A watercolour of two craggy golden fish cakes with a rough crisp crust, cut to show pale pink flakes
Generated with OpenAI gpt-image-1
Adapted from The British fish cake

Salmon cakes in a cornflake crust

An established dish converted to shelf-stable ingredients. Every substitution is documented below.

How long it keeps

About 3 months, set by Mayonnaise.

Indicative, for planning a build before you buy. The answer for a pack you already own is the best before date printed on it, and that only holds if it has been stored as the label says.

Serves
2
Burners
1
Pans
1
Water
0.2 L
Active
18 min
Total
25 min

Ingredients

Three tins and a box of cereal, and what comes out is a proper fish cake with a crust that shatters.

Everything must be dry. Drained salmon, drained potatoes, both pressed firmly in the tin lid or against the side of the pan. Wet mixture will not hold a shape and will not crisp, and there is no fixing it once it is in the oil.

  1. Crush the cornflakes in the bag with a mug or the heel of your hand. You want coarse crumbs with some flakes left recognisable, not dust. Tip onto a plate.
  2. Crush the potatoes roughly with a fork. Flake the salmon in, bones and all if you like them, they are soft and they are most of the calcium.
  3. Mayonnaise, dried onion, mustard and pepper. Fold rather than beat. Stop the moment it holds together.
  4. Shape four cakes, firmly, about 2 cm thick. Press each side into the cornflakes and press them on properly, they need contact to stick.
  5. Moderate heat, not high. Oil about 3 mm deep. Four to five minutes a side until deep gold. Cornflakes carry sugar and will go from brown to burnt in under a minute on a fierce flame.

Turn once and only once. They are fragile until the first crust sets, and every time you poke them you lose some of it.

A wedge of the bottled lemon juice over them at the table, and the mustard jar within reach.

What this was adapted from

The British fish cake: cooked fish and mashed potato bound with egg, crumbed, and shallow fried

  • beaten egg as the binder → mayonnaise

    Mayonnaise is already emulsified egg and oil, so it binds exactly as egg does and browns the same way, with the advantage that it keeps in a cupboard and needs no cracking, beating or leftover white. It also seasons as it binds.

  • fresh breadcrumbs → crushed cornflakes

    Cornflakes crush to a coarse crumb that goes properly crisp and stays crisp longer than bread does, because there is no moisture in them to start with. The crust is craggier and a shade sweeter.

  • boiled floury potato → tinned new potatoes, crushed

    Tinned potatoes are waxy rather than floury so the cake is denser and needs a firmer hand when shaping. Crush rather than mash them, and stop while there are still lumps.