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Salmon Croquettes

A fried snack made from flaked salmon mixed with white sauce, eggs, 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

Prepare the mixture

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

  2. Heat the white sauce in a saucepan, then beat in the raw egg.

  3. Stir in the flaked salmon and dry breadcrumbs until heated through.

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

Shape and chill

  1. Flour your hands and shape the mixture into rolls about 2.5 inches long and 1 inch in diameter.

  2. Roll each croquette on a floured surface to smooth it out.

  3. Dip in beaten egg, then roll in cracker crumbs.

  4. Place on a lightly floured dish, ensuring they do not touch, and refrigerate for several hours.

Fry

  1. Heat coconut oil in a deep pan until hot, then 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

Salmon
Provides the main body and flavour of the croquettes.
White sauce
Binds the fish and keeps the filling moist and creamy.
Raw egg
Binds the mixture so the croquettes hold their shape when fried.
Dry breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture and help the mixture firm up for shaping.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp coating that browns during frying.

The step that matters

Chilling the shaped croquettes. Chilling firms the fat and starch in the white sauce so the croquettes hold their shape. Skipping it or crowding the pieces can cause them to slump or stick together in the hot oil.

Swap the mace

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

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

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