Smoked Haddock substitute

Best substitute

Smoked cod or smoked pollock

Use the same amount as the smoked haddock you are replacing

Best for kedgeree

Close match

Other white fish given the same brine-and-cold-smoke treatment, sold in the same fillet form.

Other smoked haddock substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Hot-smoked mackerel or hot-smoked trout
Taste and texture differ
About 2:3, so use two thirds by weight
Oily fish that has been smoked hot enough to cook it through, sold ready to eat.
What changes
Best for
kedgeree, fishcakes, smoked fish pate, salads, stirring into risotto, fish pie at a push
Prep. Peel off the skin, flake into large pieces, check for pin bones, and fold in off the heat at the last moment.
Widely available and genuinely useful, but it is a different ingredient and needs handling differently. It is already cooked, so it must go in at the very end, flaked, off the heat; poached alongside the other ingredients it disintegrates into shreds. It is also far oilier and much more strongly smoked than haddock, so a kedgeree made with it tastes rich and assertively smoky rather than clean and gently savoury, and mackerel in particular can dominate. Two thirds of the weight is about right. The bigger loss is that it will not flavour your poaching milk, so for cullen skink you would need to build that savoury liquid another way, with a good fish stock and a piece of smoked bacon.
3Unsmoked white fish plus salt and smoke
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount plus ½ tsp salt and ¼ tsp smoked paprika or 2 to 3 drops liquid smoke per 400g
Fresh haddock, cod, pollock, hake or whiting seasoned to imitate the cure.
What changes
Best for
fish pie, kedgeree, chowder, fishcakes, cullen skink at a stretch
Prep. Salt the fillet 30 minutes ahead, rinse and pat dry, then poach as usual. Add the smoke element to the cooking liquid, not directly onto the fish.
Say plainly what this is: an approximation, not a match, and the right one when smoked fish is simply not available where you live. Smoking a brined fillet changes its texture as well as its flavour, firming and slightly drying the flesh so it flakes into distinct dense pieces, and a fresh fillet stays softer and more delicate. What you can reproduce is the salt and the aroma. Salt the fillet lightly half an hour ahead and pat it dry, which firms it noticeably, then add smoke sparingly, because liquid smoke is potent and a heavy hand makes the dish taste like a barbecue rather than a Scottish breakfast. Smoked paprika brings colour as well, which suits kedgeree. A small piece of smoked bacon or pancetta cooked in the base of the dish is often a better route to smokiness than anything added to the fish itself.
4Cold-smoked salmon
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight, added off the heat
Salmon cured and cold-smoked, sold in thin slices or trimmings.
What changes
Best for
kedgeree, scrambled eggs, fish pie, pasta, tarts and quiches
Prep. Cut into 2cm ribbons and stir through off the heat, just before serving.
A reasonable swap in dishes where the fish is stirred through rather than poached, and smoked salmon trimmings are cheap enough to make it practical. The flavour is in the right family, salty and smoky, but salmon is richer, oilier and sweeter than haddock, so a kedgeree comes out noticeably more luxurious and less clean-tasting. Texture is the main problem: sliced smoked salmon has no flake at all and turns papery and slightly rubbery if it is cooked, so cut it into ribbons and fold it in at the end with the residual heat doing the work. It will not flavour a poaching liquid, so it is the wrong choice for cullen skink.
5Kippers or smoked herring
Taste and texture differ
About 1:2, so use half as much
Whole herring split, brined and cold-smoked, sold in fillets or in tins.
What changes
Best for
kedgeree, fish pate, breakfast dishes, when you like a strong smoked fish
Prep. Poach or grill briefly, remove skin and bones, and flake. Reduce or omit added salt in the dish.
Traditional, cheap and available almost everywhere, and honestly quite a big change. Kippers are much oilier and far more intensely smoky and salty than haddock, and they carry the distinctive strong herring flavour, so a kedgeree made with them is a robust, pungent dish that some people love and others find overwhelming. Half the weight is a sensible starting point. They are also bony, so fillet carefully or use tinned kipper fillets. If you do use them, cut back the salt elsewhere in the recipe entirely and add a good squeeze of lemon at the end, which lifts the oiliness considerably.
6Salt cod, soaked (for texture only)
Different taste
Use the same amount by soaked weight
Cod preserved in heavy salt, requiring 24 to 48 hours of soaking with several changes of water.
What changes
Best for
fish pie, chowder, fishcakes, brandade-style dishes
Prep. Soak for 24 to 48 hours in the fridge, changing the water at least four times, then poach gently and flake.
Included because it gets you the one thing that is hardest to imitate, which is the firm, dense, distinctly separated flake that comes from a cured fillet rather than a fresh one. It brings no smoke at all, so pair it with smoked bacon in the base of the dish or a few drops of liquid smoke in the poaching liquid. It is also a commitment, needing a full day or two of soaking with the water changed several times, and if you undersoak it the dish will be inedibly salty. Once soaked and poached it behaves beautifully in a fish pie or a chowder. Add no salt to the dish until you have tasted it.

What is Smoked Haddock?

