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Salmon Croquettes

A dish of salmon flakes mixed with white sauce, shaped into croquettes, coated in breadcrumbs, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Salmon Croquettes

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Salmon Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the salmon

  1. Drain the salmon and pour hot water over it to remove excess oil, then dry on cheesecloth and separate into flakes.

Make the white sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, add the flour, and cook for a minute.

  2. Gradually whisk in the milk to make a thick white sauce.

  3. Stir in the lemon juice, salt, and cayenne.

Shape and fry

  1. Combine the salmon flakes with the sauce, shape into croquettes, coat in breadcrumbs, and fry until golden.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sauce + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 protein and flavor, forming the body of the croquettes.
Butter
Enriches the sauce and adds fat for flavor and richness.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a stable white sauce that binds the salmon.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the white sauce, giving it a smooth, creamy texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich salmon and sauce.

The step that matters

Cooking the white sauce to a thick consistency. Flour must be cooked briefly in the melted butter and milk added gradually, or the sauce turns lumpy or stays thin. A well-thickened sauce binds the salmon so the croquettes hold their shape when fried.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, sauce, butter, flour, milk):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, sauce, butter, flour, milk. 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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