Hi folks;
I've been making gravlax. I use trout instead of salmon as I'm allergic to salmon, and it has turned out wonderfully. But last time I thought I would cold smoke the trout first, then put it through the gravlax process.
The result was very different in taste but not in texture. I'm not sure I would try it again, simply because I really enjoy the regular stuff.
Has anyone else tried gravlax? I'm curious about adding different flavours other than dill...
Thanks, Rich
What the heck is gravlax?
Gravlax is fish (usually salmon but trout in this case) that has been dry salt/sugar cured with the addition of some fresh dill, and cracked white pepper. Thinly sliced on a little rye bread with unsalted butter, ice cold vodka chaser--oh yeah!!!
Smokeville--have you ever tried grilling a chunk of fish you cured this way? That's tasty too. To answer your question, I have never gone beyond salt/sugar and dill with cracked pepper for flavours.
T2
I have been wanting to try to do some Gravlax for many years. My wife is Danish and she and her family turned me on to it. I love the stuff!
The reason I haven't tried it as yet is because my SIL has a source for it which I don't think I could beat! Tastes fantastic. Danish fine rye bread, a little Danish mayonnaise and some sprinkled peppercorn, sliced sweet raw onions and Nervana!! Goes great with a Danish schnapps! Mind you, don't try to have one gravlax sandwich and then one schnapps and continue on that ratio, because while 3 or 4 gravlax is great, 3 or 4 schnapps will have you waking up the next morning wondering what the hell happened!!
I've made gravlox and really liked it. Besides the salt and sugar cure, the dill, my recipe also called for vodka poured on the fish before it is wrapped. Gravlox is not intended to be smoked but I've done it and it's a nice touch and I like the added flavor.
Quote from: RAF128 on March 22, 2010, 08:02:32 PM
I've made gravlox and really liked it. Besides the salt and sugar cure, the dill, my recipe also called for vodka poured on the fish before it is wrapped. Gravlox is not intended to be smoked but I've done it and it's a nice touch and I like the added flavor.
I've read about the vodka, and also about gin, but I've never tried it.
What I thought was amazing was that I was able to turn $24 worth of trout into $110 of product, at the price a local store would charge for 4lb of similar quality.
I make gravlox too and add a splash of gin. I find juniper goes well with it.
I've made gravlax a number of times with a number of variations on the curing recipe. One of my favorites is substituting cognac for the vodka or gin!
Big fan of gravlax.
I've hotsmoked trout, and makeral, and they both turned out well. Especially the makeral! I'm experimenting with Nova Lox now, which for all intents and purposes is cold smoked gravlox. I've discussed some of the problems I had first time through in another tread. I'm interested to hear about adding the alcohol. When does this get added?
And for the record, the hot smoked trout we did turned out almost exactly like Salmon. The problem is i cant catch trout big enough to get a nice fillet off!!!! I expect that if I could, the smoked fillet would be amazing.
Newfie Smoker
Is this like ceviche?
Quote from: squirtthecat on March 23, 2010, 03:54:21 PM
Is this like ceviche?
No. Ceviche is raw fish that is cooked by the acids in lemon and lime juice.
I have done 3 batches since Christmas, and love it. I use the recipe from the book that came with OBS. Its available on the Bradley main web site. Everyone who has tried says it is the best smoked salmon they have tried. My boss had me smoke 4 salmons for himself and a friend of his last weekend because he liked it so much. The only modification I do to the recipe is use filleted, skinless Atlantic salmon from Costco. I haven't tried grilling it yet but will try it. The gin sounds good in there, I love gin. I serve it with pumpernickel bread and a dill dip and also add it to a rosee pasta sauce http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=14463.0
Quote from: squirtthecat on March 23, 2010, 03:54:21 PM
Is this like ceviche?
The best comparison is that gravlax is a style of lox that has more seasonings added during the curing process.
Hi Newfie Smoker!
I love smoked trout. I'm allergic to salmon, so that makes me happy. The Rainbow Trout and Salmon are basically the same fish, from what I can discover, except that Salmon live in both fresh and salt water.
Yes, I wish rainbow trout were bigger, but most of them are farmed and I guess the producers try to keep to a certain portion size and cost point.
My wife picked up a farmed Lake Trout, which I smoked. It's related to Char the same way trout and salmon are related. The smoked taste was not quite as "full bodied" as the rainbow, but I know you could get them in larger sizes. Maybe there are some mail order places in one of the territories that could ship to you (cheap)?" Or, what about closer to home for you?
Send me a private message about your Inn. (Or post it for all of us to see). I would love to know where you are.
QuoteMaybe there are some mail order places in one of the territories that could ship to you (cheap)?"
