| Gravlax | |
| Alternate Name: | Gravad lax, grav(ad)laks, gravad laks |
| Country: | Nordic countries |
| Course: | Hors d'oeuvre |
| Main Ingredient: | salmon, salt, sugar, dill/spruce |
Gravlax (pronounced as /sv/), 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[1] [2] 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 (Also known in Sweden as, in Norway as, literally 'mustard sauce', in Denmark as, literally 'fox sauce', in Iceland as, and in Finland as, literally 'butler sauce'), either on bread or with boiled potatoes.
The word comes from the Northern Germanic word ('to dig'; modern sense 'to cure (fish)') which goes back to the Proto-Germanic, ('hole in the ground; ditch, trench; grave') and the Indo-European root 'to dig, to scratch, to scrape',[3] and /, 'salmon'.
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 [4] as the nickname of a man named Óláfr, who was a delegate in a salmon fishery.[5]
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.[6] This same method of curing can be employed for any fatty fish, but salmon is the most commonly used.