Sucuk substitutes

A dry-cured, fermented, paprika-heavy sausage that behaves almost identically in the pan: sliced into coins and started in a cold dry pan, it curls slightly and releases a pool of brilliant red spiced fat, which is exactly the point of sucuk.

Best for

sucuklu yumurta, menemen, pide, kuru fasulye and bean dishes, breakfast plates

The flavour leans smoked pimenton where sucuk leans garlic, cumin and fenugreek, so eggs fried in it taste Spanish rather than Turkish. Close the gap with a quarter teaspoon of ground cumin and a grated garlic clove per 100g of sausage, added to the rendered fat. Buy the firm cured chorizo from the deli or shelf, not the soft fresh cooking chorizo. It is pork, so it is not an option for halal or kosher cooking.

Widely available, cheap, and much closer than people expect. Pepperoni is a dry-cured, finely ground, paprika-reddened sausage that renders a generous amount of spiced orange-red fat, which is the mechanism sucuk relies on.

Best for

sucuklu yumurta, menemen, pide and flatbreads, quick breakfasts

The gap is aroma: pepperoni is built on fennel and anise with a mild sweetness, so the dish tastes faintly pizza-like instead of garlicky and cumin-scented. Add a quarter teaspoon of cumin and a crushed garlic clove to the pan. It is usually sliced thin, so it crisps faster and can go brittle; take it out while still chewy. Beef pepperoni exists and is a good halal-friendly route.

The honest supermarket build, and the best answer for anyone who needs beef rather than pork. Thick-cut beef salami has the right cured chew and salt, and the spices supply the character it lacks.

Best for

sucuklu yumurta, menemen, beef-only and halal cooking, sandwiches

Ask for it sliced thick, around 4mm, or buy a chunk and cut coins yourself, because deli-thin slices dry into crisps. Salami renders less fat than sucuk, so add a teaspoon of oil to the pan, then stir the paprika, cumin and garlic into the hot fat for 20 seconds before the eggs go in. The result is properly spiced but noticeably leaner and less rich than real sucuk.

A fresh North African lamb and beef sausage seasoned with cumin, garlic, paprika and harissa, which puts it in almost exactly the right spice family as sucuk.

Best for

menemen, eggs, bean stews, grilling, rice dishes

The spicing is the closest of anything on this list, but it is a fresh sausage, so it has none of sucuk's fermented tang and much more water. Squeeze it out of the casing and fry it as crumbles, or slice and cook it right through, about 8-10 minutes; it will not give you neat curled coins. Because it is fresh it must be cooked to done rather than simply warmed through.

A dry-cured, coarsely ground, chile-spiked salami that slices and renders well and has the fermented depth that fresh sausages lack.

Best for

eggs and menemen, pide, bean dishes, antipasto-style breakfast

Coarser and more porky-sweet than sucuk, with pepper and wine notes instead of cumin and fenugreek, so it reads Italian. Cut it thick, render slowly, and stir cumin and garlic into the fat. Its coarse texture holds up better than thin salami in a long-cooked bean dish, where it stays as identifiable pieces rather than dissolving.

Very well spiced, very red and very fatty, so it does one important part of sucuk's job well: it floods the pan with spiced orange fat that you then cook the eggs in.

Best for

menemen, scrambled eggs, bean dishes, crumbled fillings

It is uncured and soft, so it crumbles rather than slicing into coins and the dish looks quite different, with no rounds of sausage on top. The flavour is chile and vinegar led, sharper and more sour than sucuk, and there is no cured tang. Cook it through and drain off some fat if it renders more than a couple of tablespoons, since Mexican chorizo can be very fatty indeed.