How to Cure Salmon at Home and Make Gravlax
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- Опубліковано 1 бер 2024
- Unlike its cousins smoked salmon, lox, and nova, which are all usually brined and then smoked, gravlax relies on a one-step process.
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In the Pacific Northwest, our method is some of the same, but just with plain white sugar and (sea) salt. But, before any of the drying and koshering of the salmon meat, we put 4-6 paper towels over the sugar/salted salmon meat. Then apply an alder or cedar plank board and brick weights. The paper towels wicks up the excess water and juices, and can easily be removed, and another set of paper towels applied (depending on the level of water/juice excretion and absorption). With the final removal of the paper towels, one has a firm, modestly dry, modestly less oily salmon meat. This can be easily sliced on the diagonal for great salmon gravlax, or salmon bacon filets. Whether you want to then have a smoked product, one could have put some liquid smoke into the sugar/salt mix, or slightly cold smoke the salmon meat before hand. If after the fact, and one has gravlax or salmon bacon and want a slightly smoked flavor, then one can easily for the shortest of smoke times, cold smoke away from the heat, but get some smoke aroma onto the now-cut filets. All is good.
We're spoiled in the PNW to have such ready access to fresh delicious Pacific salmon 😋. Wild sockeye is my personal favorite
That’s what I was thinking. I would never use farmed. Love it with Coho or Sockeye. I also use 2 pieces and double amount of white sugar and salt plus some crushed juniper berries. First one layer of 1/3rd salt mix. 2 fresh bay leaves - I got a tree. First filet, skin side down, then 1/2 of remaining salt mix and 2 more bay leaves, second piece flesh side down, last of salt mix. No dill. Dill only for serving with sour cream. Cover and weigh down, I use dumb bells. Flip over after 24 hours. Then serve after another 12 hours, it will be too salty otherwise. I scrape and rinse filets off, and keep them in glass container with parchment between layers. They’ll be eaten in 2 days 😸
@@jamesyoungquist6923 While Chinook (black mouthed, King) salmon and Coho (white mouthed, Silver) salmon are the most-desired, the rest of the other salmon ... Kokanee (Sockeye, red salmon) and Humpback (pink salmon, "dog" salmon) are less entertained.
Why ? Coloring ? More or less oily savory fish meat ? Or the actual texture of the King and Silver salmon is more firm flesh, while the red and pink are less firm and appear to be mushy fish meat texture and fall apart faster - whether smoked, brined, dried, or used in a baked or canned meat method.
All is preference or locality. As the son (and fisherman) of a sports commercial fisherman, catching all of our WA/OR Chinook and Coho salmon, it is the only fish we ate. My cousins in Anchorage might have eaten more red and pink salmon.
There's also smoked salt, so, if you live in Oregon City then you can buy some from.the Spice Pilgrim tent at the OC.Farmers Market on Saturdays. They also have online ordering.
@@9GodslayerWould be nice to know if they have apple, cherry, peach, alder, cedar, mesquite, oak, maple, varieties of smokes.
After the slicing, a toasted onion bagel with with whipped cream cheese and some thin sliced red onion does it for me
I am sooo excited to try this recipe. I love the texture of cold smoked salmon and this seems like it will be the same texture but with different taste.
Center cut farm salmon, 1/3 cup light brown sugar, 1/4 cup kosher salt, dill and brandy. 3 days in the fridge with weights on the fish with daily bastings.
Using either a vacuum bag/machine or a zip bag makes the curing easier and saves you the time to baste the fish since the liquid will keep in contact with the fish, all you need to do is to turn the fish once or twice a day.
Fantastic advise
Do you still weigh it down?
@@ay9955 If you can have it in a bag with no air its not really needed since the purpose of the weighing down is to keep it in contact with the cure as much as possible and the firmness of the fish will come really well with just curing. I usually cure salmon for Christmas and several years ago I started using vacuum bags and I found it so much easier this way. Also I usually do two sides of salmon at the same time and I put them flesh side to flesh side and put one tail end towards the head end of the other so they will be similar in thickness and then with all cure and flavours in-between. And although I almost always cure with dill I also do a couple of options like fennel, anised and sometimes beetroot at the last 24 hours of the cure and you get this amazing color on the fish. And although I never use alcohol when I cure I've tried cured salmon with whiskey, pernod and also with akvavit and they are all great but I really like mine really classic and with a clean flavour. I also use white suger since I think using brown suger makes it a little bit to much caramel flavour and I don't want it cloying in the flavour and I think the brown suger makes it to much of the rich flavour, but I really like fish so that might be my preference, The quantity of suger to salt I think is best at 1 part salt to 1,5 part suger and I think 90 gr of suger and 60 gr of salt to 1 kg of salmon with skin is a good amount and it is really good to grate some freshly grated white pepper as well in the cure, have fun and enjoy it.
