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Smoked Herring substitute

Best substitute

Kippers

Use the same amount by weight as the smoked herring you are replacing

Best for smoked herring buljol

Different texture

Smoked mackerel is the best widely available swap at 1:1 by weight, because it brings the same oily, smoky character, though it is much less salty and much softer, so add a good pinch of salt and skip the usual soaking step. Kippers are essentially the same fish prepared a slightly different way and work 1:1 with no adjustment beyond less soaking. If you need the salt but have no smoke, use salt cod at 1:1 with a quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika per half pound to put the smokiness back.

Other smoked herring substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

Substitutes for Smoked Herring with ratios

  1. 2Smoked Mackerel

    Different texture

    Use the same amount by weight, plus salt to taste

    Hot-smoked mackerel fillets, sold chilled and vacuum-packed in most supermarkets, sometimes peppered.

    What changes
    Best for
    buljol, smoked fish with bake or dumplings, salads, pate and dips, pasta and rice dishes, fritters

    The most practical answer for most people, because it is in every supermarket and it is genuinely oily and genuinely smoky, which is the pair of qualities that matters. The differences are real though. Smoked mackerel is richer and softer, with almost no salt cure, so you must salt the dish or it tastes flat and slightly sweet where buljol should be sharp and savoury. It also flakes into moist chunks rather than dry shreds, so the texture is more like tinned tuna than like red herring. Do not soak it. Buy the plain kind rather than peppered or mustard-glazed.

  2. 3Salt Cod Plus Smoked Paprika

    Different taste

    Use the same amount by weight, plus ¼ tsp smoked paprika per ½ lb

    Dried salted cod, soaked and flaked, with smoked paprika standing in for the smoke.

    What changes
    Best for
    buljol, fritters and accras, rice dishes, breakfast plates with bake, stews

    Gets the salt and the firm dry shredded texture exactly right, which is more than half the job, and salt cod sits in the same corner of the Caribbean kitchen anyway. What it does not have is smoke, and smoke is a large part of what makes smoked herring taste like smoked herring, so add a quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika per half pound while the onions are cooking. Prepare it as you would smoked herring: soak or parboil to draw the salt out, taste it, then flake it. A few drops of liquid smoke also works but is easy to overdo, so start with two drops.

  3. 4Tinned Smoked Sprats or Smoked Sardines

    Different texture

    Use the same amount by drained weight

    Small oily fish, smoked and tinned in oil, stocked cheaply in most supermarkets and in Eastern European and Caribbean shops.

    What changes
    Best for
    buljol, spreads and pate, rice dishes, quick weeknight cooking, toast and bake

    Underrated and closer than you would guess, since sprats are small herring relatives and smoked sardines share the same oily, assertive character. Drain them well, because the packing oil will make a buljol greasy. The bones are soft and edible, which changes the texture slightly, giving a softer, more paste-like flake rather than distinct shreds. Salt level varies a lot by brand, so taste before seasoning. Smoked sprats in particular are noticeably smokier than smoked sardines and the better of the two here.

  4. 5Anchovy or Anchovy Paste

    Taste and texture differ

    Use 1 to 2 tsp paste, or 4 to 6 fillets, for every ½ lb of smoked herring - not a volume swap

    Salt-cured anchovies or anchovy paste, used purely as a source of concentrated salty fish flavour.

    What changes
    Best for
    adding herring character to a stew or sauce, rice dishes, dressings, pasta

    Only useful when the herring is a background seasoning rather than the body of the dish. Anchovy delivers the salt and the deep savoury fish note in a fraction of the volume, so treat it as a flavouring and never try to match it weight for weight. It has no smoke, so pair it with a pinch of smoked paprika, and it will not give you anything to chew on, so a buljol made this way is just a salad with a fishy dressing. Mash it into the hot oil with the onions so it dissolves rather than leaving salty specks.

  5. 6Smoked Salmon or Smoked Trout (Least-Best, and Why)

    Taste and texture differ

    Use the same amount by weight, salted to taste

    Cold-smoked salmon or hot-smoked trout, available everywhere and expensive.

