Cured salted salmon is very famous and widely eaten in Russia, especially as a festive and party food. Traditionally gravlax is made with the whole salmon fillet and takes several days but our recipes are for quick and easy methods of making salted cured salmon at home. By slicing the fish before the curing salting process you cut off the preparation time by days! See our 6 hour salmon salting/curing recipe and 1 hour salmon salting/brining recipe.

Gravlax is an ancient dish which is present in all northern European cuisines. The name gravlax actually consists of two words: grave and  salmon and reflects the initial method of preparing the dish. Fishermen salted salmon, rapped it into clothes and put it into the soil for fermentation and curing. The word gravlax is not widely used in Russia but cured salted salmon is very famous and widely eaten, especially as a festive and party food.

Another thing worth mentioning. If you can get pre-smoked fresh salmon pieces (they are available in the UK in every large food chain) that will make your ready product taste absolutely the same as  smoked salmon from the store. Only without preservatives and at a fraction of the store price! Always use the freshest fish you can possibly get for home-made cured salmon.

Home-made brined salted salmon quick recipe: 1 hour

Sometimes we need to have things done rather soon. Only in such cases would I use this recipe from my mother’s friend. I have noticed that home-made salted salmon by this recipe is slightly stripped of its lovely bright colour probably because of the strong salt solution. The fish does not turn out as tasty as the one that is cured for 6 hours (recipe above), in my opinion. I still find the recipe worth sharing and it’s up to you if you want to try it or not.

Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 1 hour
Total time: 1 hour 15 min
Yield: 5 helpings as a starter

Ingredients

• Freshest (pre-smoked) salmon fillets 350 g (0.8 pounds or 2 fillet pieces)
• Rock salt 1/8 cup
• Sugar 1/2 Tbsp
• Warm water 1/2 cup

Method

1. Mix salt and sugar with warm water to make the brine. Make sure salt and sugar are dissolved completely. Let the brine cool down.
2. Meanwhile slice the salmon thinly into 0.5 cm (0.2 in) thick slices.
3. Put the fish into a glass container (like Pyrex) or a ceramic bowl, pour the cooled brine on top. Place a saucer or a plate on top of the bowl and put some weight on the plate (like a tin of food or a glass full of water). The weight is needed to keep the salmon totally covered with the brine.
4. In 1 hour pour the brine out and try the salted salmon. If the fish is too salty wash it briefly in clean cool water and drain completely.
5. Put the home-made salted brined salmon into the refrigerator.

How to store home-made salmon gravlax

The home-made salmon gravlax is a fresh natural product which does not have any preservatives (unlike the commercially made ones). So it can only be stored in the refrigerator for not longer than 2 or 3 days. If you are planning to store the the home-made salmon gravlax for that long, place it into a glass or porcelain bowl, add a tea spoon of olive oil and mix the gravlax so that the oil coats the fish evenly.

How to serve salmon gravlax

You can arrange the slices of home-made salmon gravlax on a platter or on a antipasti serving wood board beautifully and serve with some rye crisp-bread and cream cheese. Decorate the platter with sliced lemon and some fresh greens (parsley or dill). Mill some fresh black pepper on top of the gravlax slices. In Scandinavia gravlax is traditionally eaten with mustard and dill sauce.

Salmon gravlax is also a fabulous sandwich filler, it combines perfectly with some butter and thinly sliced fresh cucumber and will make a great lunch.