Gravlax for Superbowl - 2012
It's that time of year again - the SuperBowl is a little over a week away. In keeping with tradition, I'll be preparing gravlax in much the same way as my Swedish ancestors.
I am going to make this a complete, "signature" post, with history, recipe and other notes lifted from previous years, followed by step-by-step pictures; having said that, I do recommend that you take the time to review the links below, as there is plenty of good supplemental information to be found in them. In chronological order, here are those previous posts:
http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards....vian-specialty
http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards....superbowl-2011
A bit of history from Wikipedia:
When selecting salmon for this project, there are a few things you should know in order to be safe, as there is a very slight, but genuine, danger of food-borne illness and parasites in choosing poorly. After all, we are talking about raw fish here, and even though raw fish is commonly eaten all over the world, that is no reason not to exercise some common sense and good judgment.
First, if you are trying to choose between wild-caught or farm-raised salmon, keep this in mind:
Whether you ultimately choose wild-caught or farm-raised salmon, either will be free of potential food-borne illness and safe for consumption, if they have been properly frozen. In doing some research on this, all sources seem to agree that commercial packagers of salmon freeze it to 40 degrees below zero (F or C is the same at that temperature) as an industry standard, specifically to eliminate the possibility of parasites. If you are using commercially-packaged salmon, you will have no worries of food-borne illness. Even if you store your commercially-packaged salmon in your home freezer, and it is only at zero degrees, the thing to remember is that it was brought down to 40 below at the packaging center, and any danger was eliminated then and there.
If you are using wild, fresh-caught salmon that has never been frozen as per industry standards, then there is some small chance of food-borne illness and that you really might be playing Russian roulette, but no more so than anyone who eats raw clams, oysters, ceviche etc, as far as I can see. A trusted friend with many years of experience in the food safety industry put it this way:
The bottom line is that it is up to, the individual reader of this post, to decide whether to try this or not - but if you ask my opinion, I will tell you that this stuff is too good to simply dismiss simply because you think you might be choosing between "taking a chance" or missing out on what is definitely some very good, traditional Scandinavian eating. When good judgment is combined with proper preparation, this product is no more or less dangerous than any other food prepared at home.
Please note that this all refers to salt-water fish. I absolutely would not consider making gravlax, sushi or sashimi out of freshwater fish that I had caught and packaged myself. For those, I would brine and hot-smoke to a safe temperature of 140 degrees. There might be a safe length of time to hold them at zero degrees F - say, 30 days - but I won't try it until I know for sure.
Anyway, once you select your salmon, the process is easy. Following the formula provided by Time/Life's Foods of the World - The Cooking of Scandinavia, 1968, here is all you need in order to create a very traditional gravlax:
1/4 cup non-iodized salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons freshly-ground black pepper
1 large bunch of fresh dill
1 fillet of salmon
A note on salt: I prefer to use coarse, natural sea salt, as this is what my Nordic ancestors would have used when making this. Natural sea salt has wonderful flavour anyway, so it's kind of a win-win situation. Having said that, any non-iodized salt can be used with fine results.
A note on sugar: I prefer to use raw (turbinado) sugar, since I figure this is the closest widely-available sugar to what would have been used back in the day. The larger grains of the turbinado will also go well with the coarse-ground peppercorns and sea salt that will be used. Having said that, any sugar can be used with fine results.
A note on pepper: I prefer to use a mixed "peppercorn medley" of different colours on the grounds that by the time pepper had traveled up to Scandinavia (via trade routes), it would probably not be the pure, black-only pepper that would be found closer to the source; rather, I figure it would most likely be comprised of a few different varieties of peppercorn (black, white, green, pink etc) to reflect the traders' blending of the last of their inventory in an effort to provide a "full load" at the far end of their route. Having said that, pure black pepper can of course be used.
A note on dill: I prefer fresh dill, but have learned to be prepared in case circumstances force me to use dried dill, or a combination of both. During the winter months, the dill available might not be the greenest and featheriest that it can be. It stands to reason that, back in the day, folks would have supplemented any substandard or unavailable fresh dill with dried dill from their stores. With that in mind, I will always use fresh dill if it is available; but if not, a light dusting of dried dill weed will be just fine. If using dried dill weed, keep in mind that dried dill is going to be much more concentrated than fresh, so use it sparingly. Using dill seed (rather than weed) is not recommended; my reasoning behind this is that a "bitter" taste in gravlax has been reported when using dill seed, which makes sense, as I have read that when canned tomatoes have an abundance of seeds, there can be a bitterness that comes from them, possibly a result of the salting and/or storage, I am not sure. Also, I have heard that cucumber seeds can impose a bitterness in dishes where cucumbers are used.
