🍲 Hot Pot 101
🔄 Swap Tool

Hot Pot Ingredient Substitutes

Pick the ingredient you can't find — get what to use instead, and what changes.

Select an ingredient on the left to see tested substitutes.

How to Think About Hot Pot Substitutions

Hot pot is more forgiving than it looks, but not everything swaps cleanly. Three rules keep you out of trouble:

  • Match texture first, flavor second. Hot pot ingredients are chosen for bite — the broth and sauce do the flavoring. Crunchy for crunchy, springy for springy matters more than "beef for beef."
  • Adjust the clock, not just the shopping list. Every substitute on this page lists a cook time. Swapping maodu (10 seconds) for beef tendon (10 minutes) without adjusting the order ruins both.
  • Know the un-substitutables. Doubanjiang for mala broth and Zhenjiang black vinegar for sauce have no true replacement — see the emergency fixes in their cards, or read which sauces to buy once.

Most of these ingredients are findable — see our guide to shopping for hot pot online and in Asian groceries, or decode what you're looking at with the Ingredient Decoder.