Smoked Haddock is Smoked haddock is haddock fillet that has been brined and then cold-smoked, so it is salted and smoke-scented but still raw and needing to be cooked, sold either undyed and pale ivory or dyed a bright yellow, and in Scotland as split, bone-in finnan haddie.

Cooking tips

The poaching liquid is the dish, not a by-product. In cullen skink and in most kedgeree recipes the fish is gently poached in milk or water and that liquid, now smoky and savoury, becomes the base of the soup or is used to cook the rice. Whatever substitute you use, ask whether it will give up flavour to a liquid: cold-smoked fillets will, but ready-to-eat hot-smoked mackerel and sliced smoked salmon will not, so with those you need to build the savoury base separately with a good fish stock or a piece of smoked bacon.
Cold-smoked haddock is raw and must be cooked, which surprises people who have met hot-smoked mackerel first. Poach it for five to eight minutes in barely simmering liquid until it flakes easily; a full boil tightens the protein and turns it dry and stringy. Hot-smoked fish is the opposite case, being fully cooked already, so it only needs warming through at the end.
Taste before you salt, every single time. Smoked haddock is cured, and cures vary enormously between producers and even more between fish, with cheap smoked pollock often much saltier than good undyed haddock. Poach the fish, taste a flake, and only then decide how much salt the potatoes, rice or sauce need. This is the most common way a smoked fish dish goes wrong.
Buy undyed if you have the choice. The bright yellow colour on much supermarket smoked haddock is dye, not smoke, and dyed fillets are often more lightly and more quickly smoked than pale undyed ones, so they taste weaker despite looking stronger. If you are using an undyed fillet or a substitute in kedgeree and you miss the golden colour, the turmeric in the rice does that job perfectly well.
Go carefully with liquid smoke, which is much stronger than people expect. Two or three drops stirred into the poaching liquid for 400g of fish is enough to register; a quarter teaspoon will make the dish taste of a bonfire. Add it to the liquid rather than rubbing it on the fillet, so it disperses evenly, and taste as you go.

Frequently asked questions

What can I use instead of smoked haddock in kedgeree?

Smoked cod or smoked pollock at the same weight, without changing anything else, is the best answer. If you can only get hot-smoked mackerel or trout, use about two thirds of the weight and fold it in flaked at the very end rather than poaching it, since it is already cooked and much oilier; the kedgeree will taste richer and more strongly smoky. Smoked salmon trimmings also work stirred through off the heat. If you have no smoked fish at all, poach plain haddock or cod with half a teaspoon of salt and two or three drops of liquid smoke per 400g, and cook a little chopped smoked bacon into the onions at the start, which supplies smokiness more convincingly than anything you can do to the fish.

Is finnan haddie the same as smoked haddock?

It is a particular kind of it. Finnan haddie is the traditional Scottish preparation, in which the haddock is split along the backbone, left on the bone and cold-smoked, usually undyed, giving a paler and often more gently smoked fish than the boneless dyed fillets in most supermarkets. Any recipe calling for finnan haddie will work with undyed smoked haddock fillet, and vice versa. Arbroath smokies are a different thing again, being hot-smoked and therefore already cooked, so they should be flaked in at the end rather than poached.

What is the smoked haddock actually doing in the dish?

Three things. It provides salt, because it has been brined, which is why so many recipes using it add little or none. It provides smoke, an aroma that carries into whatever liquid you cook it in and gives cullen skink and fish pie their character. And it provides firm, dense flakes, because curing and smoking tighten the flesh so it holds together in distinct pieces instead of dissolving. A substitute that misses any one of those needs specific compensation: salt for the first, smoked paprika, liquid smoke or smoked bacon for the second, and a light pre-salting of the fillet for the third.

Can I use fresh haddock instead of smoked haddock?

Yes, and the dish will still be good, but be clear that it will be a different dish. Fresh haddock has no salt and no smoke and a softer, more delicate flake, so a fish pie made with it is milder and creamier and a cullen skink loses most of what makes it distinctive. To close the gap, salt the fillet lightly half an hour before cooking and pat it dry, which firms the flesh, then bring smoke in through the base of the dish rather than the fish, by cooking a little chopped smoked bacon or pancetta with the onions, or by adding a couple of drops of liquid smoke or a quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika to the poaching liquid.

Can I just leave the smoked haddock out?

Not really, in the dishes that are built around it. Kedgeree, cullen skink and a smoked fish pie are all essentially vehicles for smoked fish, and without it kedgeree becomes spiced rice and eggs and cullen skink becomes potato and leek soup, both perfectly pleasant and neither the dish you set out to make. Where it appears as one component among several, such as a mixed fish pie that also contains salmon and prawns, you can drop it and increase the others, but add a smoky element elsewhere, a little smoked bacon or a pinch of smoked paprika in the sauce, or the pie will taste noticeably flatter.

Related substitutes

More seafood substitutes

Smoked Haddock substitute

Other smoked haddock substitutes

2Hot-smoked mackerel or hot-smoked trout

3Unsmoked white fish plus salt and smoke

4Cold-smoked salmon

5Kippers or smoked herring

6Salt cod, soaked (for texture only)