How many sodium mg per oz? I thought they would list it online, but no.
310 mg per ounce. Doesn’t taste like it
No smoke. This sounds complicated, but the description is almost entirely my commentary on technique after doing this for about 10 years.
Take a full side of salmon. The fattier the better. The cheap antibiotic free stuff at Costco works well. Coho is too lean.
Wash salmon and dry with towel.
Mix Kosher Salt and sugar in bowl. Proportions are to taste but I use almost entirely salt.
Wash and dry some fresh lemons, limes or oranges, or any combination of them. With microplane, grate the outside of the peel directly into the salt mixture. How much? A bissel. That’s a yiddish direction that is supposed to mean “a little” but actually means “as much as your mother likes.” You can also use dill or anything else you want. There is a tradition of a bit of aquavit, but I rarely bother.
Take a long rectangular glass baking pan and put it in front of you horizontally. Stretch plastic wrap over lengthwise so that it covers the pan and on each side extends at least 50% the width of the pan. RECENT INNOVATION - put another strip of plastic wrap at a 90° angle, also extending a long way on both sides. This means you have to work on a bigger table, but it makes the whole thing easier. It is actually better to first put the vertical piece of plastic and then the horizontal piece of plastic. Push the plastic down into the pan so that it is flat on the bottom.
Spread a lot of the salt mixture on top of the plastic in the pan. How much? You have to cover it, more or less, but no where near what you use in salt-baked fish. More than a heavy sprinkle. Take the salmon and put it lengthwise on top of the salt. Then take the rest of the salt and put it on top of the salmon. Make sure there is salt all over, but this is not like cooking in salt.
Fold over the horizontal strip of plastic from both sides towards the middle, being sure to make a good seal and squeeze out the air. Then fold over the vertical strip to tighten things up (aha! that’s why you do the vertical strip on the bottom). Leave in glass pan and put weight on top - traditionally a brick. Put in refrigerator and wait 4-6 days. Water from the salmon will ooze out. The brine will cure the salmon. When time is up (when you get A Round Tuit), remove the pan from the refrigerator, unwrap, wash off the salt and rinse salt out of the pan. Put salmon back in pan and cover with water. I always add some ice cubes at this point. Change the water a bunch of times, every 20 minutes or so. Why? To get rid of the salt. How many times? Depends on how much salt you like.
Slice with sharp, thin blade knife.
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Another vote for making your own. I love Russ & Daughters, but making it at home is almost as good, very easy, and way more cost effective. I make gravlax with salmon from a local fish shop, typically Faroe Islands farmed rather than their higher end offerings. Usually I do about a two pound center cut, cure for three days in a mix of salt, brown sugar, vodka, sometimes dill, pepper, maybe caraway, wrapped in plastic and pressed under another pan for weight as Jay suggests. I then do a cold smoke in the Weber with a small metal tube smoker I bought from Amazon, very effective and super easy.
I also like hot smoked, but most of the time I want lox.
I never thought of cold smoking after curing with salt. Is that customary or you own idea? Sounds interesting; I think I will try it next time but I have never cold smoked. How did you do it? I have a Green Egg, a Weber Kettle and a Weber gas grill.
Jay, not my idea. Wikipedia says that Nova lox, Scottish style, and Nordic lox (as opposed to gravlax) are all typically cured, rinsed, then cold-smoked. While I like gravlax quite a bit, I think a cold smoke is well worth the effort.
In the past I used a Weber kettle, but I found it was difficult to keep a very cold and consistent smoke, and I ruined a batch once when distracted and it was too warm. It was still quite edible but didn’t have the right texture. So this year I picked up a metal tube that you fill with wood chips then light with the gas starter on the Weber, a lighter, or a torch. Then you close the grill and let it smoke about a half an hour. It burns almost the exact right amount of time, doesn’t give off much heat at all, and imparts excellent smoke flavor. This is the smoker I bought:
Outstanding! I was looking for something to spend the Amazon Gift Card I won for being randomly assigned Abilene Christian in the Cinderella upset contest run by a local service provider. That item plus some Prague Salt for curing should cover the gift card.
I’ve never tried cold smoking; google indicates I could do it on my BGE by building a very small fire in the bottom and smoking as usual, perhaps adding an ice water bath as well. My typical method for home smoked salmon is a 24 hour cure with brown sugar, salt, and pepercorns similar to Jay’s method, but then hot-smoking for an hour (300 or so). It’s obviously very different from lox but the kids still eat it up.