@@ay9955 Yes.
I am absolutely going to try this at home!
Thank you.
I'm so glad I saw this. Gravlox has become so prohibitively expensive and now I can make my own
My father made this once in our fridge i wasn't buying that you could eat it, i was a teen, i also am not a fish fan but i can't wait to see how you do it compared to my dad
You guys just have so much fun together. ATK would not be the same without you guys. Thanks for another great recipe!!!
I watched a Martha Stewart video about gravedlax and her instructions are a little too vague for me. Now your video changes everything and i feel confident to try it! 😊
Martha is a celebrity NOT a chef hence the different.
I've been wanting some gravlox. Now I'll make it.
I just got done making this and am eating it right now. Both my wife and I love this recipe. The only thing was I couldn't find the German black bread so we used a small cocktail rye and it was outstanding.
As always, it's a true pleasure to see you both cooking together!
Very good simple recipe. My only comment would be discussing cutting out the dark meat or "Bloodline" at the bottom of some of the slices, as it is very strong and fishy in flavor and easy to remove. I also have a little bit more of a complicated gravlax curing and slicing video up on my page if anyone wants to check it out. There are many great techniques for this dish, including this one - which I love for its simplicity. Lox on!
I would think that curing might be better in vacuum packing. Oddly enough vacuum sealers are not a kitchen gadget ATK has embraced in the cooking process. They really help marinate foods.
I just yelled to my wife "She's pouring E&J on the salmon!" what a world
this stuff is great even without the dill...have made it several times, and it's _wonderful!_
Without dill it is called Lox, and with dill it is called Gravlax.
@@Rob-xz6uv The prefix "grav" has nothing to do with dill. "Gravad Lax" meant buried (like a "grave") salmon, where the ground was used for temperature control during the curing process, though that traditional technique results in something more fermented than cured. The use of dill was generally because it was plentiful and resulted in a desired flavor and became traditional. In some places it's also served in a more modern way (in the in-use for few hundred years definition of modern) with a mustard sauce instead of a cream.
@@BillyHarvey - yep, I agree that the prefix itself does not mean dill. However, Gravlax (spelt many diff ways) does mostly involve dill, whilst Lox does not involve dill.
rather than basting it once a day you can just place the fish in a ziploc bag and mush it about a bit once a day and flipping it at the end when you put the weights back on. also you don't need to use that much dill you won't really get that much more dill flavor doing it that way.
lastly i feel the video lacked the most important point about making this the salmon has to have been totally frozen for at least 36 hours. now pretty much all salmon is frozen before sale but this also helps keep costs down.
which is an other point in favor of this salmon might be expensive and removing most of the water won't make this cheaper but it is cut so thin a single pound of starting weight salmon is enough for 10 people.
I am impressed with this vid... A diet of salmon at least once a week is my thing. However, it's nice to get something diff on a theme. Also, this is a crazy request.... my father was a jeweler watchmaker and he has shown me many things about that trade that are utterly fascinating. In that respect, Julia, your diamond ring is absolutely unique and gorgeous. The setting is so unusual. - Ralph Shaw.
add horseradish to the crème fraîche
What about the traditional honey mustard dill sauce?
In life, my friend made gravlax for every party she threw. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
I do the same thing but with cold-ish smoke (as cold as my green egg will go, but still above technical "cold smoke" temps) it at the end. I usually skip the weights, but it looks like a good idea. We also stopped using alcohol because the kids did not like the flavor it imparts. For smoke: Cherry, Alder or Maple are great flavors. Skip the oak, hickory or mesquite here; that is entirely too much for the fish.
Alternatively, go ahead and brine it with the salt cure for half a day, then warm smoke until rare in the middle. Creamy and moist. Kids love that. I'd suggest something acidic on the side to cut through the richness, but YMMV. We like cucumber salad in rice wine vinegar.
lol, look at Bridget's face at 4:48
😅😂lol
How do you source the salmon? Would any grocery store salmon do or do you need sushi grade to ensure its safe to eat raw. Is that what the brandy is for? Is there a non alcoholic liquid to use instead?
Yummy
Ok Julia, I see your eyelashes 💯👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Great
Please develop a recipe for the wet brined salty belly lox that they sell at Russ & Daughters or Zabar's in New York.