    What changes
    Best for
    salads and spreads, when nothing else is available

    It is worth saying plainly that this is the wrong texture and the wrong flavour, even though it is smoked fish. Cold-smoked salmon is silky and soft with a delicate, faintly sweet smoke, where smoked herring is dry, firm and pungent, so a buljol made with it turns limp and reads as an expensive salad rather than the dish. Hot-smoked trout is the better of the two because it flakes. If you go this route, salt it well, chop it small, and add plenty of lime, onion and pepper to carry the plate. Cheap smoked mackerel is a much better swap than expensive smoked salmon.

What is Smoked Herring?

Smoked Herring is Whole herring that has been heavily salted and then smoked until dry and firm, sold in the Caribbean as red herring and in Britain and Ireland as kippers when it is split and cold-smoked.

Cooking tips

  • Caribbean smoked herring is aggressively salty and must be treated before use. Cover it with boiling water and let it stand for ten to fifteen minutes, or simmer it for five, then drain, rinse, taste a shred and repeat if it is still fierce. Do not skip this and do not salt the dish until you have tasted the fish. Kippers, smoked mackerel and smoked sprats need none of this, which is the single biggest adjustment when you swap them in.
  • Debone it patiently, because whole smoked herring is full of them. Lift the fillets off the backbone with your fingers while the fish is still warm from soaking, pull the pin bones from along the spine line, and pinch through the flakes to find strays. It takes five minutes and it is the difference between a good buljol and an unpleasant one.
  • The fish supplies salt, smoke and oily umami, and nothing else in the dish is doing those jobs. That is why swaps go wrong in predictable directions: too little salt with mackerel, no smoke with salt cod, no texture with anchovy. Diagnose which of the three is missing and fix that one thing.
  • For buljol, keep everything else raw and cold. Flaked fish, finely chopped onion, tomato, sweet pepper, a little scotch bonnet, plenty of lime or lemon juice and a good glug of olive or coconut oil, mixed and left for twenty minutes. The acid is what balances the salt, so if the fish came out too salty add more lime rather than more oil.
  • Toast it or fry it briefly for a stronger version. A few minutes in hot oil with onion, thyme and pepper deepens the smoke and firms the shreds, which is how it is cooked for a Jamaican breakfast alongside boiled banana and dumplings. Smoked mackerel does not want this treatment and will fall apart.
  • Whole dried smoked herring keeps for months in a cool cupboard and needs no refrigeration, which is the entire point of it. Vacuum-packed kippers and smoked mackerel are perishable chilled products, so once you swap to them, treat them like fresh fish.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just leave the smoked herring out?

Not in buljol, smoked herring and bake, or a solomon gundy style spread, where it is the entire dish. In a rice dish or a stew where it is one seasoning among several, you can drop it and compensate with extra salt and a pinch of smoked paprika, but the result will taste noticeably plainer, because the fish is contributing salt, smoke and a deep savoury note all at once. Use smoked mackerel instead; it is cheap and in every supermarket.

Is smoked herring the same as kippers?

Nearly. Both are smoked herring, but a kipper is split, lightly brined and cold-smoked so it stays soft and mildly salty, while Caribbean smoked herring, often called red herring, is heavily salted and smoked until dry and hard so it keeps without refrigeration. They swap one for one, with the important difference that kippers need little or no soaking and you will have to salt the dish yourself.

Do I have to soak smoked herring?

Soak or parboil the dry Caribbean type, yes, or the dish will be inedibly salty. Boiling water poured over it for ten to fifteen minutes, then a rinse and a taste, is the standard method, repeated if needed. Kippers, smoked mackerel and tinned smoked sprats do not need soaking at all, and soaking them just washes out flavour and turns them to mush.

Can I use tinned tuna or sardines instead?

Tinned sardines yes, especially smoked ones, since they are oily and assertive in a similar way. Plain tinned tuna is a much weaker choice: it has no smoke, very little salt cure and a dry, crumbly texture, so a buljol made with it tastes like tuna salad. If tuna is what you have, add a quarter teaspoon of smoked paprika, a good pinch of salt and extra lime, and expect a decent lunch rather than the dish you were aiming at.

Where do I buy smoked herring?

Caribbean, West African and Latin grocers sell whole dried smoked herring, usually loose or in plastic packs, often labelled red herring. British and Irish supermarkets carry kippers in the chilled or tinned fish aisle. Eastern European shops stock tinned smoked sprats, which are one of the best cheap swaps. Failing all of that, chilled smoked mackerel fillets are in essentially every large supermarket.

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