Simple Salmon Cakes

These Simple Salmon Cakes are the original version of the Salmon Cakes recipe already live here on deepfriedhoney.com. The recipes are the same, save for the key ingredient: the salmon! The other recipe uses fresh salmon that we season, cook, and flake specifically for salmon cakes. For this recipe, we use a shortcut of sorts: canned salmon.

Simple Salmon Cakes Ingredients

Feel free to jump to the full recipe, but here are useful notes about the ingredients you will need to make this Simple Salmon Cakes recipe:

• Canned salmon: I grew up on Double Q Pink Salmon and generally will not stray from it, but out of desperation I once used Whole Foods’ 365 brand and it was delicious.
• Large egg: A binder. It also holds in moisture, even if you like to fry your Simple Salmon Cakes hard as hell.
• Yellow onion, flat-leaf parsley: The most work in this recipe is to mince these two ingredients. The parsley is more for color and appearance than flavor. If you’re gonna use white onion I recommend sauteeing it to mellow out the flavor before adding it to the salmon cakes, or else it might overpower the other flavors.
• Fine cornmeal, all-purpose flour: To hold everything together. Some folks use breadcrumbs, but I like for the patties to be mostly salmon and onion.
• Hot sauce, lemon juice, seasoned salt: Flavors! I always add hella cayenne pepper as well, but I’ve told you before I tend to not include that in my recipes since not everyone agrees spice makes everything nice.
• Vegetable oil: For frying. Any oil with a decently high smoke temperature will do.

How to Make Simple Salmon Cakes 

Full instructions are included in the recipe below, but here is a basic overview of what you’ll need to do, along with some important tidbits to help you make the most of this Simple Salmon Cakes recipe:

• Prepare the can. Dump the can of salmon into a large bowl, juice and all. Pull the fish apart and remove the spine and pin bones as best you can, then flake the salmon with a fork to break it apart. 
• Add all of the remaining ingredients to the bowl. Stir together until well combined. Add a sprinkle more of cornmeal or flour if it’s too wet. You want to be able to squeeze it into a ball in your palm.
• Get ready to fry. Add your oil to a 10″ skillet. You only need enough oil to cover the entire surface of the skillet; it should come about halfway up the sides of the patties when you add them -somewhere in the ballpark of a third of a cup. Preheat the pan over medium-high heat while you form the patties. 
• Make the Simple Salmon Cakes. Lightly oil the palms of your hands, then take a heaping spoonful –  I use a regular ol’ cereal spoon – and use your hands to roll it into a ball. Press the ball into a patty about 3″ wide and no more than 1/2″ thick. Repeat until the bowl is empty – you should get between 8-12 cakes. 
• Fry ’em up! When the oil is shimmering – drop in a small piece of onion, if it sizzles, the oil is ready – add the salmon cakes in a single layer. Don’t crowd the pan: they shouldn’t be touching. Cook for 3 minutes on the first side, until dark golden brown, then carefully flip and continue cooking for another 2-4 minutes or so, to your preferred doneness. Remove to a wire rack or paper towel-lined plate to drain. Repeat until all the patties are cooked. Dassit! 

What to Serve With Simple Salmon Cakes

There are not many sides that wouldn’t go well with these (I like to eat them all alone, to be honest) but here are some ideas on what to serve alongside my Simple Salmon Cakes:

Obligatory Pin – 

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