As mentioned in the Wikipedia article above, gravlax is traditionally served with a wonderful mustard sauce, prepared for this purpose, called gravlaxsås (or sometimes hovmästarsås). Some information on this was found on a Swedish food site; please bear with the clunky Google translation:
I have made this sauce, and it was truly wonderful, a perfect compliment for gravlax. Here is the recipe, from the abovementioned Swedish site (with some notes for clarification):
When I prepared it, I chose to use extra virgin olive oil rather than something "neutral" like canola. Results were very, very good with a sweet-tart tang and a good bite from the dill, pepper and other seasonings. My only regret is that I had no fresh dill to chop up and use at the time - the dry dill weed that I did use is quite adequate, but it was ground quite fine and therefore ended up coloring the mustard a bit:
No big deal, it tastes great either way.
More on this to be posted as the gravlax is prepared. If you just can't wait, and want to give this a try now in time for your own SuperBowl gravlax, consult the links above for full step-by-step procedures.
It's that time of year again - the SuperBowl is a little over a week away. In keeping with tradition, I'll be preparing gravlax in much the same way as my Swedish ancestors.
I am going to make this a complete, "signature" post, with history, recipe and other notes lifted from previous years, followed by step-by-step pictures; having said that, I do recommend that you take the time to review the links below, as there is plenty of good supplemental information to be found in them. In chronological order, here are those previous posts:
http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards....vian-specialty
http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards....superbowl-2011
A bit of history from Wikipedia:
Gravlax (gravad lax (Swedish), gravad laks (Danish), gravlaks (Norwegian, Danish), graavilohi (Finnish), graavilõhe (Estonian), graflax (Icelandic)) is a Nordic dish consisting of raw salmon, cured in salt, sugar, and dill. Gravlax is usually served as an appetizer, sliced thinly and accompanied by hovmästarsås (also known as gravlaxsås), a dill and mustard sauce, either on bread of some kind, or with boiled potatoes.
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 grav, which literally means "grave" or "to dig" (in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch and Estonian), and lax (or laks), which means "salmon", thus gravlax means "buried 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 used for any fatty fish, but salmon is the most common.
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 grav, which literally means "grave" or "to dig" (in Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Dutch and Estonian), and lax (or laks), which means "salmon", thus gravlax means "buried 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 used for any fatty fish, but salmon is the most common.
First, if you are trying to choose between wild-caught or farm-raised salmon, keep this in mind:
"What's counter-intuitive to most cooks is that farm-raised salmon is much safer to eat raw than wild salmon. Farm-raised salmon is served pellet food, which is ground-up, processed fish meat. Any parasites in the fish meat are killed in the processing and grinding stages. Since salmon only obtains dangerous to humans parasites via food, farm-raised salmon simply isn't exposed to them. So, next time you use salmon for gravlax, tartar, or sashimi, go for the farm-raised stuff. When the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations tested various fish for parasites in 2003, no parasites were found in any farm-raised salmon species , whereas parasites were frequently found in wild salmon (section 5.1.4 of Huss et al., 2003).
If you are using wild, fresh-caught salmon that has never been frozen as per industry standards, then there is some small chance of food-borne illness and that you really might be playing Russian roulette, but no more so than anyone who eats raw clams, oysters, ceviche etc, as far as I can see. A trusted friend with many years of experience in the food safety industry put it this way:
To put all this in perspective, the risk you take downhill skiing is an order of magnitude greater than the risk of eating raw, not previously frozen fish. Whether that risk is worth it is up to you. I hate downhill skiing and I love raw fish, so you can guess which risks I choose to take. In fact, the risk of driving or just walking down the street is probably higher than the risk of eating raw fish. I know plenty of people who were in life-threatening car accidents, and I am yet to meat a person who got infected by anisakis simplex or tapeworm. And let me tell you, I get way more pleasure from a bowl of sashimi than my morning commute.
Please note that this all refers to salt-water fish. I absolutely would not consider making gravlax, sushi or sashimi out of freshwater fish that I had caught and packaged myself. For those, I would brine and hot-smoke to a safe temperature of 140 degrees. There might be a safe length of time to hold them at zero degrees F - say, 30 days - but I won't try it until I know for sure.
