Making gravlax

[Peter the eater]

Somebody needs to write a book called "Cooking With Coniferous Trees".

There's an old French tradition of preparing seafood with pine needles, but my understanding is that they combust and flavor the food with smoke.

Here's 2 recipes for spruce beer from Nova Scotia’s Traditional Foods:

"Take 7 pounds of good spruce and boil it until the bark comes off. Take the wood out and add 3 gallons of molasses and boil again scumming frequently. Cool, then add a pint of yeast and mix well. Put it in a barrel and let it work for three days, keep filling it up as it works out. Bung with a tent peg to give it a vent now and then. Use in 2 or 3 days."

- paraphrased T.H. Raddall's 1949 work "Halifax, Warden of the North".

A more practical approach from Marie Nightingale's 1970 book "Out of Old Nova Scotia's Kitchens" :

"Dissolve 1.5 c sugar in a 1 qt of boiling water. Add 3 qt cold water and 1 tsp vanilla. Sprinkle on 5 packages of dry yeast and combine. Lastly add 2-3 tbsp spruce extract. Cover and set in a warm place to ferment for 12-16 hrs. Remove scum and bottle. Keep in a cool place."

[scubadoo97]

So I've made gravlax a few times now and the only problem I have is the fish has a gummy texture that I have come to dislike. When choosing wild over farmed I find famred is fattier which to me has a richer texture and milder flavor.

I recently tried making a Nova style lox. I know, Nova is not real lox but anyway I wet brined a side of Scotish farmed salmon, dried it to form a pellicle and cold smoked it for an hour. The results were steller. The best Nova I've ever had. I chose the fattiest side I could find and the texture was soft, not mushy, with a melt in your mouth quality. The smoke was from apple and pecan pellets that I used in my ghetto smoke generator consisting of a can and soldering iron place inside my gas grill as the holding chamber.

This was so much better than my previous attempts at gravlax. What am I doing wrong with gravlax? I don't dry brine for more than a day or two but it still comes out gummy.

[Chris Amirault]

OK, I'm committed to trying a gravlax with white pine, salt, sugar, and white pepper, with a sprinkle of some green Chartreuse.

[Chris Amirault]

I put the salmon up to cure Saturday night, and yesterday I wanted to overhaul it to see how it was doing. Here it was just after I rearranged it in the hotel pan a bit:

I then layered the white pine needles on the top of the salmon:

Finally, some plastic wrap, another pan, and the weight:

I'm afraid that the needles are not quite imparting the flavor I'd like, so I'm going to take a taste later today and see if I need to roughly chop them up.

[Magictofu]

Barely related to the topic but a friend of mine uses white pine needles to perfume her dumplings when steaming them in a bamboo steamer.

The flavour can be quite strong.

[Chris Amirault]

Turned out well, though not nearly as piney as I'd like. Still, that's probably an idiosyncrasy of mine, so I'm hoping for happiness in others' mouths.

[snowangel]

Chris, did you end up chopping up the white pine needles? Did you wash them before you applied them?

[Chris Amirault]

Yes, I washed them; no I didn't chop them up. Next time I will. The pine is definitely there, but just a whisper. I'm serving them with a sliver of shallot, a thin, small triangle of lemon (rind, pith, pulp), and three or four grains of Hawaiian red salt.

[Magictofu]

Did you only add the pine needles on top? I wonder if having them in the water would impart a stronger flavour.

[Chris Amirault]

Next time I'd put them both under and atop the salmon, and I'd roughly crush them as well. I'd also cut back on the salt and cure them a bit longer.

Quibbles, though, in the end. They were the hit of the meal.

[SeanDirty]

i have made beet grav. however yes the beat flavor comes through... as you could imagine it does give it an earthy flavor... im not a big fan...

Edited November 28, 2008 by SeanDirty (log)

[Reignking]

I've been a slave to Foodman's Pastrami-spiced graxlax, but in the spirit of using leftovers from Thanksgiving, chrisamirault's usage of pine and my wanting to experiment and be a bit more seasonal, I am going to try something different for a small party Friday night.

My thoughts are cloves & nutmeg (I nixed cinnamon), along with leftover herbs of thyme, rosemary, and parsley. Since I don't have a smoker, but I have some wood chips in the back of the closet, I may include those to see if they impart any flavor, along with a splash of vanilla-infused bourbon.

