Easy Salmon Croquettes - The Recipe Critic (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep salmon croquettes from falling apart? ›

The trick to making salmon croquettes that don't fall apart is making sure they have ingredients to bind them together. In this recipe, egg and flour keep them together. They are still a bit fragile but if you handle with care, they will cook up perfectly.

If you add too much egg, for instance, or the canned fish isn't properly drained, the mixture will be too wet and the cakes will fall apart. Too many breadcrumbs, on the other hand, will make your cakes dry and crumbly.

Before cooking the patties if you find that the mixture is not sticking together to form the salmon patties, it's probably due to the mixture being too dry to too wet. The binding process is similar to making meatloaf and you may need to add in some additional breadcrumbs if too wet or lemon juice if too dry.

You can also lessen salmon's strong flavor by soaking it in a milk bath for 20 minutes and then draining it and patting it dry before cooking. The casein in milk binds to the TMA, and when drained away, it takes the culprit that causes fishy odor with it.

If the mixture isn't cold when it goes into the oil, it will heat up and start producing steam before the crumb coating has a chance to crisp up. If this happens, the steam bursts through and the croquette falls apart. So make sure the mixture is properly chilled before you begin to fry.

Overmixing can break down the structure. Allowing the salmon mixture to rest before shaping the patties is crucial. Cooking the salmon patties at too high a temperature or for too short a time can result in a mushy interior.

Use a potato that is floury, starchy. Breadcrumbs will also work. Up the egg content if using. Especially if you are using pre cooked fish, all the sticky stuff that is contained within fish will have gone, so you need to replace this with a starch or some sort.

Canned salmon is already cooked - just drain the liquid and it's ready to eat or add to your favourite dish. You can remove the skin if you like. Don't throw out the soft, calcium-rich bones! Mash them with a fork and you won't even notice them.

The easiest way to prevent albumin from appearing is to cook salmon slowly over low heat — and to make sure you don't cook it to death. If you are searing it or grilling salmon over high heat, just make sure you cook the salmon skin-side down for most of the time.

That white gunk seeping from your salmon is called albumin. It's a protein—not fat—that pushes to the surface of the fish when you heat it. "Once this protein reaches temperatures between 140 and 150 degrees, its moisture is squeezed out, and it congeals and turns white," according to America's Test Kitchen.

What helps patties stick together? ›

The most commonly used binding agent for hamburger patties is eggs. They work well with ground meat and are easy to incorporate into the rest of your ingredients.

Salmon goes from moist and silky to tough and dry when it's overcooked, even by just a minute or two. This can happen whether you're grilling it, baking it, broiling it, or cooking it on the stovetop, although some methods of preparation are better suited for salmon than others.

Before cooking, soak the fish in milk for 20 minutes

In this scenario, the protein in the milk binds with the compounds that cause that fishy odor, in essence extracting if from the fish. What's left behind is sweet-smelling, brighter flesh with clean flavor. (Just make sure you pour that milk down the drain.

I'm talking about brining! Soaking salmon in a simple, quick brine for as little as 10 minutes (up to overnight, if you like planning ahead) is all it takes. To make it happen you need two very basic ingredients: water and salt. Combine 1 tablespoon of salt for every cup of water.

Healthy Potato Salad, Arugula Salad, or Broccoli Quinoa Salad with Creamy Lemon Dressing would be delicious with this dish. Fruit Salad would also be a great addition to the meal. Vegetables. Serve some Grilled Eggplant, Roasted Broccoli, Grilled Potatoes, or Roasted Asparagus with this recipe for a healthy side.

It might be necessary to add more cracker crumbs. The salmon patties will fall apart if they are too wet. You need enough cracker crumbs to bind all the ingredients together. So that the patties will hold together and not fall apart.

A classic choice is breadcrumbs, but you could integrate crushed up crackers, almond flour, or even mashed (or smashed) potatoes into your fish cake mix. Not only will these ingredients help to hold your fish cake together; they'll help to keep your cakes from becoming dense pucks of protein.

You can thicken mashed potatoes for croquettes simply by adding in in flour or cornstarch. Add 1 tablespoon at a time until mashed potatoes are thickened to your liking.