Bring On Your Lox Recipes - Especially Nova Lox Ones

[thirdeye]

I'm okay with lox, but don't make my own. I had a request for a Nova Scotia lox recipe a couple of days ago and have come to realize that lox means different things to different folks.

If you have a favorite recipe, please post it.

[Chef]

2-3Lb Salmon Fillet-Skin on

1- C Kosher Salt

1/4 C. Granulated Sugar

Fresh Dill

Procedure:

de-bone fillet

cover meat evenly with a generous amount of salt and sugar

lay fresh dill sprigs on top of salt/sugar layer.

Wrap entire fillet tightly in saran wrap and place in cookie sheet in the refridgerator for appx. 24 hours.

To serve: un-wrap, clean off dill, salt/sugar and thinly slice at a 45 degree angle, place fillet whole on serving platter.

Make a mixture of Sour Cream, chopped Shallots and Chopped Capers. Serve with your favorite crostini rounds or crackers like Carrs.

Enjoy!

[reinhard1]

thanks for that recipe Chef. and also thanks to Third Eye for starting this thread. l love Lox myself but it's so darn expensive. my daughter was asking me for a recipe as well and i didn't have one. i'm going to have to make some. chef when you say clean off the salmon, do you mean just scrape it off as much as you can? thanks.

[reinhard1]

i looked up Nova Lox on an Alaskan site and it states that Nova Lox is brined much like regular smoked salmon in a typical salt/brown sugar brine [with some added spices at a persons preferance] but cold smolked. the salmon is typicaly smoke at 80 deg for 12 to 14 hours. Third Eye i would think that your "dry cured methods" that you have posted in other threads can be treated much like Chefs fine recipe for lox and prepared the same way or am i wrong? it is important also that the salmon must be frozen prior to doing this for at least 3 days. good luck.

[thirdeye]

i looked up Nova Lox on an Alaskan site and it states that Nova Lox is brined much like regular smoked salmon in a typical salt/brown sugar brine [with some added spices at a persons preferance] but cold smolked. the salmon is typicaly smoke at 80 deg for 12 to 14 hours. Third Eye i would think that your "dry cured methods" that you have posted in other threads can be treated much like Chefs fine recipe for lox and prepared the same way or am i wrong? it is important also that the salmon must be frozen prior to doing this for at least 3 days. good luck.

Now you see why I'm asking. The same terms mean different things to folks. I believe that traditional Nova Lox is brined (verses dry cured) and the brine is not as strong as other fish brines (which as all of you know, some are really strong... almost a "preserving" type of brine). Then Nova lox is cold smoked (verses the lox that is cured only). After that, the recipes are all over the place with respect to seasonings. Everyone agrees that "lox" is more cured than cooked, and is sliced really thin for serving.

The method I use for my dry cured salmon, wrapping the fillets in plastic wrap will work. Not sure about any adjustments to the seasonings.

I have a friend in Nova Scotia, so she was my first resource, a friend in Maine was #2. The gal said none of her friends make it but she is looking for a recipe (I'll post it if she turns up anything). She did send me a lox recipe from the UK (which I will post). My buddy in Maine uses a lox recipe that does not call for smoking.... however he does a light smoke on it, 2 hours or so.. (I'll post that recipe too)

The good thing is, with so many folks helping me out, I'm bound to get a good collection of lox varieties.

[thirdeye]

Here are the two recipes I've gotten so far:

Gravad Lax

(From Lynne via her friend in the UK)

2 fillets of trout from 2 to 3 lbs fish

2 bunches fresh dill weed, stalks removed and roughly chopped

2 tablespoons white peppercorns

65g sea salt

40g caster sugar

3 allspice berries

3 tablespoons vodka

Crush the peppercorns and allspice and stir into the sugar and salt. Sprinkle half the dill in a glass dish and put a fillet of trout on top, skin side down. Press half the salt mixture firmly on the flesh side of each fillet. Sprinkle over half the remaining dill and the vodka onto the fillet in the dish. Put the other fillet on top, flesh side down with its thin side on the thick side of the other. Sprinkle over the remaining dill and put a board with some weights on top. Put in fridge for 2 to 3 days turning twice a day and pouring off the brine that forms. Enjoy

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is one from BBQinMaineiac, he is unsure of the source other than the name “Suzanne”. BBQiM makes his home in Maine. Additional cooks notes follow Suzanne’s recipe.

