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Salmon Croquettes

Salmon croquettes are fried patties made from shredded salmon, milk, butter, flour, eggs, Madeira, and spices, garnished with parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Salmon Croquettes

Why it works: Milk and butter 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 base

  1. Tear cold salmon into shreds using two forks.

  2. In a saucepan, heat butter and onion over medium heat until the onion begins to turn yellow.

  3. Stir in flour and, when bubbling, gradually add boiling milk. Stir until smooth.

Make the mixture

  1. Add salmon, salt, white pepper, nutmeg, egg yolks, and Madeira. Mix over heat for 2 minutes.

  2. Spread the mixture 1 inch thick on an oiled dish. Let it cool.

Fry and serve

  1. Shape the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Fry in hot lard until golden brown.

  3. Garnish with fried parsley.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. White pepper + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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
Forms the body of the croquettes and provides the main flavor and texture.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that carries flavor and keeps the mixture tender.
Flour
Cooked with the butter and milk, it thickens the sauce so the mixture holds together.
Milk
Forms the thickened base that moistens the salmon and keeps the croquettes soft inside.
Eggs
Egg yolks set on heating, binding the mixture so it holds its shape.
Madeira
Adds sweetness and aromatic depth to the mixture.

The step that matters

Cooling the mixture before shaping. The mixture must be spread and cooled until firm so it can be shaped without sticking or collapsing. If shaped while warm and soft, the croquettes may slump and break apart during frying.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, milk, butter, egg, flour, onion, nutmeg. 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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