Every recipe online for "belly lox" is dry cure like this one but the salty lox is silky and not at all sweet, nor is it a dry firm texture. it has a moist, silky texture like salmon sashimi but with a whole lot more flavor. Because it's so salty, you cut it paper thin and eat it with a lot of cream cheese on a bagel. You don't use a lot as you would with nova.
This is the original lox sold by Jewish immigrant vendors from pushcarts in the early 20th century. To my knowledge the only place that makes it is Acme Smoked Fish in Brooklyn, who supply R&D.
I would eat this with bagels! Just put cream cheese and top it with the gravlox. Had it at a restaurant.
Fascinating.
It also need gravlax sås.
fmr alco here - what should i use instead of the liquor? plain water? some simple syrup?
Water works. Another suggestion in the comments on the (linked) recipe web page was onion juice. It was recommended to avoid acidic liquids like lemon juice as they will "cook" the fish like ceviche.
A quick search says that peach or apple juice are good subs for brandy. HTH
@@sandrah7512 You can add lemon zest to the salt/sugar mixture, without causing a problem like juice would.
I love cured salmon, but am not a huge fan of dill -- that's why making it at home is an advantage. As long as we are talking about smorgasbord, I have a smoker, and when you have a smoker, everything has to be smoked - hahahha. The dry brined salmon is a nice breather...
Swedes have eaten Gravlax (in an alter form) since 1350 A.D. Then they buried, in Swedish "BeGRAVde", the salmon in wooden chest in the ground with salt to preserve it. Hence the name GRAVlax. Grav translate to Grave or Tomb. In the mid 1600 - ish we started to make it as in this video, with salt, suger and herbes.
With us Pacific West Coast Americans with brown, black, and polar bears, we wouldn't bury our fish, but put them up in Alaskan larder houses far above the height of any bear attempt !
@@johnlord8337Including Yogi?.....He is "smarter than the average bear!"🐻
@@samuelgates5935 Only the Ranger has the locker keys - and Yogi isn't going to get them !
@@johnlord8337 🤣🤣🤣
Grav is short for gravad. It doesn't mean grave or tomb, just buried under the ground.
I live in Alaska, catch my own salmon and eat it at least once a week. Two things stand out for me in this video. First, I never heard of Gravlax! I thought i knew every way to cook salmon. From salmon gravy on potatoes to raw with seal oil and soy sauce... Second, you PREFER farmed salmon?? Oh my Lord what is happening to humanity? Farmed salmon isnt really even fish in my world, it isnt even food! But I am going out now to go get a fillet of wild caught copper river sockeye, the best salmon in the world, to make some Gravlax.
Yes! Let’s discuss the difference between farmed vs not farmed.. I’m disappointed that ATK promotes farmed fish..Will they respond? Probably not. I’m so close to unsubing. They promote so much that is really not healthy. WTF?
@@georgerichardson5116 There's no evidence that farm raised salmon is unhealthy. That's not to say that I don't think wild salmon taste better, but I understand some people grew up with and prefer the taste of farm raised.
@@georgerichardson5116
Actually,farm raised salmon has
more health benefits than wild salmon because of the greater Omega 3 content.
While I get wild salmon when possible, you are wrong about the health factors.
I am a retired fishing vessel captain then retired wholesale and retail seafood market worker.
I use also white pepper also and brown sugar instead of a light one and I put some of the mix right on the pan and put the salmon over it and the rest of the mix on the fish.
Oh my gosh this looks so good. I really want to make this, but don’t want to have to go buy brandy. Can I use something else, or is it a must? If so, I’ll just go get some. Thanks ATK!
No alcohol needed
love me some heavy cans.. oh wait, wrong thread
Which brand of kosher salt is used in this recipe?
Could you use a vacuum press for this?
YES.
Great! I can now eat gravlax!
Could you give us tips for how to avoid salmon with Anisakis? It's a major concern when not freezing/cooking salmon!
Just freeze it. Salmon without anisakis isn't a thing if you aren't eating farmed garbage (don't). Unless you are catching the salmon yourself, it's been frozen and you shouldn't need to worry.
@@brigabel8478 Actually, it's the opposite. Anisakis are found in wild salmons, not in farmed ones. Many fishmongers sell fresh salmon where I live, and freezing it below -20c at home is not possible. I don't feel comfortable eating cured salmon from lower quality frozen farmed fish for reasons other than Anisakis though? That's the dilemma.
@@SE013 that's what I said. There isn't a wild salmon on the planet that doesn't have anisakis. You can either freeze it to -20C or freeze it at home for longer. Anisakis is also almost exclusively found in the muscle of the abdominal wall so if you're that paranoid about it cut out the belly meat . Farmed salmon can also have and often do have anisakis especially if they are farmed in ocean pens
@@brigabel8478 Oops misunderstood the double negative, sorry :D and thanks
💯💯💯💰💯💯💯
When I want to cure salmon at home, I give them a good juice cleanse and lots of kombucha.
