Home Cured Salmon Experiments - ( Gravlax, “Smoked” Salmon, Lox, etc)

I cured a piece of salmon inspired by @Scubadoo97

Found some quinoa bread in the freezer - baked a while back from the recipe in Bread, Toast, Crumbs - breakfast was a piece of buttered quinoa toast with the cured salmon on top, and some strong tea.

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How did it turn out? Looks great.

Looks good. Would you do something different ? Enhancements? I rarely do something exactly the same thing twice . Undisciplined, yes. My cooking is so much “off the cuff”. Rarely plan a meal. It just happens based on freezer and fridge availability.

Its good. It reminded me I prefer farmed to wild salmon in cured and smoked salmon - it’s fattier / more unctuous.

The fennel came through, the coriander less so. Im going to look at a few different recipes now to think about what flavorings would work well - needs more pepper for sure.

I’m glad I tried it - thinking about doing it again for thanksgiving day brunch - we usually have bagels in the morning, and then graze on various things including smoked salmon until the main meal late afternoon - if I do a side of salmon, it would serve well for the bagels and for the app grazing later.

Thanks for the encouragement - I tried something new!

Many enhancements. Preserved lemons and limes work great to punch up the favor.

Look at recipes for gravlax too, it’s a super simple sugar and salt mix with lots of fresh dill. For Tday probably best to start it by tues

Yup, this was a gravlax recipe

Do you mean enhancements after curing, or flavors to add to the cure?

I did squeeze some lemon on the second go, which perked it up.

Do you use an equal proportion of salt & sugar? It was a bit sweet for me… I’m thinking of skewing saltier on the next try.

Yes after curing, although you could add many different flavor during the short curing process to change the flavor profile

Any favorites for during the cure?

Citrus works well. Lemon or lime zest. I used crushed corriander on the batch above. Cold smoking after curing works really well too. Adding gin or other aromatic spirit is good as well

Thanks! I saw aquavit and vodka in some recipes - I guess that turns the salt/sugar mix into more of a paste.

Yes easy to change the ratio of salt to sugar.

Try your own pickled red onions, of course little cappers, and then take some thin sliced white onion, a dash of vinegar, a sprinkle of salt, and some sour cream …let it sit one day and top the salmon…

This recipe from Marcus Samuelsson always appealed: https://www.starchefs.com/chefs/MSamuelsson/html/recipe_03.shtml

So Marcus advocated 2:1, sugar:salt. The rest is personal flavor enhancements

I’ve done more wet curing than dry. Typical method; Toss the fish in a salt/sugar bath for several hours to overnight. Dry and hold in refrigeration to form a pellicle then cold smoke. The fish has a softer silkier texture

Bottom line, it all works

The dry cure method was just very easy

That looks good - I wish I liked dill

Round 2 inspired by initial success and by everyone’s encouragement here

I used a 2:1 salt/sugar mixture this time, with cracked coriander and black pepper, and lemon and orange zest. Also some fresh thyme and parsley, and a splash of gin. Skipped the fennel, as it came through quite strong on the last go.

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I have some pearl onions I’m going to pickle!