder flavour and usually a lower price. Any large orange roe from the same family, including steelhead and rainbow trout roe, does the same job. If all you can get is small roe such as tobiko or masago, use it one for one by volume and accept that you get crunch and salt instead of the big oily burst that is the whole point of ikura.

Other salmon roe substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Salmon Roe with ratios

  1. 2Steelhead or rainbow trout roe

    Close match

    Use the same amount by volume

    Effectively the same product under a different label, since steelhead is a sea-run rainbow trout.

    What changes
    Best for
    sushi, poke bowls, canapes, brunch plates

    Near-identical in size, colour and burst. If a fishmonger has it, buy it without hesitating. Some producers cure it more heavily in soy, which makes it darker and saltier, so taste one bead before you spoon it over anything already seasoned.

  2. 3Tobiko (flying fish roe)

    Different texture

    Use the same amount by volume

    The widely available small roe, right on flavour and wrong on scale.

    What changes
    Best for
    sushi rolls, poke bowls, sushi bake, canapes

    You keep the salinity and the orange colour but lose the burst completely; tobiko crunches instead. On a roll or in a bowl with several other toppings that is a fine trade. On a bowl of rice where three spoons of ikura are the entire dish, it does not carry it.

  3. 4Lumpfish caviar or masago

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by volume

    The supermarket-jar option when no Japanese grocery is nearby.

    What changes
    Best for
    canapes, blini, deviled eggs, creamy dips, potato salad

    Much smaller and much saltier, and lumpfish roe is dyed, so rinse it in a fine sieve and drain it on kitchen paper before use. Works well where the roe sits on something rich and creamy that can absorb the extra salt, and looks wrong where the recipe wanted glossy amber pearls.

  4. 5Finely diced gravlax or hot-smoked salmon

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by volume

    The no-roe option that still delivers salt, salmon oil and orange colour.

    What changes
    Best for
    blini, canapes, poke bowls, brunch plates, rice bowls

    Chop it to roughly pea size and scatter it where the roe would have gone. You get the salt, the fat and the colour, and you lose the pop and the clean briny snap entirely. Smoked salmon also brings smoke, which is either a bonus or a distraction depending on the recipe.

  5. 6Vegan roe pearls made with agar or alginate

    Different taste

    Use the same amount by volume

    Sold at some specialist grocers as seaweed caviar or vegan pearls, and the only honest plant-based option.

    What changes
    Best for
    vegan sushi, vegan canapes, plant-based poke bowls

    These genuinely burst, which nothing else plant-based does, and they look convincing. What they lack is the fat: the burst is watery and mildly seaweedy rather than rich and salty. A drop of soy sauce and a little sesame oil in the dish underneath helps.

What is Salmon Roe?

Salmon Roe is large translucent orange salmon eggs cured in salt or in a salt, soy and sake brine, sold as ikura in Japanese shops and as red caviar or keta caviar elsewhere, and it is in a dish for the burst of salty, oily brine it adds rather than for any bulk.

Cooking tips

  • Never let salmon roe get warm. Heat turns the eggs cloudy and rubbery in seconds, so it goes onto a hot rice bowl at the table, not into the pan, and onto blini after they have cooled from the griddle.
  • It is salty enough to season the dish it sits on. Under-season the rice, the creme fraiche or the potato underneath and let the roe do the work.
  • Use a plastic, wooden or horn spoon rather than metal. A metal spoon leaves a faintly tinny taste on delicate roe, and the convention costs you nothing to follow.
  • Sujiko is the whole cured sac, not loose eggs, and it is much saltier and firmer. Slice it thin and serve it as a salty accent with rice rather than treating it as a spoonable ikura substitute.
  • If you buy fresh skeins and cure them yourself at home, the result is a fresh refrigerated preparation to be eaten within a couple of days, not a shelf-stable preserve. Keep it cold and do not can it or store it at room temperature.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave salmon roe out?

Usually yes, since ikura is nearly always a garnish rather than a structural ingredient. A poke bowl or a blini still works without it. What disappears is the burst of salt and oil that punctuates each bite, so add a little flaky salt and a squeeze of lemon, or a scattering of finely diced smoked salmon, to keep the dish from tasting flat.

What is the difference between salmon roe and caviar?

Caviar in the strict sense is sturgeon roe: small, grey to black, delicate and expensive. Salmon roe is much larger, bright orange, and tastes distinctly of salt and salmon oil. Many shops label salmon roe as red caviar, which is where the confusion comes from. For most home recipes they are not interchangeable, because ikura's big bursting beads are doing something the tiny sturgeon eggs do not.

Is trout roe really as good as ikura?

For nearly every home use, yes. It is a little smaller and a little milder, but it bursts the same way and looks the same on a plate, and it usually costs less. The place you would notice the difference is a plain bowl of rice with roe and nothing else, where ikura's extra richness matters.

Why did my salmon roe go pale and chalky?

It got too hot, or it was frozen and thawed more than once. Both cook or damage the membrane, which is what lets the egg burst cleanly. Buy it chilled or frozen once, thaw it slowly in the fridge, and keep it cold right up to serving.

Is mentaiko or cod roe a substitute for salmon roe?

Not really, because they behave completely differently. Mentaiko and cod roe are fine-grained roe still in the sac, which you scrape out and stir into butter or cream to make a sauce. Salmon roe stays as separate beads that burst. If your recipe wants glossy pearls on top of something, cod roe is the wrong tool.

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