Shottsuru substitutes

Any nam pla or nuoc mam works. The dilution is not optional, since Southeast Asian fish sauces are markedly saltier and more aromatic than shottsuru.

Best for

shottsuru nabe, simmered dishes, dressings, dipping sauces

Undiluted, a good Thai fish sauce bulldozes a delicate hot pot broth and makes it taste tropical and pungent rather than clean and northern-Japanese. Diluted, the salt lands about right and the funk sits one step louder than the original, which most people find acceptable. Many Vietnamese sauces also contain added sugar, so check the label and hold back any sugar the recipe calls for.

The Amalfi sauce made by pressing salted anchovies, sold in small bottles at Italian delis. It is essentially the same category of product as shottsuru.

Best for

shottsuru nabe, simmered dishes, finishing seasoning, dressings

Genuinely the best match on this list: clean, salty, not remotely sweet, and pale rather than dark. The one difference is a slightly more pronounced anchovy note, which reads as depth rather than as a mistake. It is expensive, so use it where the seasoning is the point and use diluted fish sauce for bulk cooking.

If your Japanese grocer stocks ishiru from Ishikawa, or any bottle labelled gyosho, use it spoon for spoon.

Best for

shottsuru nabe, regional Japanese dishes, hot pot, simmered vegetables

This is a sideways move rather than a compromise. Ishiru is usually squid-based, which makes it a little rounder and faintly sweeter than sandfish shottsuru, but it goes into the same dishes in the same amounts. No adjustment needed beyond tasting the broth before you salt it.

Usukuchi is saltier and paler than regular koikuchi soy sauce, which makes it the right choice when a broth needs to stay light in color.

Best for

shottsuru nabe, clear soups, simmered dishes, cooks with no fish sauce

The salt and the pale color come out right, but the umami is soy-derived, so the broth tastes distinctly beanier and less of the sea. Drop a 2-inch strip of kombu into the pot, or a small pinch of bonito flakes, and it moves a long way back toward shottsuru. Regular dark soy sauce works too, but it will turn the broth brown.

Mash the fillet to a paste and let it dissolve into the hot broth. A pantry answer when you have neither fish sauce nor a Japanese grocer nearby.

Best for

hot pot broths, simmered dishes, braises

Fine in anything with liquid, poor in a dipping sauce where you would see and feel the specks. Flavor-wise it is oilier and more assertively anchovy than shottsuru and slightly less salty, so taste and add a pinch of salt. Strain the broth if you want it clear.

For anyone avoiding fermented fish products entirely, or cooking for someone who dislikes fish sauce.

Best for

clear soups, simmered vegetables, milder palates

This is the honest least-bad option. You get savory, salty and marine, and you do not get the long fermented backbone that gives shottsuru its depth, so the broth tastes flatter and shorter on the finish. Simmering a dried shiitake or an extra piece of kombu in the pot for 20 minutes helps considerably.