Cured Salmon Gravlax
Difficulty: Medium
Cooking time: 20 min + 48-60 Hours (Curing)
Serves 4
If you’ve ever had the special privilege of finding a very good bagel shop, you might find that the best way to enjoy a fresh bagel is with a generous dollop of cream cheese, thinly sliced onions, and piled high with slices of smoked salmon, bagel of course beautifully toasted burnt black. Now the worst part of this arrangement by far is finding a shop that will burn your bagel to a carcinogenic perfection so the only way to get around this is of course to make it at home and ruin your bagel yourself. However, this creates a second problem. Salmon is expensive and costs money, and cured salmon even at its cheapest still costs too much for me, but this does not deter me. Smoking salmon at home is difficult and requires temperature and bacteria control equipment that would probably cost even more money. Luckily, as it turns out, the Norwegians have had a form of cured salmon called gravlax for centuries, and we’ve found the results to be even better than the smoked equivalents. Curing it at home is easily doable for just about anyone and lends a greater extent of control over the final product for flavor, texture, and salinity.
This method uses chunks of rock salt, sugar, and an herb of your choice to encase the salmon in a curing mixture, drawing out moisture and deeply flavoring with sweet and salty notes. This curing mixture makes an environment so solute heavy that the meat becomes bacteria resistant, making it safe to eat without cooking and luckily, this recipe is very forgiving and very easy to customize. I’ve got a sample recipe down below, but feel free to change up the quantities and adjust to your own likings.
The Recipe:
Ingredients:
1.5-2 Ibs skin on salmon fillet
1 ¼ cup rock salt (or ¾ cup coarse kosher salt)
1 ¼ cup white sugar
1 large bunch fresh herb (Traditionally dill)
Zest of 1 lemon
(Optional) 1 Tsp ground allspice
Cream cheese sauce
4 Ounces plain cream cheese
2 Tsp lemon juice (About 2 wedges)
¼ Cup minced or grated white onion
1 Large pinch chopped dill
The Curing:
Preparing the Salmon
Using your sharpest paring knife, score the skin of the salmon fillet with shallow 1 inch cuts spaced out about 1 inch from one another, just deep enough to cut a little bit into the flesh
This will help the cure penetrate better into the meat of the salmon
Measure out your salt into a durable metal bowl or if you have it, a mortar and if you have rock salt, using a mortar and pestle, pound the salt into roughly pebble sized pieces. Keep any errant salty dust but try to keep most of them about the size of little rocks.
The reason we don’t just use kosher or table salt is that the smaller the salt, the more volatile the salt is since it will dissolve easier. Just a bit too much finer salts will cause the product to be too salty, and the thickness of your salmon can even affect this so we use smaller rock salts to try and get a more even cure
This is where you customize your salinity. Crush up the salt more for saltier deeper cures or keep them larger for less salty cures
Wash and finely chop most of your fresh herb, reserving only a few sprigs for presentation or serving
If you wanted to change up your herb, this is where to do it. Dill is traditional but in the right seasons, I actually like mint more and I’ve even had good experiences with cilantro. The best herbs are fresh and bright but you do whatever your heart desires
Mix the sugar, herb,salt, and any extra spices together (into a metal bowl if you were using a mortar, you don’t want to get the sugar all into the pores of the mortar).
Line a metal or plastic tray with aluminum foil, preferably with one large sheet, big enough to fit the salmon fillet with plenty of overhang.
Pour out half of your mix into a bed just bigger than the salmon filet’s surface and place the fillet skin flesh side down onto it.
Pour the remaining mix over the salmon, fully encasing it and ensuring that the sides and every square centimetre of the fish is packed down with cure.
Take a second sheet of foil the same size as the first, and lay over top. Fold the edges of the two sheets together and roll very tightly towards the center, all around the fish creating a waterproof envelope
Refrigerate for about 24-36 hours before flipping over and letting sit for the remaining time (about 48 hours total).
At the end of this time, check the fish. The flesh should be somewhat firm, not squishy and if the meat near the skin is still squishy when you unpack it, reseal it and let it continue curing skin side up, adding time as necessary.
If the surface of the fish is too salty or too cured, rinse down with cold water to draw out the excess salt
Once done, scrape off the cure completely from both sides. Use a very sharp knife to cut the fish into thin slices, cutting the flesh down to the skin (but not cutting through the skin). At the end, run the knife along the bottom of the fish along the skin to separate it from the flesh.
Mix up the cream cheese sauce if you’re going with it, burn some toast points or bagels, top with thinly sliced onions and capers, and enjoy.
