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Salmon Croquettes

A fried croquette made with cooked salmon, stock, cream, sherry, egg yolks, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Salmon Croquettes

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 Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

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

Make the custard base

  1. Tear the salmon flesh into shreds.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour to make a roux.

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

  4. Remove from heat and stir in the cream, sherry, and beaten egg yolks.

  5. Heat gently until just boiling, then add the salmon flakes.

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

Shape and serve

  1. Once chilled, cut into pieces and shape into cork‑like forms.

  2. Coat in breadcrumbs and fry in hot oil for 2 minutes until golden.

  3. 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.

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. 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
Provides the main flesh and flavour that the croquettes are built around.
Butter
Enriches the flavour and, with flour, forms the roux that thickens the base.
Flour
Thickens the stock through a roux, giving the mixture body so it can set.
Thick cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving a softer, smoother texture to the mixture.
Egg yolks
Add richness and, when gently heated, help thicken and bind the mixture.
Sherry or white wine
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the richness of the cream and fish.

The step that matters

Chilling the mixture until fully cold. The mixture must set firm before shaping. Egg yolks and starch thicken as they cool, and if it is not fully chilled the forms will be soft and may break or collapse in the hot oil.

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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