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.

More often than not, you'll run into the issue of overly dry salmon cakes, which can no doubt cause them to fall apart while cooking them. Most recipes call for an egg, which provides moisture, and helps bind the ingredients together. Larger batches might need an additional egg to help keep everything moist and intact.

Balance The Binders With The Moisture

Every salmon patty or cake recipe calls for some combination of binding ingredients. These usually include eggs, flour, breadcrumbs, cracker crumbs, ground flaxseed, and so on. Without these binders, the salmon has nothing to stick to, so you can't form patties.

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.

To prevent this, only fry the croquettes for three to four minutes — just enough time for the outside to crisp and the filling to heat through. Heat your oil to exactly 350°F. Any hotter can cause them to expand too rapidly and burst open.

No breadcrumbs are needed: Instead, I use a small amount of almond flour. It adds a lovely nuttiness, and doesn't overpower the salmon flavor the way breadcrumbs can often do. If I'm making salmon patties, I surely want them to taste like salmon and not bread!

Why do my potato croquettes fall apart? Croquettes may fall apart during frying if the mixture is too wet. As the croquettes get hot, moisture turns to steam, causing them to get soggy and lose their shape. Adding more of a binding agent (beaten egg and/or flour) should help the mixture stay together.

Albumin is a natural part of salmon. No matter how you cook it (we have some surefire tips here)—whether you employ low temperatures, pan-sear, grill, or slow cook—the white ooze will emerge from the muscle fibers on the surface, creating that not-Instagram-worthy look.

Go easy on the shaping. When you're making your burgers, try not to manhandle them too much or else you'll end up breaking the meat into smaller pieces than you have to. We recommend simply shaping the beef into a vague burger shape with the least amount handling as possible.

When the salmon burger reaches 145 degrees F, it is done. – If you don't have a thermometer, check that your burger is lightly crisp on the outside and that the meat inside is pink and flaky.

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.

How to Control Salmon's Fishiness with a Milk Bath. 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 salmon smells fishy, sour or ammonia-like, then it's gone bad. Appearance: Fresh salmon fillets should be bright pink or orange with no discoloration, darkening or drying around the edges. If you notice any dull or gray coloring, dark spots or filmy white residue, then it's a sign that the salmon has spoiled.

That white slimy stuff is called albumin, and it's actually just a harmless (albeit pretty gross-looking) protein that solidifies as salmon cooks.

If the mixture is too wet add additional breadcrumbs a little at a time. If the mixture is too dry add a small amount of additional lemon juice. Press the mixture together to form the salmon patty to your desired size. Keep in mind, the thicker the patty the more time it will need to cook.

To ensure the salmon cakes don't fall apart, drain the salmon thoroughly, flake it well, use large eggs, and mix the ingredients thoroughly. About half the olive oil will remain in the skillet; the nutrition info reflects that. But you need all of it to fry the patties properly.

Grill salmon flesh side down FIRST, then flip over once.

Place the salmon fillets on the grill flesh side down first (so the skin is facing you). Raw salmon is relatively firm, so starting it off with the flesh facing down is a great way to get some nice grill marks on the salmon without it falling apart.

The best technique I've found for frying fish is not to flip it at all. I start the fish on the stove, skin down, then I finish cooking it in the oven. You need an oven safe frying pan of course, cast iron or a high-temperature non-stick works well.