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Gravlax

Salmon dishes: gravlax in the middle, cold-smoked on the left and warm-smoked on the right
Alternative names	Gravad lax, grav(ad)laks, gravad laks
Course	Hors d'oeuvre
Place of origin	Nordic countries
Main ingredients	salmon, salt, sugar, dill/spruce
Cookbook: Gravlax   Media: Gravlax

Gravlax (Swedish: [ˈgrɑ̂ːvlakːs]), gravlaks or graved salmon is a Nordic dish consisting of salmon that is cured using a mix of salt, sugar and dill. It is garnished with fresh dill or sprucetwigs and may occasionally be cold-smoked afterwards. Gravlax is usually served as an appetizer, sliced thinly and accompanied by a dill and mustard sauce known as hovmästarsås (Also known in Sweden as gravlaxsås, in Norway as sennepssaus, literally 'mustard sauce', in Denmark as rævesovs, literally 'fox sauce', in Iceland as graflaxsósa, and in Finland as hovimestarinkastike, literally 'butler sauce'), either on bread or with boiled potatoes.

Etymology

The word gravlax comes from the Northern Germanic word gräva/grave ('to dig'; modern sense 'to cure (fish)') which goes back to the Proto-Germanic *grabą, *grabō ('hole in the ground; ditch, trench; grave') and the Indo-European root *gʰrebʰ- 'to dig, to scratch, to scrape', and lax/laks, 'salmon'.

History

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. Perhaps the oldest reference is found in 1348 in Diplomatarium Norvegicum as the nickname of a man named Óláfr, who was a delegate in a salmon fishery.

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 between twelve hours and a few days. As the salmon cures, osmosis moves moisture out of the fish and into the salt and sugar, turning the dry mixture into a highly concentrated brine, which can be used in Scandinavian cooking as part of a sauce. This same method of curing can be employed for any fatty fish, but salmon is the most commonly used.

See also

• Cured fish – Fish subjected to fermentation, pickling or smoking
• Carpaccio – Thin pieces of fish or meat, served raw as an appetiser
• Gwamegi – Korean dried fish preparation
• Hákarl – National dish of Iceland consisting of fermented shark
• List of hors d'oeuvre
• List of raw fish dishes
• Lox – Brined salmon
• Rakfisk – Norwegian fermented fish dish made from trout or char
• Sashimi – Japanese dish of raw fish
• Surströmming – Swedish fermented Baltic Sea herring

References

1. Fredrikson, Karin (1963). Nya stora kokboken [New Big Cookbook] (in Swedish). Göteborg: Wezäta. p. 229.
2. Hemberg, Birgit; Eriksson, Fredrik (16 August 2005). Bonniers kokbok [Bonniers cookbook] (in Swedish). Bonnierförlagens Press. p. 267. ISBN 9789100103781.
3. "GRAV". Svenska Akademiens ordbok (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
4. Charter 251, 25 January 1348. "Diplomatarium Norvegicum". Retrieved 15 November 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
5. Lidén, Evald (1910). "Äldre Nordiska Tillnamn". Studier i Nordisk Filologi. 1 (1): 21–22. Retrieved 15 November 2024.
6. Ruhlman, Michael; Polcyn, Brian; Solovyev, Yevgenity (10 September 2013). Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing. W. W. Norton & Company. pp. 51–52. ISBN 978-0393240054.

External links

v t e Salmon
Groups and species	Salmonidae Atlantic salmon Black Sea salmon Pacific salmon Chum salmon Chinook salmon Coho salmon Masu salmon Pink salmon Steelhead Sockeye salmon Taiwanese salmon Danube salmon Spike-toothed salmon Genetically modified salmon
Fisheries and management	Alaska salmon fishery Aquaculture of salmon Fly fishing bibliography Old McKenzie Fish Hatchery Pacific Salmon War Pre-spawn mortality in coho salmon Putcher Putcher fishing Salmon run June hogs
As food	Cured salmon Gravlax Lohikeitto Lomi salmon Lox Rui-be Salmon burger Salmon tartare Smoked salmon
Diseases and parasites	Diseases and parasites in salmon Amoebic gill disease Ceratomyxa shasta Gyrodactylus salaris Henneguya zschokkei Infectious salmon anemia virus M74 syndrome Myxobolus cerebralis Nanophyetus salmincola Salmon louse Sea louse Salmon tapeworm Sphaerothecum destruens Tetracapsuloides bryosalmonae
Conservation	Puget Sound salmon recovery Environmental issues with salmon 2002 Klamath River fish kill Steelhead and salmon distinct population segments
Organisations	Atlantic Salmon Federation Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization Pacific Salmon Commission Welsh Salmon and Trout Angling Association Wild Salmon Center Yakima Klickitat Fisheries Project
Related	Ceasg Salmon cannery Salmon (book) Salmon (color) Salmon of Knowledge Salmon Fishing in the Yemen The Salmon Fly The Big Fish

• Danish cuisine
• Finnish cuisine
• Icelandic cuisine
• Norwegian cuisine
• Salmon dishes
• Swedish cuisine
• Swedish words and phrases
• Appetizers