Gravlaks

Ingredients

• Salmon fillet, skin on — the middle cut1 kg
• Coarse salt100 g
• Sugar90 g
• Dill100 g
• White peppercorns — crushed1 tbsp
• Aquavit or vodka — optional2 tbsp
• Mustard for the sauce3 tbsp
• Vinegar for the sauce1 tbsp
• Oil for the sauce100 ml

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Run your fingers over the fillet for pin bones and pull them with tweezers. Leave the skin on: it holds the shape while curing.

   10 min

2. 2

   Mix the salt, sugar and crushed pepper. Sprinkle the fish with aquavit and rub the mixture into the flesh.

   6 min

3. 3

   Lay half the dill in a dish, the fish on it skin down, and bury it under the rest of the dill.

   4 min

4. 4

   Cover with film, set a board and a kilo weight on top and refrigerate for forty-eight hours.

   2880 min

5. 5

   Every twelve hours pour off the brine that has collected and turn the fish over.

   5 min

6. 6

   Scrape off the cure, pat the fish dry and slice it thinly on the diagonal, stopping at the skin. Serve with a mustard sauce of mustard, sugar, vinegar and oil.

   15 min

About the dish

Salt and sugar go in roughly equal amounts, not salt alone. The sugar holds moisture, so the fish stays soft rather than turning into a dried plank.

The weight is compulsory: it presses out moisture and firms the flesh. Without it the gravlaks stays loose and the cure works unevenly.

The brine that collects is poured off every twelve hours. Fish left sitting in its own water cures right through to toughness.

Worth knowing

• — For a raw cure, either buy from a fishmonger you trust or freeze the fish at −20 °C for at least a day.
• — At forty-eight hours the gravlaks is ready, but it is better on the third day. Past five days it turns salty and dense.
• — It keeps five days in the fridge and freezes well once sliced.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

280 kcal

Protein

26 g

Fat

18 g

Carbs

4 g

More from Norway

• Fårikål — Mutton and cabbage in layers with whole peppercorns. Four ingredients and two hours.