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Salmon Fish Balls

Salmon fish balls are small flat cakes made from canned salmon, mashed potatoes, egg, butter, and salt pork fat, then fried or broiled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pork are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,668 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Salmon Fish Balls

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Mix the salmon, mashed potatoes, and egg in a bowl.

  2. Shape the mixture into small flat cakes.

  3. Cover the cakes with melted butter.

Cook

  1. Broil or fry the cakes in salt pork fat.

  2. Brown one side, then flip and brown the other side.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Potato + porktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Salmon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  5. Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg
Binds the salmon and potato mixture so the cakes hold their shape.
Mashed potatoes
Add body and softness, helping the cakes stay moist inside.
Canned salmon
Provides the main flavor and protein that form the body of the cakes.
Salt pork fat
Gives the cakes a savory flavor and helps them brown in the pan.

The step that matters

Brown one side, then flip and brown the other side. Cooking the cakes over moderate heat until one side is set before flipping helps them keep their shape. Browning builds flavor through the Maillard reaction, while turning too early can cause the soft cakes to break apart.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, egg, butter, pork):

  1. Potatothe original
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Chivefits about as well
  4. Onionfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, egg, butter, pork. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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