My brother used to get frozen arctic char shipped to him in Calgary for cold smoking--it was excellent. I'll ask him tonight if he can remember the name of the outfit.
T2
I'm with 3rensho and KyNola - like it with a splash of gin. And as 3rensho says, I think it is the juniper taste that it brings. Have been wanting to do my next batch with juniper berries, but afraid of ruining $20 of salmon with too much juniper. I recall seeing some recipes that also use lemon added or garlic added or with cilantro or rosemary sprigs or thyme sprigs. The lemon or the garlic I'd buy off on, but not sure on the cilantro or the rosemary.
The origins and the country of origin of lox and gravlox are different. Lox the word is simply Yiddish for salmon - Lachs is German for salmon. Lox is generally wet cured while gravlox is usually dry cured. Lox, likely started life as a way to ship Pacific Salmon to the East Coast. In the days of train transportation, or slower forms, the salmon had to be preserved. So the packers would pack the salmon in barrels in brine. When the Delis of the East Coast received it, they just washed it, sliced it and sold it. For some reason the Nova Scotians did somewhat the same, to get their Atlantic Salmon to the markets in New York. Their technique included a lighter brine and smoking - Nova Lox. In the British Isles they had a Scotch cured "lox" - the scotch in the name cure meaning the addition of sugar in the cure.
The origins of Gravlox is much less lip smacking. It's pre anglicized name is Gravad Laks. Gravad means grave. Supposedly, fishermen of Northern Europe in the Middle Ages would bury their catch in holes on the beach and let it ferment before eating - yummy! Sure glad someone changed the technique! Usually dry cured with herbs and not smoked.
Hot smoked or smoke cooked salmon and the dried and smoke salmon are different things altogether.
Oh and you ain't lived until you've eaten a lox quiche.
Smoked lox and any thing egg is great. I add it to egg salad sandwiches, puree it with the egg yokes in deviled eggs. My all time favorite breakfast is eggs benedict made with the back bacon subbed with smoked salmon. The hollandaise sauce goes great with it.
Scandinavian style lox uses Akvavit instead of vodka. I'd like to try it but they don't sell Akvavit around here.
For me, I've only tried it cured and not smoked. I use a 2:1 ratio of sugar to salt since I like it a little sweet.
It tastes great with a little cream cheese on a cracker or fresh baquette.
Lox chopped up in scrambled eggs is terrific! The company I used to work for had an offices in Stockholm and Oslo and I've downed my share of Akvavit - but, personally I'd just as soon drink paint thinner. It helps to be drunk when you start drinking it. ;D ;D ;D
Quote from: 3rensho on March 30, 2010, 08:33:16 AM
Lox chopped up in scrambled eggs is terrific! The company I used to work for had an offices in Stockholm and Oslo and I've downed my share of Akvavit - but, personally I'd just as soon drink paint thinner. It helps to be drunk when you start drinking it. ;D ;D ;D
That bad is it? I guess I won't worry about it then. :D
Well, it's not a hit with me but that may be a simple matter of taste. It you can get your hands on a pint don't hesitate to give it a try.
I enjoy making it with orange, lemon and lime zest in addition to the dill salt and sugar.
Akvavit.....I remember some 35 years ago. We had just moved into out new house and were putting in the turf. I had just broken my leg and a bunch of neighbors pitch in to help. When we were done we went in to have a few drinks. The neighbors from across the street were Swedish. He went home and came back with an ice cold bottle of Akvavit and a big jar of pickled hearings. Head and inerds off but the rest whole. The Akvavit was stored in his freezer and looked thick and sweet(it wasn't ;)) He explained that what you do is pop the hearing in your mouth, hold the tail and bite the rest off. Flip the tail in the air and then wash the hearing down with the Akvavit. At first I wasn't sure about this but after a few got into. My wife too :D. Everyone in the house was doing it. The next morning I walked into the dining room and the ceiling was covered in fish tails. The stuff he had was Swedish and all I could find was Norwegian. Didn't seem the same. That's the last time I ever drank that.
The Dutch do about the same Herring thing with their national distilled beverage, Jenever (the J is soft). Jenever is basically gin but the Juniper and other flavorings are much more pronounced. There's usually a bottle or two lying around here that the inlaws have brought over. One of these days I am going to have to try curing Gravlax with it. with Jenever you distinguish between the young, colorless stuff (jonge) and the golden aged old stuff (oude).
