The Best Way To Shape Canned Salmon Burgers So They Stay Firm While Cooking

Hamburgers may be one of America's favorite foods, but even homemade ones can be unhealthy due to the high level of saturated fat in ground beef. Salmon burgers, on the other hand, contain plenty of "good" fat, rich in heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids. These days, they're readily available in stores — in fact, Trident Seafoods Alaskan Salmon Burgers are one of our favorite Costco finds that make it easy to reach your protein goals. Even so, homemade ones are cheaper and more easily customized, but the downside with them is that they can fall apart when cooking if you don't prepare them correctly. According to Rima Kleiner MS, RDN, who blogs about all things seafood at Dish on Fish, the secret is chilling your fish. Just like tuna patties, salmon patties can be kept from falling apart with a short stay in the fridge.

With this in mind, you'll need to start preparing those salmon patties about half an hour in advance of when you plan to cook them. As Kleiner advised, "The best way to shape canned salmon burgers so they stay firm while cooking [is to] pack the mixture tight into approximately a ¾-inch patty, thick enough to hold together ... and chill them in the refrigerator [for] about 15 to 30 minutes so they will stay firm while cooking."

Rima Kleiner also informed us that the dimensions of the uncooked salmon patty will affect how well it holds together when you cook it. In her experience, "The ideal thickness is about ¾ inch because it's dense enough to hold together as the salmon heats and the binders ... set without drying out." As for the diameter, she said, "A width of about three to four inches works best, since smaller patties stay structurally stable and are easier to flip without breaking apart." For reference, this is pretty similar to the dimensions of an average quarter-pound hamburger.

What will happen if you attempt to make a half-pound salmon burger or a salmon smashburger, though? Oversized hamburgers still hold together because the meat itself is fatty enough to allow this, but burgers made of canned salmon usually include fillers like breadcrumbs along with eggs or mayonnaise to bind everything together. These added ingredients seem to make them a bit more structurally unstable. As Kleiner warned, "If you shape canned salmon burgers too wide and thin, they tend to dry out and fall apart because there isn't enough structure to hold the patty together when you flip them during cooking. If you make them too big and thick, the outside overcooks before the center sets, causing the patty to break or crumble when handled." For bulkier burgers, you can always pile two on the bun or layer on the toppings after they're cooked.