Why not put the E&J brandy in another plain bottle?
My guess these guys are not from the West Coast. Most pacific salmon is far more flavourful than farmed and the ecological price of farmed salmon is significant.
Can we make this without sugar?
then it would just be cured salmon
Without sugar, it has a saltier taste. It is "cured salmon" if no dill, regardless of sugar or no sugar.
Cured salmon is known as Gravlax, if dill is added.
I bet smoked sea salt would be great
Second she grabbed the brandy i was like Nope im out
First time I’ve heard of this
Can I skip the alcohol or is there an alternative to alcohol?
Yeah you can easily skip it and just literally do salt and sugar, still tasty
Brandy options?
(I don’t drink)
🤔The tiniest bottle you can find? 🤷🏼♀ (you can also just use water)
You don't need the brandy, most gravad lax is cured without alcohol
Drambuie!
@@Rob-xz6uv ?
Is there something else that can be used instead of brandy?
Vodka.
Traditionally we only use sugar. Salt and dill. Of course, it is up to each and everyone to add personal flavours. However we always eat it with Hovmästarsås…
or water.
Traditionally you'd use aquavit or vodka but no booze is needed. I've made it many times with just salt, sugar and dill. After making it with and without aquavit I'm not at all sure it does anything for the gravlax.
I would use Aquavit, maybe vodka or gin, def not brandy.
3 days?!?
I just shove it all into a zip lock bag and put it in the fridge for a few days. It's a much smaller footprint in your fridge and is basically self basting
It’s not easier to put the slice of salmon in a smaller container so that cover all the sides and the liquid don’t go the sides, but stays all together? Or we need the air to help?
Been making gravlax my whole life and i use maybe like a tablespoon of sugar. Seems kinda weird to me to add this much sugar, since its supposed to be salt cured. I just use coarse sea salt, a bit of sugar (I'd 1 teaspoon for that amount), dill and some pepper. Put the mix straight on the fish and gently rub it, just so it attaches. Make sure the fish is dry before add the mix. Leave it for a few days and its done. Also you definitely don't need that much of the salt mix, seems like a waste since 20% of that amount is plenty.
Why is Julia wearing her diamond ring? I would think it would damage it over continuous use.
So farm raised salmon is okay to eat. Good to know.
Ah, no!
@@georgerichardson5116
Farm raised salmon has greater health benefits because of the higher Omega 3 content.
Also,farm raised salmon are tested constantly for disease. Can't check free swimming salmon.
Please know what you are talking about before you comment.
If it isn't wild caught Alaskan Salmon, it isn't salmon!
4:45 her face 💀
Bit of a fish snob here. I strongly disagree about farm raised salmon. If you buy the right species, it will have plenty of fat, a better texture & a nice natural color. Farm raised salmon can't compare to wild caught salmon. Plus, when farm raised salmon escape, they cause diseases in wild populatins. It's just not great for the wild stock.
What's your evidence ?
I am retired from the commercial fishing and wholesale/retail seafood business and I have to say you are wrong. Seafood farming has come a long ways. Also the 1 year old salmon finally going out to Sea might get some external sea lice which might cause stress but when entering full salt water the lice die.
And most farmed salmon are in man-made
ponds quite a ways away from the rivers or oceans.
The flesh colour of farmed salmon is determined by the food they are fed. Wild salmon have a natural pink/red colour due to their diet. Salmon farmers can choose the flesh colour they want, from a colour card (!) supplied by the food manufacturer.
@@Rob-xz6uv
I worked in the seafood but for 20 years and I can say you are wrong.
@@Lee-yy2lr Tasmania, an island south of mainland Australia (where I am) produces a huge amount of farmed Atlantic Salmon. If a colouring agent is not added to the food of salmon farmed in sea cages, the flesh is very pale (not as attractive).
Can you get away with leaving out/substituting the brandy?
"Here's what you're having. Here's how you'll eat it."
Yes, please tell me how it tastes best. You know better than I do.
Can you substitute Splenda and Splenda Brown Sugar Blend instead?
you cannot cure things in artificial sweeteners
@@sabotabby3372
How much of the curing is actually being done by the sugar? It seems like the kosher salt is doing most of the heavy lifting for the process. And if sugar does have a part in it, Splenda brown sugar blend is part regular brown sugar (it also contains erythritol / sugar alcohol)
So you still have a mix of brown sugar in it anyway. It could be that a blend like that would just mean curing would take a bit longer. I appreciate your reply. But I'll humbly wait for the America's Test Kitchen food scientists to chime in ...if they ever see this. 🙂
Can you add a little liquid smoke to give it more flavor? How long will this keep?
