Curing Salmon

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Curing Salmon | Mario Batali

To celebrate the Feast of the Seven Fishes, Dan Drohan (Executive Chef, OTTO) makes a fennel-cured salmon each December. Cured salmon– better known to many as gravlax– is simple to make. It’s nothing more than salt, sugar and…

MARIOBATALI.COMHistory

During the Middle Ages, gravlax was made by fishermen, who salted the salmon and lightly fermented it by burying it in the sand above the high-tide line. The word gravlax comes from the Scandinavian word gräva/grave ("to dig"; modern sense "to cure (fish)") which goes back to the Proto-Germanic *grabą, *grabō ("hole in the ground; ditch, trench; grave") and the Indo-European root *ghrebh- "to dig, to scratch, to scrape", and lax/laks, "salmon".

Today fermentation is no longer used in the production process. Instead the salmon is "buried" in a dry marinade of salt, sugar, and dill, and cured for a few days. As the salmon cures, by the action of osmosis, the moisture turns the dry cure into a highly concentrated brine, which can be used in Scandinavian cooking as part of a sauce.This same method of curing can be employed for any fatty fish, but salmon is the most commonly used.

Gravlax can be cured with salt, dill, beetroot, and is often eaten on rye bread.

History

During the Middle Ages, gravlax was made by fishermen, who salted the salmon and lightly fermented it by burying it in the sand above the high-tide line. The word gravlax comes from the Scandinavian word gräva/grave ("to dig"; modern sense "to cure (fish)") which goes back to the Proto-Germanic *grabą, *grabō ("hole in the ground; ditch, trench; grave") and the Indo-European root *ghrebh- "to dig, to scratch, to scrape", and lax/laks, "salmon".

Today fermentation is no longer used in the production process. Instead the salmon is "buried" in a dry marinade of salt, sugar, and dill, and cured for a few days. As the salmon cures, by the action of osmosis, the moisture turns the dry cure into a highly concentrated brine, which can be used in Scandinavian cooking as part of a sauce.This same method of curing can be employed for any fatty fish, but salmon is the most commonly used.

Gravlax can be cured with salt, dill, beetroot, and is often eaten on rye bread.