Easy Salmon Croquettes - The Recipe Critic (2024)

FAQs

How do you keep salmon croquettes from falling apart? ›

Eggs. To keep salmon patties from falling apart, you need a binder. That's the egg!

Yes, you can use flour as a substitute for breadcrumbs in salmon patties. While breadcrumbs are commonly used to provide texture and help bind the ingredients together, flour can serve a similar purpose.

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.

A perfectly cooked salmon patty should be moist and tender inside with a slightly crispy exterior. If your salmon patty has a grey or mushy texture on the inside, the color may come from the skin side of the flesh, but if it's mushy, it may be undercooked.

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.

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.

Crushed-up crackers make an excellent bread crumb substitute in baked dishes like meatballs or meatloaf. The crackers work just as well as the bread crumbs to hold the meat mixture together, and using varieties like salty saltines or buttery Ritz is a great way to add an extra burst of flavor to your dish.

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.

Refrigerate The Mix, Use A Sheet Pan

The cooler temperature of the mix will help everything stick together better when the patties are pan-fried, crisping them up nicely. If you have a lot of salmon patties to make, you can even forgo the pan altogether and bake them on a sheet tray in the oven.

Why are my salmon patties not sticking? ›

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.

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.

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.

It's called albumin. And it lives in your salmon whether it's cooked or not, no matter where it's from, how it's raised, or how much you paid for it.

Salmon that's gone bad will often feel almost like it's about to fall apart, or sometimes mushy. Other things to watch for when examining your fish by touch are slimy or sticky residues, both indicators of spoilage.

What can I do to stop my Thai fish cakes falling apart in the frying pan? You need to work the mixture more. Kneading or mixing the mixture changes the protein and makes it sticky. That help the cakes stay together.

HOW DO YOU MAKE SURE FISH CAKES DON'T FALL APART? The key to making sure fish cakes don't fall apart is limiting the moisture. Make sure your mashed potatoes are relatively dry and leave some lumps to provide texture.

The proteins in the egg will help bind together your fish cake mix as it cooks. Think of it as your glue: Without it, your fish cakes are going to fall apart. At minimum, you'll want to use one egg for every pound or so of fish so that you have enough “glue.” More is fine, though.