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Salmon Croquettes I

Salmon croquettes are small patties of flaked salmon mixed with white sauce, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and salt, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, then fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Salmon Croquettes I

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a bowl, mix the flaked salmon, thick white sauce, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and salt until well combined.

  2. Cool the mixture, then shape it into small patties.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll each patty in egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  2. Heat oil in a deep pan and fry the croquettes until golden brown.

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. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Salmon + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,918 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Salmon + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Salmon
Provides the main body and flavour of the croquettes.
Thick white sauce
Binds the flaked salmon so the mixture holds its shape.
Egg
Helps the breadcrumb coating stick to the patties.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer layer when fried.

The step that matters

Cooling the mixture before shaping. A cooled, firm mixture holds its shape when patties are formed and coated. A warm, soft mixture can slump or split, and the patties may fall apart in the hot oil.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Limefits less well
  4. Mangofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, sauce, pepper, egg. 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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