As most of you may know, I’ve been visiting Finland twice a year for a while now. This has given me plenty of chances to sample Nordic cuisine and of the many things that I’ve become a fan of, their amazing gravlax selection (readily available in little plastic packets in the deli section) is definitely one of the biggest. The cured salmon they have out there is much closer to raw — smooth and buttery — than the stuff we manage to find here. Most of the lox we get here in SoCal is the smoked stuff, which is usually saltier, heavier, and a bit more preserved (it just feels stiffer when you take it out of the bag), even though it’s been cold-cured and not cooked. So with the goal of accessing a more sashimi-like cured salmon at home, I started the gravlax experiments.
I went off of the Cooking For Engineers Gravlax recipe, since it seemed to be one of the simplest available while being close enough to traditional technique without required wooden weights and large drifts of snow. The cook for that page put up great pictures, but I wanted to take my own because I’m contrary that way 
I started with some frozen Atlantic salmon filets from Costco, because I didn’t want to deal with the pre-freezing process of using fresh fish. I ended up going with farmed Atlantic for its higher fat content.Ideally, I should have looked for a nice slab of salmon belly, but I wasn’t going to find that outside of a genuine downtown fish market. Besides, my goal here was accessibility — I want to be able to reproduce the results on short notice, without having to drive across county lines.
Note the light color — while it gets a bit pinker after being thawed, it’s not by much. The fat veins in this piece are also nicely visible. It should be noted that this was my third try, and the first successful one. Earlier, I had a not-so great run using leaner wild sockeye filets which ended up being hard as salmon jerky after a day. This is what prompted me to go for a fattier fish and to cure it for a shorter period than recommended in the recipe.
I based my brine mix off of the site, with a few minor tweaks, making enough for a pound of fish. Two tablespoons kosher salt — I had tried regular iodized table salt on earlier runs and felt it left a weird chemical aftertaste, which is probably the main reason the page suggests kosher, despite almost nobody in the Nordic countries being Jewish. Two heaping tablespoons of white sugar — not brown, since it turns molasses-y, and outweighing the salt by a bit because I found this recipe a bit on the salty side during my last try. Too much salt also sucks the moisture out of the fish that much faster, leaving you with the rock-hard wedge I mentioned earlier. Two teaspons of freshly ground black pepper. Two heaping tablespoons of dried dill — the site calls for sprigs of fresh dill, but it never seems to be available in the markets I frequent. Not much of a SoCal thing, I guess — maybe I should try cilantro next time, for kicks? Anyway, two tablespoons of dried dill would equal a pretty big mound of fresh dill and it’d have enough of a chance to marinate in the juices leaking from the fish to leave its mark. The only downside I could see was that I’d have to wash off a lot more extraneous matter, but that’s a small price to pay for the convenience and accessibility factor.
I sprinkled about 1/3 of the brine on the plastic wrap, then lay down the first filet, following with another layer of brine, then the second filet. Topped with the rest of the mixture. Since I was using skinless filets, I figured it’d be nice to coat everything thoroughly. The site only has it on one side since it’s a piece with skin still attached.
The filet sandwich was securely wrapped in plastic, then rewrapped in a second layer to keep things tightly held inside.
I then took the step of tossing it into a freezer bag, for protection against the inevitable juice leakage. The picture on the left is before, the picture on the right is 6.5 hours later. With this rapid rate of fluid loss, you can see why my last experiment (where I left it in the fridge for two days) ended up in a very hard chunk of fish. Wanting a softer texture, I took it out relatively early. I might try it again for 12 hours and see the difference, but I will probably never go the full three days recommended on the page.
The finished filet, rinsed off in cold water and patted dry with paper towels. Notice how much darker the flesh is, after just a bit of curing.
A few initial slices, which were approved by the boy as being “pretty much like the stuff at home”. Score!
Taste analysis: Buttery, leaning definitely towards the sashimi spectrum in softness, but still with that unmistakably cured bit of resilience. The fresh dill flavor did manage to infuse the whole cut, and adding the extra sugar helped balance out the crazy saltiness of before. You can actually taste the fish. I could definitely eat this stuff plain and be happy.
Convenience analysis: I did have to go out and buy a box of kosher salt, but that will probably last me for a year. Sugar and dried dill were already in the pantry. Grinding the pepper myself to get the full measure I needed took some time, but it smells so much better than the pre-ground sort that I don’t mind. The big bag of filets I got will give us at least another month’s worth if I don’t use it in other recipes. Altogether, a very easy recipe with simple, attainable ingredients.
