black tea & citrus-cured gravlax.
this salty, sultry, and sweet cured gravlax is an easy way to turn a filet of salmon into a quick and easy snack.
Serves: 4-6 Prep time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 3 days jump to recipe.
My standard for something becoming a “favorite food” is that I can eat it anytime, any place, and any way. Salmon is my favorite food for that reason — not only is a simple seared filet delicious, but I also love it smoked, cured, canned, and raw. And honestly? I have had terrible salmon and still liked it. Thus: favorite food.
My other favorites are angel hair pasta and ground beef. Have I eaten both raw? Yes. Can’t really recommend uncooked pasta, but tartare is my jam. What foods hit those boxes for you? Think about it.
Sorry to make you wait 3 paragraphs for the good stuff.
Gravlax is a type of cold cooked salmon not unlike smoked salmon or lox. The three, however, are slightly different, but you’d really only taste the difference if you ate them side by side. Otherwise, it’s cold salmon. Kind of rubbery, kind of soft, definitely not raw like sashimi.
I always have to google the difference between the three, so let me save you the searching and write it out here. Lox is the traditionally Jewish preparation of salmon belly cured using salt. Gravlax, on the other hand, adds sugar and dill to the salt brine to make a flavorful, sort-of sweet salmon. It’s traditionally Nordic and tends to be the one to add flavors too (most often beets). Smoked salmon is essentially lox, a salted filet, but smoked. This offers a smokier flavor and, if warm-smoked, a flakier texture.
As you can see, very similar.
Making gravlax at home
I’m probably alone in this, but I get kind of mad when I see recipes online calling themselves lox but loading up the salmon with sugar and dill. That’s gravlax, is it not?
Both are made the same way, though, and if you leave out the add-ons you’ll certainly get a lox. Salt naturally preserves things like fish and veggies, so coating a filet with salt will essentially “cook” the meat so that it’s edible without heat. I like to think of it like ceviche, where the citrus “cooks” the fish without heat. If that’s still confusing to you, it might be more helpful to avoid cooking metaphors and read the science behind it.
Long story short, salt dehydrates the fish, therefore destroying the bacteria that needs moisture to survive. That removal of moisture is what makes lox and gravlax kind of rubbery in texture.
So, to do this at home, you’ll need salt, sugar, and for gravlax, dill. Coat the entire filet in the curing mixture and let the salt work through the fish over the course of several days. Eventually, the salmon will be safe to eat without heat.
Using gravlax
I can’t say I’ve ever seen someone just straight-up eat a piece of cured salmon. I mean, sure, I’ve nibbled on a piece or two, but you wouldn’t sit down with a filet of cold salmon and have at it.
No, it’s awfully salty for that, plus kind of just texturally weird. Like plain yogurt. You know.
Plenty of people love bagels and lox, so that’s an obvious breakfast choice. A common Nordic preparation is to serve it charcuterie-style with crackers, onions, capers, and crème fraîche.
Another good way to eat gravlax is on toasted bread. This particular gravlax has a kind of herbal flavor, so it’s great with flavored cream cheeses (like the kind you get from bagel shops) or on top of cottage cheese.
Or, of course, on top of avocado toasts. Does it get better than that?
any plain old black tea will do. If you have a million sachets of tea, just tear those open and use the tea inside.
black tea & citrus-cured gravlax ingredients
salmon: For something that you’re spending so much time on, you should splurge a little. Frankly, you can make a good gravlax with any piece of salmon you pick up, but you should seek out a nice piece if you can manage it. I used the tail end mostly for styling aesthetics, but the salmon also turned out great. I bought it from a reputable store with high quality fish. If you can, buy center-cut, instead, which will be more tender. And try your best to buy from someone you trust, since the salmon isn’t technically being cooked (I wouldn’t use Walmart salmon, here, for example — and I actually use Walmart salmon all the time. So I’m not just being bougie)
salt: I use Diamond Crystal Kosher salt and I recommend you do the same, but technically, it doesn’t matter. You can use your Morton’s. I think this is purely preference based on what you grew up using. The sodium and grain size is quite different between the two, but I’m not sure that would affect the way they cure. Because kosher salt dissolves more quickly, I’d reckon Morton’s might require extra curing time.
sugar: Just plain white granulated sugar. Brown would also work, if for some reason that’s all you have.
black tea: Yes, any tea will work, but the flavor of black tea is what this recipe was planned for! If you want to get creative, by all means, go ahead, but be prepared for different flavors.
You can use any looseleaf black tea, or bust open some tea bags and use the ground tea that’s inside (That’s what I did). It’s just for the essence of flavor, so you don’t have to be picky about the tea itself.
citrus zest: I recommend orange, but lemon will work fine too. You’ll just need the zest, and that’ll give plenty of flavor.
white pepper: This helps ground out all the sweet and herby flavors. It’s earthy, peppery, a little spicy. You can swap for black pepper if you don’t have white.
dill: It’s not really gravlax without the dill, but if you really can’t stand the thought of it, skip it. It doesn’t change the essence of the fish, just adds a distinct herbal flavor. Don’t use dried, by the way: fresh is the way to do it.
it’s a lot of salt. and a lot of sugar. don’t worry — it’s necessary, and gets brushed off later.
you want the salmon completely coated, like so. after a few days, the salt will absorb, and the cure will look jet black.
black tea cured gravlax pairing options
Briefly mentioned above, cured salmon is definitely better when paired with a vessel and some cream. Here are some ideas:
bagel and roasted red pepper or herby rosemary cream cheese
crackers and a mixture of crème fraîche, lemon, and capers
crackers and sliced onion
toasted bread with cottage cheese and lemon
champagne or prosecco
blini, crème fraîche, and caviar
toasted bread, mashed avocado, and heirloom tomato
scrambled eggs and potato pancakes
latkes and sour cream with dill
slice thin pieces by taking the knife diagonally through the filet.
