The holidays are always quite busy for Bill and me. My parents are divorced, and my mom has a lot of family in Pittsburgh, and Bill’s mom has a lot of family in Pittsburgh too. That means lots of running around for us, since we have three different families to spend time with. It’s a bit exhausting, but we are very grateful to have so much family around. That is the main reason we will never move somewhere that has better weather (most places have better weather!) Family comes first for us.
This Christmas we had dinner on Christmas eve with my moms family. Funny enough, the (mostly) Jewish side of my family. My aunt hosted dinner, and put together a beautiful spread. My favorite dish of the night was the Paleo crab cakes she made for an appetizer. Crab meat, egg yolks, and seasoning. It was simple (yet time consuming), and very tasty!
This week I decided to create a similar dish to the one she made, but using salmon. We already have a recipe for crab cakes. An oldie, but goodie, so it was time to recreate something possibly more delicious. The salmon cakes were amazing. I’m not sure I will ever make crab cakes again! Okay, that’s a lie, I love crab cakes. The salmon cakes were really good though.
Charlie was certainly excited by the wonderful aromas of this dish cooking. Sadly, we told him he couldn’t have any because of the onion, but that didn’t stop him from licking his chops. Sweet little fella.
These salmon cakes are perfect for a party, or just to spice up your weekly meals with something that may seem a bit more “fancy.” We topped ours with a squeeze of lemon juice, and a dollop of paleo mayo, but they are delicious on their own as well!
Sounds great but where do you get duck fat? (I know, from ducks, ha, ha…) It’s just not something we usually have around and I’ve never seen it at my market. I see that Amazon has it but it’s a bit pricey. So could I substitute bacon grease? Or maybe coconut or walnut oil? Thanks so much!
Hi Dora,
You can get Duck Fat from a company called Fatworks. Sometimes our Whole Foods has it, but they’ve been out of stock for nearly 3 months now. You can substitute chicken fat, lard, bacon grease… anything saturated and high quality.
Hope this helps!
Bill & Hayley
As you suggested, I looked into Fatworks’ but unfortunately, their minimum order for duck fat is 3 jars… much more than I can use up before it goes rancid. (I’m only cooking for two these days.) Will try the other fats you recommended. Many thanks and best wishes for a happy new year!
D’Artagnan sells duck fat and other high quality products and meats. They ship next day and have the best customer service.
Thanks, Sonjahm!
These are the best salmon cakes I have ever made! I fried mine in bacon grease. Topped them with a little walnut basil pesto! Delicious! These will be a new staple at my house! Thank you!
Yay! I’ve been meaning to make them again soon. So yummy!
Made these with shallots and fried in bacon fat. They were delicious, but were even better a few days reheated for breakfast! Great way to get some wild caught salmon into my diet but without paying a ton for salmon filets!
These were delicious, even without onion/garlic (my son is on a low fodmap diet). Thank you for making a great recipe!!! Best wishes for a healthy start to spring, you are in my prayers. Your recipes really help me feed our family!!! Michelle
I tried this recipe online and just this week I purchased your “Make it Paleo II” book and was thrilled to see that the recipe is in there because I really do prefer cook books over computers and this has become a fast favourite. I noticed in the book, though, that you fry first and finish in the oven and at first thought I was going crazy because I was pretty sure I finished them in the frying pan previously. So I looked and this definitely says to finish in the frying pan. Does it matter? Which do you usually do?
I don’t think it particularly matters, although frying first gives a little color and sear, which helps to lock in some moisture. The directions in the book are good ones to follow!