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Salmon Croquettes

A fried croquette made from flaked salmon mixed with white sauce, egg, and breadcrumbs, then coated in cracker crumbs.

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

Why it works: Egg and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 106,462 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Salmon Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mixture

  1. Flake the fish with a fork and season with paprika, cayenne, salt, and mace.

  2. Heat the white sauce in a saucepan.

  3. Beat in the raw egg.

  4. Stir in the flaked salmon and breadcrumbs until heated through.

  5. Spread the mixture on a flat dish to cool until firm enough to handle.

Shape and chill

  1. Flour your hands.

  2. Shape the mixture into rolls about 2.5 inches long and 1 inch in diameter.

  3. Roll the croquettes on a floured surface to smooth them out.

  4. Dip each croquette in beaten egg.

  5. Roll each croquette in cracker crumbs.

  6. Place the croquettes on a lightly floured dish, ensuring they do not touch.

  7. Refrigerate for several hours.

Fry

  1. Heat the oil in a deep pan until hot.

  2. 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.

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. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Pepper + macetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,257 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Sauce + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Fish + saucetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,487 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Leftover fish or canned salmon
Provides the main body and flavor of the croquettes.
1 cup white sauce
Binds the flaked fish together and keeps the filling moist.
1 raw egg
Binds the mixture so it holds its shape when cooked.
A handful of very dry breadcrumbs
Absorbs moisture and helps the mixture hold its shape.
Fine cracker crumbs for coating
Forms a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.

The step that matters

Chilling the shaped croquettes. Chilling firms the fat and binders so the croquettes hold their shape and do not fall apart when they meet the hot oil.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Macethe original

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