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Tinned-Salmon Patties

A fried pastry dish filled with a mixture of tinned salmon, pickled gherkins, and anchovy essence.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Tinned-Salmon Patties

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. In a stewpan, combine flour, salmon liquid, anchovy essence, and pepper.

  2. Stir the mixture over heat until it boils and thickens.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the salmon with minced pickled gherkins.

  2. Add the thickened sauce to the salmon mixture and combine well.

Shape and fry

  1. Roll out the puff pastry as thinly as possible.

  2. Cut the pastry into 3‑inch squares.

  3. Place a small amount of the salmon mixture in the center of each pastry square.

  4. Fold the pastry into triangles, dampen edges with water, and pinch to seal.

  5. Heat lard or clarified fat in a frying pan until boiling.

  6. Fry the patties until nicely browned.

  7. Drain the patties to remove excess fat, then arrange on a napkin or decorative dish.

  8. Garnish with fried parsley and serve.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Salmon + parsleytop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Salmon + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,446 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the salmon liquid into a stable sauce that binds the filling.
Salmon
Provides the main filling, with its flesh and juices giving flavour and body.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp outer shell that puffs and browns when fried.
Pickled gherkins
Adds acidity and sharpness that cut through the richness of the salmon.

The step that matters

Sealing the triangles. If the edges are not dampened and pinched tightly, the filling can leak into the hot fat and the patties can open or burst while frying.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Jalapenofits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, salmon, pepper. 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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