Financial anaylsis: I now have two full filets of this stuff, which ends up being about two large packets worth at the store. Around $25-30 retail, for a fraction of the cost. Easy on the pocketbook, too
PS. On a completely different but still Nordic fish-related note… Yes, for those of you that wondered, I have tried lutfisk (lipeäkala in Finnish). And no, I don’t think it deserves all the disgust people seem to heap on it. A bit bland, yes, but the consistency was rather enjoyable. Reminded me of scallops. Might try to make some on my own one day for the heck of it. Then again, remember that the only people to beat East Asians in willingness to eat anything are possibly the French…
Looks delicious! But why kosher salt, why not grained sea salt? Pretty much all plain salt without iodine in grain or flake form will do. (I’m a Fin, can you tell?) I always make my grav lax from fresh fish, and even more fattier than what you used. Also, I just throw salt and ground black pepper straight on to of the fish, without any other ingredients. Leaving other ingredients off heighteners the fish taste.
Kosher salt because it’s the plainest salt available at the market nearest to me. Grained sea salt sounds wonderful, but I have a feeling it would come here with an equally fancier price. Americans are fond of adding extra chemicals to everything and marking up the pure — the only other option was sea salt in a tiny glass grinder meant for the table, at 1000% markup from the kosher
I might try it with the fresh fish someday, but remember that our “fresh” salmon has to be flown down from Alaska, at the nearest, so never quite rivals the fresh that you’re probably getting. Not to mention it’s darn hard to find more fat when you’re surrounded by… well, Southern Californians. Fat is a taboo word. Sigh.
There’s a reason I gorge on fresh salmon when I’m out there
I’ll try it with just the salt and pepper next time, though! I’ve done it a bit differently each time, so no fear of tweaking here. Heh.
In here you can buy a 1kg bag of pure sea salt for like three dollars from the next corner store. And hey, fish oil is healthy!
You should save those juices and sell them for garum!
Use fatty fish, for example, sardines, and a well-sealed (pitched) container with a 26-35 quart capacity. Add dried, aromatic herbs possessing a strong flavor, such as dill, coriander, fennel, celery, mint, oregano, and others, making a layer on the bottom of the container; then put down a layer of fish (if small, leave them whole, if large, use pieces) and over this, add a layer of salt two fingers high. Repeat these layers until the container is filled. Let it rest for seven days in the sun. Then mix the sauce daily for 20 days. After that, it becomes a liquid.
You and your Romans
Funny part being, that sounds like a modern Asian recipe… reminds me of the fish pastes and sauces that we’d always have around. Mmmm.
A lot of contemporary compilers of ancient recipes suggest using Asian fish sauces as a substitute for garum. I guess some people think making it yourself is kind of weird/gross, for whatever reason.
re: Cooking for Engineers website
I did not know this existed, why did I not know? Awesome.
also the Gravlax looks awesome.
Re: Cooking for Engineers website
Thank you! Really fun site for the kitchen scientists amongst us *g*
I feel so inspired! The final product looks delicious.
Thank you! It was indeed quite tasty — most of it is already gone after the second day
Still very amazed at how easy it is, considering how many hundreds of dollars I’ve spent on the stuff in the past.
I LOVE ‘gravad lax’ (as we’d say here in Sweden). And we do eat it all the time here. Mmm.
And I’m one of the people who loves ‘lutfisk’ too, even if we only it on Christmas Day – as is tradition. It needs to be eaten with the right spices and sauce, etc. Then it’s fabulous food.
Mmm, fish. And yes, we had it with a lovely white sauce and spices this past Christmas.
Y’know, if we do end up moving out there by the end of this year, we simply must schedule a meet-up and hang-out session…
LOL — I can just imagine the remarks I’d get if I started bringing home bags of salt. I already get eye rolls from T for bringing an extra suitcase to fit all the coffees, teas, toothpastes, chocolates, cookies and tubed/tinned stuff I insist upon bringing back
Well, fermentation of most food substances releases unpleasant odors, so I’m not altogether surprised at people’s reluctance to make their own. Especially in this age of processed foods, when everything comes pre-made in sealed plastic packages. I can see how there might be fear of contamination in a home batch, too, when not done in more sanitary cooking facilities.
Mostly, though, I think it’s the stinkiness