Uni substitute

Substitutes for Uni with ratios

1. 2Smoked Cod Roe or Tarama, Pounded

   Different taste

   Use 2 tbsp for every serving

   Cured fish roe that whips into oil the way uni does.

   What changes

   Best for

   pasta sauces, spreads, spooning onto toast or rice

   The closest single ingredient for texture, because it is the only common roe that emulsifies rather than bursting. It is much saltier, smokier and far less sweet, so the sauce reads as cured and savoury rather than sweet and oceanic. Soak it in a little milk first if it is very salty, and salt the dish at the end.

2. 3Salmon Roe (Ikura), Tobiko or Masago

   Taste and texture differ

   Use 1 to 2 tbsp for every serving, as a garnish

   Discrete fish eggs with a bright colour and a popping bite.

   What changes

   Best for

   garnishing, topping rice bowls, finishing pasta

   Right colour and right burst of sea salinity, wrong physics. These eggs pop; uni melts. Do not try to make them the sauce, because they will not emulsify and heat makes them tough and cloudy. Spoon them over a yolk-based sauce instead, where they add the marine hit that the yolk cannot.

3. 4Raw Scallop or Sweet Shrimp (Amaebi)

   Taste and texture differ

   Use the same amount by volume

   Sweet, soft raw shellfish for raw preparations.

   What changes

   Best for

   nigiri, crudo, a spoonful on rice

   This is the least-bad option for raw service, and it is honestly not close. Scallop and amaebi share uni's sweetness and clean sea flavour, but they are firm and springy where uni is custard, so a piece of nigiri eats as a bite of fish rather than dissolving. Buy fish sold for raw consumption, and dress it with a little olive oil or a few drops of soy to add richness.

4. 5Scallop or Shrimp Puree With Butter and Kombu

   Taste and texture differ

   Use 3 oz shellfish, 2 tbsp butter, ¼ tsp kombu or dashi powder for every 2 servings

   Raw shellfish blitzed smooth and enriched, for a mild sauce.

   What changes

   Best for

   pasta, risotto, sauces for delicate fish

   The gentlest and least fishy option: sweet, marine and pale. It has no fat of its own so it lives or dies on the butter, and it will not hold an emulsion as reliably as a yolk, so keep it well below a simmer. Tastes clean and sweet rather than deep and oceanic.

5. 6Lumpfish Caviar

   Taste and texture differ

   Use 1 tbsp for every serving, as a garnish

   Small, firm, dyed fish eggs sold cheaply in jars.

   What changes

   Best for

   garnishing, canapes

   The cheap garnish option and the weakest on this list. It is briny and salty in a flat, one-note way, the eggs are small and firm rather than luscious, and the black dye bleeds grey streaks into any cream or yolk sauce. Add it at the very last second, on top, or not at all.