[KennethT]

Bringing this topic back up - I have a question that was never asked/answered - and I can't find it in McGee either... once the fish has been cured, how long will it last in the refrigerator? Thanks!

[Chris Amirault]

Well-wrapped, for weeks and weeks.

[KatieLoeb]

It can last for weeks, but it never does...

[Magictofu]

It also depends on how and how long it was cured. I don't like very long cures and consequently try to eat it within one week.

Edited to add that it freezes really well (unlike fresh salmon).

[TrolleyCrash]

I was thinking of trying to cure the salmon inside a foodsaver bag. I think it will be ideal, as the ingredients go is mostly dry, so they won't interfere with the vacuum sealer, and the pressure from the bag should help add pressure to get the liquid out.

Has anyone tried this?

[Chris Amirault]

I'm back at it with the white pine needles, with this year's attempt in the fridge. Details:

Took 60g of sprouting white pine needles (ends of little branches), washed them, and cut them into 1" pieces. Made two infusions:

30g white pine

50 ml vodka

50 ml Everclear

Shook hard in small jar for 30 min. Added

50 ml green Chartreuse

Meanwhile, steeped

30g white pine

in 250 ml water brought to boil and left for 15 min. Added 60g white sugar, 90g brown sugar, 80g kosher salt and dissolved. Strained and cooled both infusions, saving the needles.

Layered needles under salmon, poured cooled solution over salmon, layered more needles on top. It's now in the fridge weighted down and curing. I'll report back with results.

[IndyRob]

I was thinking of trying to cure the salmon inside a foodsaver bag. I think it will be ideal, as the ingredients go is mostly dry, so they won't interfere with the vacuum sealer, and the pressure from the bag should help add pressure to get the liquid out.

Has anyone tried this?

I've done it. It was all very neat, being sealed and all. The cure worked nicely. BUT, none of the dill flavor came through. Perhaps aromatic herbs need air to do their stuff. Still, the result was fine in my opinion (although that was my only experience with gravlax so I have nothing to compare it to).

[Prawncrackers]

I made gravlax again last week as it's now part of the holiday routine. The extended family expects to down two sides of salmon before they even sit down to the main xmas dinner! So I ordered up the usual 3kg whole Scottish salmon but when I went to collect there was a mix up and I ended up with a 5kg monster - about 12lbs in old money. It was easily the biggest fish I've ever handled but being the fearless egulleter you know me to be, I went to it with gusto. I'm glad now because the end product was the best yet, the extra fattiness took this year's gravlax to another level.

Here is the beast:

Still need to work on my filleting, a bit scraggly:

After 3 days curing:

Then sliced with a fresh sprinkling of dill:

[ianeccleston]

I too made gravlax for the first time for the holidays. If you haven't tried it, pick up a pound of salmon and try it - it's easy and not expensive if you use farmed salmon. (No doubt better with wild, but ....)

I compared quite a few recipes online and ended up with this: Combine 1 cup sugar, 1 cup salt and pour over 3 lbs salmon (farmed). Rub in 2 tbs juniper berries, 2 tsp coriander, some dill, black pepper and wrap in foil. Turn every 12 hours -- very tasty after 3 days in the fridge (I didn't put weights on it).

Ian

[Lapin d'Argent]

I'm back at it with the white pine needles, with this year's attempt in the fridge.

Darn...I wished I'd planned far enough in advance to make Gravlax for New Year's...next year!

[i have to figure out how make eGullet threads appear as a link on the proper date on my calendar, so that next year I really do plan ahead.]

[scubadoo97]

Darn...I wished I'd planned far enough in advance to make Gravlax for New Year's...next year!

I'ts on my menu for tomorrow. I picked up the salmon yesterday. It only needs 24-48 hrs depending. Mine will go 48 hrs but that's my limit. I have done it in 24 and it has a nice soft texture. It's cured enough for me.

[Chris Amirault]

The combo of Chartreuse and the two pine solutions worked well, but 28 hrs wasn't enough curing. Next time I'll go for at least 36. Minor quibble though -- the things flew off the plate.

[Lapin d'Argent]

Minor quibble though -- the things flew off the plate.

As we say in my industry, that's a feature, not a bug.

I have set up a special notebook in Microsoft OneNote that is specifically devoted to things to make next year for the holidays, with a link to this thread. Now I'm all set!