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Salmon Fritters
One large can salmon (pink) drained and chopped fine, four eggs, well beaten, pinch salt and pepper. Mix together, fry in hot lard by tablespoonfuls, and serve on lettuce leaves hot or cold. Serves 6.
A four-ingredient fritter with no flour at all — the eggs are the only binder, which makes the mixing and the pan temperature the whole recipe.
- Can size"One large can salmon" of the period usually means the 1-lb tall can, roughly 15-16 oz. A modern 14.75 oz tall can is the nearest equivalent; if using the small cans (about 6 oz each), you need between two and three.
- Pink salmonThe recipe specifies pink deliberately: it was the cheap grade, softer and paler than red sockeye. Canned pink salmon is still sold and is the closest match; drain it hard, as excess liquid is what makes these fall apart.
- Bones and skinTraditional canned salmon includes the soft vertebrae and skin. They mash into nothing and add calcium, but pick them out if the texture bothers you.
- The hinge — do not overbeat once combinedFour eggs to a pound of fish is a loose batter held together by coagulation alone. Beat the eggs well before adding the salmon, then fold only until mixed; working it further breaks the fish down and the spoonfuls spread instead of setting.
- Fat and temperatureLard is still available and gives the cleanest flavour; any neutral fat with a high smoke point works. The recipe says only "hot lard" and does not specify depth or heat; a moderate frying temperature, around 350F, is the usual modern reading — cooler and the egg soaks fat, hotter and the outside browns before the centre sets.
- Size and timingTablespoonfuls give fritters about two inches across, roughly two minutes a side. Do not crowd the pan; each addition drops the fat temperature.
- SeasoningA "pinch" is under-seasoned by current taste, and canned salmon varies in saltiness. Fry one fritter first and adjust the rest of the mixture.
- ServingThe recipe says it serves 6, which makes it a light lunch or supper dish rather than a main course; depending on how heaped the spoonfuls are, that is somewhere between four and seven small fritters each. Lemon or a caper mayonnaise suits them if serving cold.
Canned salmon transformed the American pantry between the 1870s and the 1920s: the Pacific Northwest and Alaska canneries turned a regional fish into a shelf-stable staple sold everywhere and cheaply, and pink salmon was the lowest-priced grade of all. The salmon croquette and salmon loaf were the more common treatments; this version dispenses with the usual white sauce or crumb binder entirely and leans on eggs alone, which makes it faster and, incidentally, a dish that happens to contain no flour at all.