Lox (Cured Salmon)

Create your own bagel and lox brunch from scratch for one-tenth the cost. This recipe creates a version of lox that is comparable to anything you can get at a NY or Montreal deli. Serve sliced thin and layered onto a bagel with a "schmear" of cream cheese and cover with capers, sliced onion and a tomato slice. If you're feeling it, you can also make your own Montreal bagel for truly homemade bagels and lox.

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Course: Appetizer, Breakfast, Brunch, Sandwich

Cuisine: American Mid-Atlantic, New York, North American

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 50

Curing, brining, freshening, painting/drying: 1 10

Total Time: 1 11

Servings: pounds

Author: My Hungry Traveler

Equipment

5 gallon plastic bucket with lid (never aluminum)
Electric fan (optional)
Cold smoker device (optional) with pellets
Razor blade or extra-sharp knife
Pastry brush
small saucepan

Ingredients

4 lbs Salmon fillets, fresh or fresh frozen, skin on, high quality
1 cup Light brown sugar
¾ cup Kosher salt
12 cups Coarse salt (brining salt)
16 cups Water
1 cup Dark brown sugar
¾ cup Dark rum

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Instructions

Prepare Salmon - Rinse salmon in cold water. Cut full-sized fillets in half crossways. Score skin with a razor blade or extra-sharp knife (allows more brine to penetrate).
Dry Cure - Mix together salt and sugar in a small bowl. Sprinkle a layer of salt/sugar mixture over the bottom of a 5-gallon plastic container. Lay half the salmon pieces over that skin-side down. Aggressively sprinkle salt/sugar mixture over the fish. If using, add fresh dill in a single layer. Top that with other half of salmon pieces, skin-side down. Sprinkle heavily with most of remaining salt/sugar mix. Flip pieces over so the skin-side is now on top. Sprinkle remaining salt/sugar mixture over that.
Cover and let sit in a cool shady place for 12 hours. Curing fish doesn't need to be refrigerated as the salt/sugar mixture stops any decomposition.
Wet Brine - Remove salmon from container, discard dill, if used. Rinse both salmon and container thoroughly with cold water. Add pickling salt to bucket and the water. Swirl with a wooden spoon until salt is dissolved. Add fish to the solution skin-side down.
Cover and let sit for 12 hours. Fish doesn't need to be refrigerated. Brining draws water from fish as it cures.
Freshen Fillets - Empty brine from the container and rinse it out. Rinse fillets and return to container. Place container in a place where water can overflow and drain. Pace a garden hose or extended kitchen faucet at bottom of bucket. Slowly run cold water and allow water to overflow the bucket. This is a critical step in removing excess salt from the fish. Freshening will take anywhere from 1 hour for thin pieces and up-to 1½ hours for thicker pieces. Be careful not to over-freshen fish as it can become pasty and waterlogged and basically unusable.
Painting and Drying - When fillets are properly desalinated, transfer them skin-side down onto a kitchen towel spread on a table or counter. Pat tops dry with paper towels. In a small saucepan, completely dissolve dark brown sugar in rum. Warm slightly on stove is sugar isn't dissolving.
Set a fan at the end of the table where the fish has been laid out. Brush the sugar/rum syrup onto each piece. Turn the fan on to help dry the syrup. As the syrup dries, about every ½ hour, brush on a new layer of syrup. Do this for 5-6 hours until a pellicle (skin) of syrup forms on the surface of each fillet.
Cold Smoke - Place cold smoker device on one the side of an unlit grill. Lite pellets in smoker and lightly smoke for 30-60 minutes. * Do not let the temperature exceed 85°F (28°C) or pieces can be ruined.
Store - Wrap fillets in plastic wrap and place in seal-top plastic freezer bags. Store what you plan to eat in the refrigerator and freeze the rest. Refrigerated lox is good refrigerated for a few weeks and several months in the freezer.

Notes

Omitting the dill and steps 5. (painting) and 6 (cold smoking) may all be omitted with the outcome a fantastic lox worthy of a New York delicatessen. Including those steps adds layers of flavor that take the lox from great to amazing!

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