Anyway, once you select your salmon, the process is easy. Following the formula provided by Time/Life's Foods of the World - The Cooking of Scandinavia, 1968, here is all you need in order to create a very traditional gravlax:
1/4 cup non-iodized salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons freshly-ground black pepper
1 large bunch of fresh dill
1 fillet of salmon
A note on salt: I prefer to use coarse, natural sea salt, as this is what my Nordic ancestors would have used when making this. Natural sea salt has wonderful flavour anyway, so it's kind of a win-win situation. Having said that, any non-iodized salt can be used with fine results.
A note on sugar: I prefer to use raw (turbinado) sugar, since I figure this is the closest widely-available sugar to what would have been used back in the day. The larger grains of the turbinado will also go well with the coarse-ground peppercorns and sea salt that will be used. Having said that, any sugar can be used with fine results.
A note on pepper: I prefer to use a mixed "peppercorn medley" of different colours on the grounds that by the time pepper had traveled up to Scandinavia (via trade routes), it would probably not be the pure, black-only pepper that would be found closer to the source; rather, I figure it would most likely be comprised of a few different varieties of peppercorn (black, white, green, pink etc) to reflect the traders' blending of the last of their inventory in an effort to provide a "full load" at the far end of their route. Having said that, pure black pepper can of course be used.
A note on dill: I prefer fresh dill, but have learned to be prepared in case circumstances force me to use dried dill, or a combination of both. During the winter months, the dill available might not be the greenest and featheriest that it can be. It stands to reason that, back in the day, folks would have supplemented any substandard or unavailable fresh dill with dried dill from their stores. With that in mind, I will always use fresh dill if it is available; but if not, a light dusting of dried dill weed will be just fine. If using dried dill weed, keep in mind that dried dill is going to be much more concentrated than fresh, so use it sparingly. Using dill seed (rather than weed) is not recommended; my reasoning behind this is that a "bitter" taste in gravlax has been reported when using dill seed, which makes sense, as I have read that when canned tomatoes have an abundance of seeds, there can be a bitterness that comes from them, possibly a result of the salting and/or storage, I am not sure. Also, I have heard that cucumber seeds can impose a bitterness in dishes where cucumbers are used.
As mentioned in the Wikipedia article above, gravlax is traditionally served with a wonderful mustard sauce, prepared for this purpose, called gravlaxsås (or sometimes hovmästarsås). Some information on this was found on a Swedish food site; please bear with the clunky Google translation:
This classic was one of the most important sauces in the Swedish restaurant kitchens during the 1900s. It was served not only for gravlax - cold and grilled - and other marinated fish, but also to the shellfish cooked lobster and crab, as well as pickled herring. Now has the reputation, but at certain times and many have seen the bottom of this a bit extreme sauce. It was among other master chef Auguste Escoffier who found the tomb of the salmon (gravlax) delicious, but despised hovmästarsåsen and instead proposed a tartar sauce as an accessory. A Danish version also contains egg yolks, and some lace sauce with a little brandy or honey. Sometimes excluded and dill sauce is then called simply "the mustard."
This recipe calls for decilitres (dl). One decilitre is equal to .4 cup measure, or slightly less than half a cup.
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1-2 pinches of salt
4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill
1/2 dl Swedish sweet mustard (a light honey-mustard could be substituted with good results)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 dl neutral oil
Salt and white pepper from the mill
1. Mix sugar, salt and dill (it is said that the dill flavor arrives best this way).
2. Mix the mustard and vinegar.
3. Stir in oil, little by little so that the sauce does not crack. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Let stand awhile before serving.
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1-2 pinches of salt
4 tablespoons finely chopped fresh dill
1/2 dl Swedish sweet mustard (a light honey-mustard could be substituted with good results)
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 dl neutral oil
Salt and white pepper from the mill
1. Mix sugar, salt and dill (it is said that the dill flavor arrives best this way).
2. Mix the mustard and vinegar.
3. Stir in oil, little by little so that the sauce does not crack. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Let stand awhile before serving.
No big deal, it tastes great either way.
More on this to be posted as the gravlax is prepared. If you just can't wait, and want to give this a try now in time for your own SuperBowl gravlax, consult the links above for full step-by-step procedures.
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