Liquid Smoke question

[Freedbaby]

I use liquid smoke to make my gravlox and was wondering if anyone new how to make it. I buy it at the store, but I was thinking I could come up with something better.

I noticed that the first ingredient on the bottle was soy sauce....thought that was wierd. When I make it, I only use a tablespoon or two at the most so I dont need to make a ton, it lasts a long time

Jay

[Thom Emery]

Not familar with gravlox
??

[rstcso]

Alton Brown did an episode of Good Eats where he made some liquid smoke. I don't remember all the details, but basically he had a bowl with ice over the smokestack of a pit. This would cause the smoke to condense with the liquid, then dripping into another bowl. After a while, he ended up with a few teaspoons.

I'll try to find pictures and get the procedure correct, but by making your own, you can control the flavor (oak with a little or lot of pecan, maybe some peach, etc).

Ok, here's a procedure I found...

"Put a bundt type cake pan on top of the stack after starting a fire with your favorite wood. Place a metal bowl upside down on top of the hole in the cake pan. Place a ziplock bag of ice on top the bottom of the bowl. This makes it as the smoke condenses on the side of the bowl and runs down into the bundt pan. Easier to buy though."

[3970010]

gravlox


:?:

[Half Fast BBQ'n]

Gravlax (Swedish), also known as Graved laks (Danish), Gravlaks (Norwegian), Graavilohi (Finnish), and Graflax (Icelandic) is a Scandinavian appetizer consisting of thin sashimi-like slices of salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill.

Gravlax is traditionally served with a dill and mustard sauce and crisp bread.

During the Middle Ages, gravlax was made by fishermen by salting the salmon and lightly fermenting it by burying it in the sand above the high-tide line. The word gravlax comes from the Scandinavian words grav, which means literally "grave" or "hole in the ground" (in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish), and lax (or laks), which means "salmon", thus gravlax is "buried salmon", or, more literally, "entombed salmon".

Today fermentation is no longer used in the production process. Instead the salmon is cured in salt, sugar and dill.

[gatorpit]

http://www.saunalahti.fi/~marian1/gourmet/5_2.htm

http://www.bambi.net/lash/gravlox.html

[BrianA59]

I have always seen gravlax cured and marinated in vodka.

www.animal.ufl.edu/iga/Recipes%20PDF%20Format/Gravlax.pdf

[david brace]

Gotta admit I never heard of it.

But ANYTHING is cured if it's marinated in Vodka... :lol:

DB

[Freedbaby]

We use Kosher salt, dill, brown sugar, tequila and a tiny bit of liquid smoke and let it cure for about 3 days or so.

It makes wonderful Lox and on a bagle with cream cheese, onions and capers :D :D :D

I may or may not try the liquid smoke process..... it does sound involved for a few drops.

Thanks for the info though.

Jay

[Michiana Mark]

Gotta admit I never heard of it.

But ANYTHING is cured if it's marinated in Vodka... :lol:

DB
Amen brother

[TexLaw]

Gravlax makes me very, very happy (and it's not the vodka. If you like cured salmon and dill, you ought to give it a try.


TL

[HFD26]

Hey Freebaby, can it be found pre made at Belden's? I may wanna give it a try someday.

[Freedbaby]

HFD26 You probably can but it will be very expensive at Beldens.....I make it periodically, next time I make it I will shoot you a PM and slide by with some in hand. Arent you near there somewhere?

[david brace]

So is Gravlax a prepared dish or a 'spice'?

DB

[Freedbaby]

Gravlax is cured Salmon that is sliced thin and served with a bagel, cream cheese, capers tomato and a thin slice of onion..in our traditon anyway. This may help:

Lox and "Smoked Salmon"

Lox is another name for “smoked salmon,” commonly served as an appetizer in up-scale restaurants. The term “lox” comes from Lachs, the German word for salmon. But “smoked salmon” (or lox) is actually not smoked. All “smoked salmon” (or lox) is actually prepared by curing in a salt/sugar/spice mixture. Some “smoked salmon” (or lox), in addition to being salt/sugar-cured, is briefly cold-smoked. Such cold-smoking is done at room temperature for a few hours and does absolutely no cooking or preserving of the salmon. It's sole purpose is to impart a slight smoky taste to the fish and thus mask the odor and taste that results from the fact that most store-bought and deli lox is not very fresh. This slight smoky taste, if desired, is easily duplicated by the addition of a few drops of a liquid smoke product during the curing process.

(There is an actual smoked salmon product that is hot-smoked in the same way hams, turkeys, etc. are smoked. This product, however, bears no resemblance to either lox or the “smoked salmon” commonly served in restaurants. It has a dark reddish brown color and is rather dry and flaky.)

The History of Lox

Our ancestors needed ways to preserve their food. Meat, especially fish, was highly perishable and would last only a few days if not preserved. Populations fortunate enough to live by the sea, however, discovered that they could make salt by the evaporation of sea water. Such salt became not only a means of enhancing the taste of food but of preserving it as well. Meat and fish were packed in salt and dried or, in some instances, were stored in a salt solution, or brine; food so kept would remain edible and safe for weeks. Such salting was man's first method for the preservation of food, the earliest recording of which is found in the writings of Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder, a Roman statesman from about 200 BC. While bacteria and the concept of germs were not known until the Nineteenth Century, ancient cultures unwittingly were killing harmful bacteria when they salt-cured their meat and fish and thus had developed one of the earliest disease prevention strategies.Over the centuries, salt-cured fish became more then just a dietary staple, as it assumed certain mystical qualities. For instance, during the Middle Ages, a time when spiritual and supernatural beliefs abounded, cured fish was believed by the Jews to be an aphrodisiac and was an essential part of the post-Sabbath celebration.Anti-Semitism flourished in Europe in the centuries following the Middle Ages, and Jews fell on hard times. Herring was the most abundant fish in the North Atlantic and was thus quite cheap. Salt-cured herring thus became one of the staples of the Jewish diet but also became a symbol of bad times and a lesser class. During the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries, however, when many Jews began to enjoy prosperity, they turned away from salted herring and its sad reminders and looked for foods that reflected their improved lives. Salmon was a fish prized for the tables of royalty, and Jews soon applied the curing recipes they had used with herring to this more luxurious fish. Salmon yielded a cured fish like nothing the Jews had ever experienced. Its smooth, silky texture, its tender, delicate flesh and its subtle salty taste immediately made cured salmon a delicacy that is treasured to this day.Scandinavian cultures also developed a tradition of salt-curing fish. They were great sailors and fishermen and enjoyed a proximity to the rich salmon runs from the North Atlantic. Salt-cured salmon, which they called gravlax, became, and remains, a fine delicacy associated with good living, wealth and a high social class

Jay

[david brace]

Once a week I treat myself to an 'everything' bagel with cream cheese, lox, and thinly sliced onion. I have been having those on occasion since the early 70's. I always find a 'water bagel' shop and avoid the others.

I just had no idea the lox prepped like that had another name. Thanks for the education.

DB

[Uncle Al]

Hi,

I use Wright's Liquid Smoke. Ingredients list has only water and hickory smoke concentrate.

Al

[david brace]

Once a week I treat myself to an 'everything' bagel with cream cheese, lox, and thinly sliced onion. I have been having those on occasion since the early 70's. I always find a 'water bagel' shop and avoid the others...
Hey Zee, remember we were talking about this as a breakfast dish at Greg's...Jay said he didn't think he could handle eating fish in the morning...

DB