Cured Salmon (Gravlax)

Gravlax is perfect as an appetizer, as a snack or simple lunch, or as part of a holiday buffet.

Serve the sliced gravlax with lemon wedges and your homemade dill pickles! I like eating gravlax on buttered toast.

Put a couple of slices of gravlax on a piece of buttered toast, sprinkle it with a bit of lemon juice or vinaigrette dressing, and get ready to take a heavenly bite. This is probably my favorite way to prepare and savor salmon, because the blend of flavors is subtle and the texture is perfect. It’s not quite true to say it melts in your mouth, but it’s close. This is a recipe that comes to us from Scandinavia with zero gluten, so there’s need to modify it.

Gravlax is similar to lox, the cured salmon you’ll find in a bagel shop or Jewish deli, but, while lox is cured in salt, gravlax uses salt, sugar, pepper, and dill in the curing mix.

When choosing salmon filets for curing, find two center-cut, skin-on filets of roughly equal size and weight (about 1 pound each); I typically buy two whole filets and trim them to match. Make sure all of the bones are removed; salmon has a row of pin bones that you can feel by running your finger from the wide (head) end of the filet toward the tail. Hopefully, the filets will have been properly cleaned, but if you feel the pin bones, use a tweezers or needle-nose pliers to pull them out. I prefer using wild salmon, such as sockeye, although farm-raised Atlantic salmon, which has a slightly higher fat content, also works.

Besides the main ingredients, you’ll need plastic wrap, aluminum foil, two flat plates to press the salmon between, and a something heavy to place on top, like a brick or a few cans of food—you’ll see in the photo below that I used cat food this time!

Two salmon filets; a blend of sugar, salt, and green pepper; and fresh dill are all the ingredients you need.

Ingredients:

1. 2 salmon filets, about 1 pound each, with skin on and bones removed

2. ¼ cup sea salt

3. ¼ cup sugar or sucanat

4. 2 tablespoons green peppercorns, crushed

5. 1 bunch fresh dill, coarsely chopped (stems included)

Preparation:

1. Thoroughly mix the sea salt, sugar, and ground peppercorns

2. Place the two filets side-by-side, skin-side down, on a sheet of plastic wrap large enough to wrap the two pieces (see photos below)

3. Pour the salt mixture over the filets, using your fingers to spread it evenly across the top and sides of the filets (you don’t need to put any on the skin side)

4. Cover one of the filets with the chopped dill and place the second filet on top of the dill, skin-side up

5. Wrap the sandwiched filets tightly in the plastic wrap; add another layer or two of plastic wrap

6. Place the wrapped salmon on a sheet of aluminum foil and neatly wrap the package in the foil

7. Put the package on a flat plate, with another plate on top; weigh down the top plate with a brick or some cans of food

8. Put the whole setup in the refrigerator for 2 days, turning over the package after the first day

   (Serving instructions below)

Coat both filets with the salt mixture, cover one of the filets with the chopped dill, then turn the other filet on top of the dill.

Wrap the filets tightly in plastic wrap and aluminum foil.

Use something heavy, like canned food, to press the gravlax between two flat plates.

Serving:

1. Unwrap the package and remove one of the filets to a cutting board

2. Cut the filet on a diagonal (hold the knife at about a 45 degree angle) into thin slices, leaving the skin behind

3. Serve the gravlax with lemon wedges, a vinaigrette sauce; you can also try finely chopped onion or chives and capers (it also pairs nicely with homemade dill pickles)

4. Any uneaten salmon will last in a container in the refrigerator for a couple of days, and will last even better if it isn’t sliced, so slice only as much as you think you’ll need each time

After 2 days in the fridge, unwrap the gravlax and slice it at a diagonal.

Serve gravlax with other finger foods: cheese, salami, and pickles.