And if you drink too much Jenever want to wake up cause your head is pounding like someone is crushing juniper berries on your skull, right. The J is soft till you get enough in ya. :D :D :D
Quote from: Quarlow on May 12, 2010, 09:39:20 AM
And if you drink too much Jenever want to wake up cause your head is pounding like someone is crushing juniper berries on your skull, right. The J is soft till you get enough in ya. :D :D :D
Been there, done that. 8) Sounds like you have too! ;D
Yeah on the fishboats. When we got a harbour day cause of the weather as many boats as could fit into a tiny little bay would cram in and you would think someone opened a liquor store and restaurant. We had this one place called Freeman pass and you could comfortably put ten boats in it moored normally. But on a harbour day we would have 60 boats all rafted together to where you could walk from one boat to the next and bow to stern also. It was always flat calm in there so no worries about boats bumping around. Most of the fun was on the Swedes or Norwegians boats. If you were lucky the storm would last a couple of days and the party never stopped.
The drinkenest (is that a word ?) folks I ever spent time with were the Finns. I tried to keep up with them for two days in Finland. That was about 16 years ago. I think my liver may be back to near normal about now, but I 'm still not sure.
My wife made a great Gravlax for Christmas Brunch, and we saved half for New Years. I simply cold smoked the uneaten half for 40 minutes in my Bradley with Alder Biscuits a couple of days later. It added a very subtle smoky favor. Next time, I will try the cold smoking maybe twice as long. Any suggestions.
Quote from: jacldog47 on January 02, 2014, 11:07:09 AM
My wife made a great Gravlax for Christmas Brunch, and we saved half for New Years. I simply cold smoked the uneaten half for 40 minutes in my Bradley with Alder Biscuits a couple of days later. It added a very subtle smoky favor. Next time, I will try the cold smoking maybe twice as long. Any suggestions.
Welcome to the forum!
I've never had success with cold smoking cured salmon. It tastes so good without the smoke I gave up trying....
However, if you want a treat, use rainbow trout instead of salmon when you make gravlax. Technically, it is no longer called gravlax (buried salmon) but Gravørred (buried trout).... pronounced grav-urrrd.
Rich
Quote from: Smokeville on March 24, 2010, 06:14:52 AM
Hi Newfie Smoker!
I love smoked trout. I'm allergic to salmon, so that makes me happy. The Rainbow Trout and Salmon are basically the same fish, from what I can discover, except that Salmon live in both fresh and salt water.
Yes, I wish rainbow trout were bigger, but most of them are farmed and I guess the producers try to keep to a certain portion size and cost point.
My wife picked up a farmed Lake Trout, which I smoked. It's related to Char the same way trout and salmon are related. The smoked taste was not quite as "full bodied" as the rainbow, but I know you could get them in larger sizes. Maybe there are some mail order places in one of the territories that could ship to you (cheap)?" Or, what about closer to home for you?
Send me a private message about your Inn. (Or post it for all of us to see). I would love to know where you are.
Smokeville, I was going to suggest catching lake trout to smoke for the larger fillet size. I wasn't aware that they were farming it. There must be a taste difference between the farmed and wild, as there is with farmed or wild salmon. I spent some growing years in NW Ontario. Besides walleye, lake trout was my favorite eating fish.
Hi Salmonsmoker!
This is an old thread that got bumped. If memory serves, and it probably doesn't, I think I got those farmed Lake trout at Whole Foods. They came from Lake Erie. I've never seen them since.
I'm reselling smoked fish now instead of smoking it myself (long story) but the company we buy from gets all their Rainbow from Northern Ontario farms. Their salmon comes from Norway. My thinking is "the colder the water the better the fish."
Rich
If you like fennel you can make grav lox using fennel fronds in place of fresh dill.
Quote from: Smokeville on January 05, 2014, 01:17:45 PM
Their salmon comes from Norway. My thinking is "the colder the water the better the fish."
Rich
For wild salmon that's probably true, not so sure the water makes a difference with farmed salmon. Food in pellets can't equate to growing and chasing their own food for survival in the natural element. Who knows what's in the pellets? Alpo, meow mix, AttaBoy(cousin Eddie at Walmart in Chistmas Vacation) :) Most of Norway's salmon exports are farmed. They farm salmon here in the Puget Sound area also, which is Atlantic salmon, as Pacific salmon doesn't farm well. Farmed salmon is always a disappointment when I have it. Not trying to be a snob. Access to local and Alaska salmon might make make me one though. :o :o ;)
The cold hard reality :( here in Ontario is that wild Pacific salmon is a minimum of twice the price of farmed Atlantic. Atlantic is typically $6.99/lb and is often sold as a Saturday-Monday special for as low as $4.88/lb. That's well below wholesale. Any species of Pacific starts at $12.99/lb.
Farmed Rainbow wholesales at $6.90/lb and often is on special at $6.99/lb. Typically $7.99/lb. Last week, just before New Year's, a local store overbought and had to dump it as quick as possible for $4.99/lb. It sold well!
Rich