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Salmon Fritters

A fried patty made from cold cooked salmon, mashed potatoes, egg, pepper, and salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,305 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Salmon Fritters

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Remove the skin and bone from the salmon and break the flesh into flakes.

  2. Mix the salmon with an equal quantity of mashed potatoes, add pepper, coarse sea salt, and 1 egg to bind the mixture.

  3. Form the mixture into small flat cakes or fritters.

Coat and fry

  1. Coat each fritter with beaten egg and dredge with flour.

  2. Melt a little dripping in a shallow frying pan.

  3. Fry the fritters on one side until brown.

  4. Flip the fritters and fry the other side until brown.

  5. Drain the fritters.

  6. Keep the fritters hot until serving.

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. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,355 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Salmon + eggtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,485 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Salmon + potatotop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together952 recipes

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

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

Remains of cold cooked salmon
Provides the main flavour and flaky texture of the fritters.
Mashed potatoes
Adds bulk and softness, making the mixture easier to shape and keeping the fritters moist.
1 egg
Binds the mixture so the fritters hold their shape while frying.
Flour (for dredging)
Dries the surface so the egg coating sticks and the fritters brown well.
Dripping (for frying)
Conducts heat in the pan and adds richness and browning to the outside.

The step that matters

Forming and frying the fritters. A loose mixture will break apart in the pan. Mixing well and shaping the cakes flat and even helps them hold together and cook through evenly while browning on both sides.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Chivefits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against salmon, pepper, 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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