This takes my breath away. If you have certain foods from your childhood, you know what I mean–it’s what my folks made, my mom and dad. Now, and for all the years since then, my mother has continued to make salmon patties this way. It’s my parents’ way of making salmon patties in the summertime. My apron strings are tied up into this–in this moment, in this memory I have of warm summer days as a kid–and of them. It floors me just to think that they were young when they began this… I can still see my mother in a full gathered skirt with a slender bodice, her hair pinned up pretty or falling in blond loose curls on her shoulders. Dad had a youthful tan from outdoor work, and a full head of dark hair with a few light streaks. He was handsome, trim and muscular. They were a striking couple, a good looking pair. For a lot of years, Mother regularly wore a wrist bracelet until it was too busy in the summer with canning and gardening. But I always saw her in a dress.
To visualize them, now, of then, it really sets me in amazement because I’ve already surpassed their age bracket when they first decided to make these for my siblings and me. Time is very weird when you think about it. You are your grandparents and your parents your whole life through, in some aspect–maybe for the most part that makes you into your own person, oddly thought and said. 
Splat some mayonnaise down into a large bowl. Don’t be concerned about measurements. Approximately 1/3 cup to 1/2 cup is what you’ll need–however the amount needed for there to be solidity in forming a patty with your hands when everything has been combined together. Not just for added flavor, but mayonnaise serves as a binding ingredient. You basically eyeball it and feel it when you mix this with your hands. It’s all up to you. In other words, you might want to add extra mayo as you go along–or not. There’s no right or wrong addition of any of these ingredients.
Don’t drain the salmon from the can really–a little bit of the liquid is essential–so don’t bother sopping the meat in between paper towels for it to be dry when you add the meat. You want a moist patty, not a dry one–one that has a slight crunch on the outer sides but moist on the inside of the patty. It won’t hurt adding a tablespoon or so of the liquid. Again, whatever you want to do–all up to you.
Break the meat apart with a spoon to get it started.
Cut open a lemon for freshly squeezed lemon juice–the real McCoy.
Toss in some steel-cut oat flakes. “Oats??” Yes. It’s makes the texture crunchy on the outer patty; plus, it’s good for you!
Chop white or yellow onion–in no fancy way.
Spritz the lemon juice periodically. A so-so amount will nicely do the job.
Open these bad boys–drizzle with some good Worcestershire sauce and liquid smoke, but more of the liquid smoke than the WS. Add salt and pepper.
Hold on a bit–I have to get technical for a little trivia!–Worcestershire sauce contains soy sauce, barley malt vinegar, distilled white vinegar (“spirit vinegar”), anchovies, sugar, salt, dark molasses, onions, garlic, chili peppers, lemon, and tamarind extract which comes from a pod of a tropical Asian evergreen tree. The sauce is famously named from its birthplace–Worcester, England.
I never run out of Worcestershire sauce at home–that much of a must.
Liquid smoke on the other hand, is derived from wood chips in a combustion chamber that produces smoke through a tube, cooled smoke forming liquid that is added with water to make such a flavoring for cooking. Liquid smoke is also used in the preservation of food, not just for flavoring. The way it comes about is referred to as, “destructive distillation”. Interesting?
Crack an egg open.
Add some flour for a sticky component with the egg.
Banana peppers were a given growing up–they were always available, whether fresh from the garden or canned for in the winter months. Either way, we never ran out of banana peppers. Dad loved them. We ate them when we were little kids, too; loved them hot-pickled.
Chop any kind of pepper that you have or want for these patties. I happen to prefer banana peppers for this.
I’m adding more oats.
I like to fry mine, now, in virgin coconut oil and possibly a little butter with it. Drop them into floor or into your favorite fish fry meal before cooking.
Squirt fresh lemon juice over both sides of a fried patty, and taste for need of extra salt. I even like having a small glass dish for a lemon dipping bowl as I eat a salmon patty. It’s a nutritious, wholesome summer meal.
Salmon a patty.
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