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Salmon Ckoquettes

Salmon croquettes made from salmon stock, cream, sherry, egg yolks, and salmon flakes, then chilled, shaped, breaded, and fried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and cucumber match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,564 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Salmon Ckoquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Boil the salmon remains in 1 pint of water until reduced to ½ pint for stock.

  2. Tear the salmon flesh into shreds.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter, then stir in 1 tablespoon of flour to make a béchamel sauce.

  2. Gradually add the fish stock, stirring until thick and smooth.

  3. Stir in ½ cup of thick cream, ⅓ cup of sherry or white wine, and 2 beaten egg yolks.

  4. Heat the mixture until it reaches boiling point but do not let it boil.

  5. Fold in ½ pound of salmon flakes until well combined.

Shape and fry

  1. Spread the mixture 1 inch thick on a buttered plate and refrigerate until cold.

  2. Once chilled, cut into pieces and shape into cork or egg shapes.

  3. Coat the shaped salmon in breadcrumbs and fry in hot oil for 2 minutes.

  4. Garnish with fried parsley and serve with cucumber salad.

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. Parsley + cucumbertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Salmon + cucumbertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together513 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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 flakes
Provide the main fish flavour and texture in the croquette filling.
Butter
Forms the roux with flour, giving the sauce body and a rich flavour.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a roux that gives the béchamel its structure.
Egg yolks
Enrich the sauce and help it set firm when chilled, holding the shape.
Thick cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a smooth, soft texture.
Sherry or white wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the rich, creamy filling.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture without boiling. Boiling can curdle the egg yolks and cream, making the sauce grainy and thin. Gentle heat keeps it smooth and thick enough to chill and shape.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (salmon, butter, flour, cream, sherry, egg, cucumber):

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, butter, flour, cream, sherry, egg, cucumber. 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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