Gravlox

SUBMITTED BY: Suzanne

"Gravlox is a popular item in Scandinavian Cuisine. Some, like this one, are made with vodka."

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds salmon fillet, bones removed

4 tablespoons coarse sea salt

3 tablespoons light brown sugar

1 tablespoon pepper

1 bunch fresh dill, chopped

3 tablespoons vodka

DIRECTIONS

1. Drape plastic wrap over a glass baking dish. Cut salmon in half lengthwise, and place one half in dish, skin side down. Mix together salt, brown sugar and pepper. Sprinkle half of mixture over salmon in the dish, cover with the chopped dill, and pour the vodka over the whole mixture.

2. Sprinkle the remaining salt mixture over the remaining half of salmon. Place over the salmon in the dish, skin side up. Fold the plastic wrap snuggly over the entire salmon. Place a board over the fish and weigh it down with a heavy object.

3. Refrigerate fish for 24 to 36 hours, turning every 12 hours. To serve, separate the filets, and carefully brush off the salt, sugar and dill. Cut into very thin slices with a sharp knife.

Additional comments from BBQiM: I halved the recipe and the half Atlantic Salmon filet fit beautifully in a 1 gallon zipper bag. It has been brought to my attention that the fish should be washed and soaked for 45 minutes, then smoked. The recipes I have don't do either of these, and when I've seen it done on TV (at least 3 times) that wasn't done either, but I want to make sure folks know that it's an option. Next time, since I like the product, I plan on smoking it since that's what I buy locally. (in Maine)

Definitely try smoking it. The Gravlox isn't salty enough IMHO to require soaking before smoking though. My plan is going to be to rinse off the undissolved salt then cold smoke for maybe an hour or 2 at most. Using a sweet smoke, cherry or apple or another sweet smoke.

[reinhard1]

Thanks Third Eye as always. between Chef and what you posted it will give me a great way to start. good luck.

[Chef]

thanks for that recipe Chef. and also thanks to Third Eye for starting this thread. l love Lox myself but it's so darn expensive. my daughter was asking me for a recipe as well and i didn't have one. i'm going to have to make some. chef when you say clean off the salmon, do you mean just scrape it off as much as you can? thanks.

You are correct! My recipe is the Scandinavian style,Grav Lox, no smoking. If your Salmon is wild, non-farmed and really fresh, it tastes so good unsmoked.

[Dark Cloud]

3rdEye's dry brine has been a huge hit here!

I know its not Lox but I have been mixing it with softened veggie cream cheese! Awesome on a bagel or I hav been buying those little mini sweet bell peppers and stuffing them with it...

[thirdeye]

3rdEye's dry brine has been a huge hit here!

I know its not Lox but I have been mixing it with softened veggie cream cheese! Awesome on a bagel or I hav been buying those little mini sweet bell peppers and stuffing them with it...

I'm glad the recipe is still working out for you. I've made several sides of Atlantic salmon since Thanksgiving for other folks, and I get to keep a piece for myself (quality control and all, heheheee)

In looking at the 3 dry cure lox recipes above, the sugar salt ratio is turned around from my dry cure. My cure is 1C salt to 2C sugar, the lox cures are heavier on the salt. Logic would tell me that the heavier salt is needed since lox is either not cooked, or when smoked it's lightly smoked. However, lox is an old method, and whenever I see older methods for curing they are often very heavy on salt. As in a "preservation" cure. This is mainly due to the fact that some older methods were developed when refrigeration was not as reliable as it is today.

