Raising six kids on a teacher’s salary, my parents were always cooking on a budget. Being Catholic, with the requirement back then of meatless Fridays, Lent or not, this meant that we ate a lot of tuna macaroni salad and fried fish.
My mother often made tuna patties for us, and less frequently, because they were more expensive, salmon patties.
For several years my father and I tried to talk my mother into making salmon patties again for us. For some unfathomable reason, she refused, even going as far to claim that she never made them in the first place. A
fter a while we gave up and my father set about to make these salmon patties himself, with his own spur-of-the-moment recipe.
Salmon patties, or salmon cakes, are wonderfully easy to make. The base is just cooked salmon, shredded bread, bread crumbs or even saltines, chopped onion, and egg to bind it all into patties, which are then quickly fried.
In this recipe my father dresses up the patties with garlic, dill, bell pepper, and paprika. I’ve added some lemon zest and lemon juice. You could also add parsley, Old Bay seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, or cilantro. Feel free to improvise!
Raising six kids on a teacher’s salary, my parents were always cooking on a budget. Being Catholic, with the requirement back then of meatless Fridays, Lent or not, this meant that we ate a lot of tuna macaroni salad and fried fish.
My mother often made tuna patties for us, and less frequently, because they were more expensive, salmon patties.
For several years my father and I tried to talk my mother into making salmon patties again for us. For some unfathomable reason, she refused, even going as far to claim that she never made them in the first place. A
fter a while we gave up and my father set about to make these salmon patties himself, with his own spur-of-the-moment recipe.
Salmon patties, or salmon cakes, are wonderfully easy to make. The base is just cooked salmon, shredded bread, bread crumbs or even saltines, chopped onion, and egg to bind it all into patties, which are then quickly fried.
In this recipe my father dresses up the patties with garlic, dill, bell pepper, and paprika. I’ve added some lemon zest and lemon juice. You could also add parsley, Old Bay seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, or cilantro. Feel free to improvise!
Salmon Patties Recipe
PrintIngredients
- 1 (14.75 ounce) can salmon, undrained and flaked
- 1 slice of bread, shredded
- 3 Tbsp chopped green onion, including the green parts
- 1 medium garlic clove, minced
- 1 Tbsp fresh chopped dill weed, or 1 teaspoon dried
- 3 Tbsp minced green bell pepper
- 1 Tbsp flour
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Several turns of freshly ground black pepper
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
Method
1 Mix patty ingredients: In a large bowl, gently mix together the salmon, bread, green onion, garlic, dill, bell pepper, flour, egg, paprika, lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
2 Form into 8 patties, each about 1/2 inch thick.
3 Brown in skillet: Heat olive oil over medium high heat in a large skillet. Cook the patties until nicely browned on both sides, about 3-4 minutes per side.
Hello! All photos and content are copyright protected. Please do not use our photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this recipe, please rewrite the recipe in your own unique words and link back to Salmon Patties on Simply Recipes. Thank you!
PrintIf you make this recipe, snap a pic and hashtag it #simplyrecipes — We love to see your creations on Instagram, Facebook, & Twitter!
Elise Bauer is the founder of Simply Recipes. Elise launched Simply Recipes in 2003 as a way to keep track of her family's recipes, and along the way grew it into one of the most popular cooking websites in the world. Elise is dedicated to helping home cooks be successful in the kitchen. Elise is a graduate of Stanford University, and lives in Sacramento, California.
Links:
Baked Salmon Cakes from Gina of SkinnyTaste
Fresh Salmon Cakes from Chef John of Food Wishes
Paleo Salmon Cakes from Everyday Maven
Your comment may need to be approved before it will appear on the site. Thanks for waiting. First time commenting? Please review the Comment Policy.
I made these this afternoon (minus the dill) and they were yummy! We are gluten free, so I substituted 4 pieces of Udi’s GF bread (the slices are smaller than regular bread) I found also, by adding a little more (GF) flour and cooking them on a very low flame, they held together better without sticking. The lemon really game them a nice flavor! Thank you for the recipe!
Made these for my wife she is the salmon lover in the house, she said they were the best salmon patties she had ever ate. So in her words she would highly recommend this recipe.
Grew up on salmon n patties even if Though we were a family of 8 and I’ve changed the basic recipe we used then that now includes paprika, dill, onions, celery, seasonings to taste, mustard, bread or cornflake crumbs. I read someone tried using cornmeal, might try that. For the bones, we would keep them for the added calcium by crushing them up and mixing in, where you never “taste” them. Love salmon patties and crab cakes too.
Delicious; will definitely make again.
Made 2 minor changes based on other comments:
Did not use any salmon liquid. They were a little dry and a couple of them came apart in the skillet. Will use a little of the liquid next time.
Used only half the salt. It was just right for us.
We made a little mayo-lemon-dill sauce for the patties. Excellent.
xxxxxyyyyy
bread lay them in flour coat before frying for a crispy outside