What to use instead of gochugaru
Quick answer
The closest option is Paprika with Cayenne pepper, rated acceptable. A far better answer than crushed flakes, and an unintuitive one. Paprika supplies the colour, the mildness and the fruity sweetness — it is the same species processed a different way — and a little cayenne restores the heat. What is missing is the texture: paprika is milled smooth where gochugaru is coarse and slightly damp, so kimchi made this way looks uniformly red rather than flecked.
It will not do for: Kimchi, where the visible flecks are part of what it should look like; Anything wanting the sun-dried, faintly raisin-like aroma of good Korean product; Dishes where smoked paprika is all that is available — the smoke is wrong here.
All recorded options
Ranked by suitability. Ratios are given only where they are defensible, and always with their basis — by weight or by volume — because spice densities differ.
Paprika with Cayenne pepper
AcceptableUse: ~1× by volume — Equal total volume, roughly six parts sweet paprika to one part cayenne. Adjust the cayenne by taste; the paprika is doing the colour and the bulk.
A far better answer than crushed flakes, and an unintuitive one. Paprika supplies the colour, the mildness and the fruity sweetness — it is the same species processed a different way — and a little cayenne restores the heat. What is missing is the texture: paprika is milled smooth where gochugaru is coarse and slightly damp, so kimchi made this way looks uniformly red rather than flecked.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| partial | partial | close | similar |
Works for
- Stews, soups and sauces where the chilli is dispersed anyway
- Marinades and dressings
- Getting the colour right when that matters more than the texture
Does not work for
- Kimchi, where the visible flecks are part of what it should look like
- Anything wanting the sun-dried, faintly raisin-like aroma of good Korean product
- Dishes where smoked paprika is all that is available — the smoke is wrong here
Cuisine: Gets closer to Korean than crushed flakes do, but a Korean cook will see it. Gochugaru is bought by origin and drying method in Korea, which is not the behaviour of an interchangeable ingredient.
Use sweet paprika, not smoked. Smoked paprika brings a note that does not belong in Korean food and it will be the first thing anyone tastes.
Chilli flakes
PoorUse: ~0.3× by volume — Roughly a third of the gochugaru called for, on heat alone. The colour will be missing at that quantity and there is no way to have both.
The substitution everyone reaches for and it fails in both directions at once. Crushed red pepper flakes keep their seeds, run several times hotter, and are dry and papery rather than soft. At gochugaru quantities the result is inedibly hot with a harsh seedy bitterness; at their own quantities the dish is pale and thin. In kimchi, where gochugaru is used by the half-cup, there is no quantity that works.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| partial | different | partial | much more |
Works for
- A stew or soup where the chilli is one note among many and colour does not matter
- Dishes using a tablespoon or less
Does not work for
- Kimchi, in any quantity — this is the case that matters and the one it fails hardest
- Any dish where the red colour is part of the point
- Sauces relying on gochugaru’s fruity sweetness rather than its heat
Cuisine: Produces something that is not Korean food. Gochugaru’s mildness and lack of bitterness are preconditions for how Korean cooking uses chilli, not preferences.
Where gochugaru stands in for something else
The reverse view of the same graph.
- Instead of Shichimi togarashi — poor