In the video, I believe she said 1 week in the fridge.
It would not be gravlax if it is cold smoked or add liquid smoke; salt, sugar, and liquid smoke would give you an imitation of cold smoked salmon.
Do you need the sugar? Im on keto diet.
Yes. That’s the whole point of this dish…don’t eat it if you have a restrictive diet
without the sugar you have lox, similar to gravlax but not the same result.
@@dchenkin02 Thankyou for a solid knowledgable answer. I like lox. I will try that.😀
Smörebröd.
How on earth could farmed salmon be recommended over wild?!
You cannot readily get wild salmon Year round. Also the farm raised salmon has a much higher healthy Omega 3 content which is better for curing.
Aqua farming has come a long ways over the year. You won't believe how much seafood is farmed nowadays.
I love farm salmon over wild because of its texture. If you are used to wild salmon you probably won’t like farmed because of its texture too. I won’t use wild salmon to make Gravlax because it’s only cured, but even cold smoked. It’s been known many people had gotten liver problems, including liver cancer later on because of parasites in wild salmon sashimi. (parasites can go any where in your body including to your brain and under your skin, it’s absolutely gross!)
Whoa. Raw!?
Ahem sushi? What do you think sushi is lol.
good question that I bet more people wonder about.
@@_SurferGeek_ I know it's cured. Hence my surprise when the guy asks if it's raw. It makes no sense.
pushing farm raised crap salmon?
Yeah, eating fish that has to exist in its own poop is healthy. WTF?
@@georgerichardson5116
They don't swim in their own poop. Landlocked pens are continually flushed, filtered and replaced 24/7 while much of your farmer salmon is in pens in the mouths of rivers where there is also constant water flow. While I do prefer wild salmon,farm raised salmon has greater health benefits because of the higher Omega 3 content.
Why don’t you buy a healthy salmon so you don’t have to cure it?
And also please if possible promote the idea of using land farmed salmon rather than sea farmed since the sea farming is having some seriously damaging effects to the environment. Also worth to mention is that many other fat fishes are excellent for to grava such as mackerel, char and trout are just some.
I didn't even know it was sick
Wheat is cream fresh?
Cream freche is a cultured dairy product much like yogurt or sour cream but it has a higher fat content.
@@_SurferGeek_ Or thin it down with a bit of buttermilk and heavy cream. Or just make your own by adding a bit of buttermilk to heavy cream and let it sit out for a day or so, until it has thickened.
Crème fraîche. it's french.
@@_SurferGeek_ Someone spending more than a day waiting for their gravlax to cure?
Parasites?
Nice recipe but please don’t use the popup product links ever again. They’re incredibly annoying.
I'd leave out the brandy. It tastes weird.
You won’t taste the brandy but it helps with the curing process.
Do research on farmed vs wild caught salmon, please! So disappointed you push farmed salmon. Ready to unsubscribe.
You obviously didn't research it properly. I am a seafood expert and nowadays farmed salmon is fine. Let us make a little list.
All being farmed:
Salmon, catfish, shrimp, redfish, cobia, halibut, trout, sturgeon, tilapia, oysters,clams, mussels, crawfish, some pompano, some flounder,beef, pork,elk, pheasant, quail, turkey, chicken, edible seaweed,sea urchins and so many more land and sea products.
And by the way,wild salmon may contain mercury being a migratory species.
First
Second
Turd
Remove jewelry and wear food gloves
Too bad, it’s too much sugar for diabetic folks.
Actually most of the sugar gets lost in the liquid, same with the salt. Sugar and salt curing actually doesn't make the salmon sweet.
Then don’t it eat or don’t get diabetes
@@chili-rye123"simply don't develop liver problems"
you are a tar pit
Sodium is high. Not good for health
Then don’t eat it.
Better for your health than eating the fish rotten. These techniques have existed for centuries for a reason.
Used to make this in a restaurant up in Harlem where I was the chef.
The owner was mad at me for "wasting" good salmon.
One day he came in with some bagels, I took a bagel, added some seasoned cream cheese.......he came back for seconds.🥯🥯
What did you do to make the seasoned cream cheese?
@@JK-zq2tn Soften cream cheese. Lemon zest, lemon juice, fresh chopped parsley, black pepper, chopped capers, red pepper flakes 😋😋
Use your imagination.
It's been 3 days and Bridget is still wearing the same shirt!! Ewww
they probably filmed these things all the same day, it *is* a studio