Turbot substitutes

The classic swap, made by British and French cooks for a century, and the reason is that brill is turbot's close relative and nearly its equal. The flesh is firm, white and sweet with the same gelatinous quality that gives a sauce body, just slightly softer and a shade less sweet. It costs meaningfully less. Cook it exactly as you would turbot, on the bone if possible, and nobody will detect the substitution.

Best for

whole roasted flatfish, poached fish, pan-fried fillets, fish on the bone, classical sauces

Brill is thinner than turbot of the same width, so a whole fish cooks a few minutes faster.

The best answer for anyone outside Europe, since halibut is the other great firm flatfish and is stocked everywhere. It has the same dense, meaty, sweet flesh that stays in one piece under a spatula and takes a hard sear. What changes is body: halibut is much leaner and less gelatinous, so a sauce built on its bones will not set the way a turbot sauce does, and the flesh dries out fast if you overcook it even slightly.

Best for

roasted fish, pan-seared fillets, poached fish, grilled fish, fish steaks

Buy thick center-cut pieces and pull them the moment the center turns opaque. Add a knob of butter or a splash of cream to the sauce to make up the missing gelatin.

An underrated substitute that gets the important quality right. John Dory has firm, dense, notably sweet white flesh with a fine flake that holds together well in a pan or under a grill, close to turbot in eating quality if not quite in luxury. The fillets are smaller and thinner, so a recipe timed for a thick turbot tranche will overcook them, and it lacks turbot's collagen-heavy bones for sauce-making.

Best for

pan-fried fillets, roasted fish, poached fish, fish with butter sauces

Yields are low relative to the whole fish, so buy more than you expect. Sold as John Dory or St Pierre.

The other luxury flatfish, and a good swap where the dish is refined rather than robust. Dover sole is finer-grained and sweeter than turbot with a silkier texture, so a meuniere or a poached fillet in beurre blanc is arguably even better. It is not as firm, however, so it cannot be cut into thick tranches, roasted on the bone at high heat, or held in a sauce for long without softening.

Best for

meuniere, poached fillets, grilled whole fish, rolled and stuffed fillets, beurre blanc dishes

Genuine Dover sole is expensive; lemon sole is a cheaper relative, softer again and closer to plaice in behavior.

The affordable fallback, and the honest position is that it is not really a like-for-like swap. Plaice and flounder are mild and pleasantly sweet but soft, thin and delicate, so they cook in three or four minutes, break apart if handled more than once, and cannot deliver the meaty forkfuls that make turbot worth its price. Use them for pan-frying and rolled fillets, not for roasting on the bone or for a long-cooked sauce.

Best for

pan-frying, rolled and stuffed fillets, quick baked fish, breaded fillets

Fold thin fillets in half before baking so they do not overcook, and turn them once with a thin fish spatula.

The right choice when a recipe treats turbot as something meaty: cut into thick tranches, roasted, braised or served with a red wine or bone-marrow sauce. Monkfish is even firmer than turbot and does not flake at all, staying in solid sweet slices, so it survives anything you do to it. It also tastes noticeably sweeter and more lobster-like, and it lacks the fine flake that a classical turbot dish is built around.

Best for

roasted fish, braised fish, fish with red wine sauces, fish steaks, grilling

Peel off the grey membrane before cooking, and pat the pieces very dry, since monkfish releases a lot of water.