Cured salmon – delicious and easy recipe for the best appetizer and hearty breakfast (2024)

FAQs

What do you eat with cured salmon? ›

Serve it with all the fixings—capers, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumber, radishes, red onion and steamed potatoes. Lay out everything listed in the ingredients or just a few of the elements, along with an assortment of crackers, co*cktail bread or sliced baguette.

Lox is never cooked; instead, it's made by curing a salmon belly fillet in salty brine, traditionally for three months. This technique gives lox its signature salty flavor.

Lox — or “belly lox,” which is the actual name for it — is salmon that has been cured in salt. (Like gravlax, which is cured in sugar and salt, there's no smoking involved.)

Here's the main difference: smoked salmon is cured and then smoked, whereas lox is only cured, typically in a salt brine and typically for longer periods of time, but not smoked. Smoked salmon is preserved with a combination of salting and smoking, so the flavor can be slightly salty and slightly smoky.

For a delicate and subtle flavor, try cold-smoked salmon. It goes well with mild cheeses like goat cheese or brie. If you prefer a stronger, more robust flavor, opt for hot-smoked salmon that pairs wonderfully with sharper cheeses like cheddar or gouda.

No, it is generally not necessary to wash salmon fillets before cooking them. In fact, it is often recommended to avoid washing raw poultry, meat, or fish, including salmon, as it can increase the risk of spreading bacteria to other surfaces in your kitchen.

The word "lox" comes from the Yiddish word for salmon, "laks." Brining salmon is a Scandanavian tradition, but it was also popular among Eastern European Jews. Some of these people immigrated to the U.S. and brought their affinity for brined, cured, and smoked fish with them.

Curing is a technique used to preserve seafood by adding salt, sugar, and sometimes other spices or herbs. This process not only extends the shelf life of the fish, but also enhances its flavor and texture. Two popular seafood dishes that utilize curing are salmon crudo and beetroot gravlax.

Once or twice in my cured fish career, I have left salmon sitting too long in the juices that flow out after it's salted. If you wait much longer than about 12 hours before draining, the juices start to reabsorb, and the result is pretty puckery, especially below the waterline.

What is the difference between Nova lox and lox? ›

Put very simply, nova is almost a combination of lox and smoked salmon. Named for the salmon of Nova Scotia, nova is made via a process of both curing and smoking. The salmon is cured in salt, similarly to lox, but with less salt, for a milder flavor.

Smoked salmon is a salty, cured fish renowned for its fatty texture and distinctive flavor. It's packed with high quality protein, essential omega-3 fats, and several vitamins and minerals. However, it contains a significant amount of sodium, and cold-smoked varieties may increase your risk of listeriosis.

Smoked salmon requires an additional process, which includes both ingredients and time. Adding the smoking process increases our costs to produce the fish, which means our smoked salmon price will be slightly higher. However, and perhaps more importantly, salmon loses mass during the smoking process.

These fish can be used as alternatives or in recipes that call for smoked salmon. Here are a few examples: Rainbow Trout: Rainbow trout has a delicate and slightly nutty flavor, which can be reminiscent of smoked salmon. It has a similar flaky texture and can be prepared in various ways, including smoking.

Defrost and serve cold with various dishes. Great with boiled potatoes and mustard and dill sauce. Also perfect as a buffet dish with dill and lemon, as starter or in a wrap to eat on an excursion.

Once you have a set of cured items, as well as some cool pickles (lots of pickle recipes here), you can make your own charcuterie board. A typical charcuterie board will have some sliced salami, some slices of some sort of ham, pickles, maybe some cheese, and some sort of pate, rillette or terrine.

However, in general, properly prepared and handled raw salmon is considered safe to eat. The smoking and curing processes used in preparing cold-smoked salmon further contribute to the reduction of risks of bacteria and parasites being present, resulting in a safe - and delectable - product.