That said, we still like the flavors and texture of cured and smoked meats (ham, bacon, sausages, fish, etc.) but we can get good results with less salt, since it's stored in refrigeraton. Shooting from the hip, my cure is most likely too sweet for lox, but it might be worth a test run using a 50:50 salt/sugar ratio to see what that is like.

[thirdeye]

I've been looking around and asking as many folks that I could about Nova Lox. The first problem I found was that everyone has a different definition of Lox. To some it’s cured, to others it’s cured and smoked. Some cures are a dry “salting” style of cure, other cures are a salt water “brine” cure. Some methods involve both a dry cure and a brine. The best thing about investigating lox, is that I will be able to broaden my smoked salmon (and trout) horizion, which up until now consisted of dry cured and hot smoked products.

I discovered that the term “lox” most likely came from the word “lachs”, the German word for salmon. In the old days Europeans smoked Atlantic salmon, and in fact a favorite method was a mild cure followed by a gentle smoking. Enterprising fish merchants looked at the Pacific salmon industry in the US and Canada, and began to import salt cured fish to Europe….. however, the stronger “hard curing”, was not popular to the European tastes. So the processors were convinced to use a milder cure, and in some cases the end buyer would use additional de-salting method(s) prior to smoking the salmon. About the same time that Pacific salmon was being exported, European immigrants in the United States and Canada were demanding a milder form of smoked salmon. Once refrigeration came about, the heavy and mild cures yielded to even lighter cures, and more seasonings and aromatics came into play. Basically, people still wanted the cured texture, color, and in some cases smoky flavor…. But they wanted a less salty and more flavorful product.

This led to the next problem, old recipes and modern recipes. In general the older the recipe…. the harder the cure and saltier the product. The techniques and methods for preparing / curing / smoking have not changed, the amount of salt used has. However some newly published recipes are using old recipes as a guide and are heavy handed when it comes to salting. Some other modern recipes are just a brine and smoke kind of thing..... I'm thinking these lost some of the tradition.

A couple of the Nova lox methods I think are promising involve a dry cure, followed by a brine, followed by a soak-out, followed by cold smoking. These are old methods and I feel they need lightening up on the salt. I am going to list the original version along with some modern day recommendations I’m using for my starting point.

I may be wrong, but I just can't believe all the salt in the "traditional" recipe is necessary...... and likewise I might be light on my changes. I wanted to experiment with brine curing, but since I'm very satisified with dry curing, I selected this traditional recipe because it was a combination of both.

[reinhard1]

i can see your reasonings for less salt in the brining process. i realy appreciate that you took the time to post this. i think about different applications to sausage all the time. i was going to go with what was posted before, but this has opened my eyes and makes a lot of sense. my oldest daughter wants to get a vertical smoker now. the Lox thread realy got her going along with your dry cures. she is realy into smoked fish but wants to get into smokeing in general. thanks for this and have a very MERRY CHRISTMAS to you and your family. Reinhard

[thirdeye]

Same to you and yours.

BTW, In January I'm doing a product review on a gadget that is a "cold smoking" system that is adaptable to most any smoker (or just a cardboard or plywood box. It's basically a small mesh tray that uses a special fine hardwood sawdust to produce smoke with minimal heat. The dust is lit and it burns on it's own for several hours. It gets air and draft from your existing vents. Sounds perfect for lox, and I smoke a lot of cheese for folks so I'm looking forward to playing with that too.

[reinhard1]

i'll be looking forward to it. thanks again. good luck.

[Redlantern]

Great topic, just wish I would have checked this thread a couple of days earlier. I could have been the cool guy bringing some gravloxs to my very Norwegian family for Christmas. Really looking forward to giving Chefs and Thirdeyes recipes a try. Takes me back to my childhood, spending summers in Norway with my family. Thanks.