Swedish Banquet Gravlax (Dill-Cured Salmon)
Thin slices of raw salmon, cured for several days in salt, sugar, and dill until silky and translucent. Served with a mustard-dill sauce (hovmästarsås) and rye bread. The cold elegance of the Swedish table.
Thin slices of raw salmon, cured for several days in salt, sugar, and dill until silky and translucent. Served with a mustard-dill sauce (hovmästarsås) and rye bread. The cold elegance of the Swedish table.
I'll admit that evening in Stockholm, I was a bit intimidated — you don't get a Nobel every day, and there had only been two women before me in physics. But what a feast! The Swedes have such a refined way of preparing salmon: no cooking, just salt, sugar, lots of dill, and patience for two or three days. The result is melting, fresh, almost delicate. For an Ontario girl used to poutine, it was a whole other world — and a memory I treasure.
- •Very fresh salmon fillet with skin — a nice piece (base)
- •Salt — generous (curing)
- •Sugar — generous (balance curing)
- •Fresh dill — a large bunch (signature Nordic aroma)
- •Coarsely ground pepper — a little (seasoning)
Swedish Banquet Gravlax (Dill-Cured Salmon)
Thin slices of raw salmon, cured for several days in salt, sugar, and dill until silky and translucent. Served with a mustard-dill sauce (hovmästarsås) and rye bread. The cold elegance of the Swedish table.
Why this dish? In December 2018, Donna Strickland received the Nobel Prize in Physics in Stockholm — only the third woman to do so. Gravlax, Sweden's iconic cured salmon, evokes the great Nordic celebration and the official feast that crown a lifetime of research.
I'll admit that evening in Stockholm, I was a bit intimidated — you don't get a Nobel every day, and there had only been two women before me in physics. But what a feast! The Swedes have such a refined way of preparing salmon: no cooking, just salt, sugar, lots of dill, and patience for two or three days. The result is melting, fresh, almost delicate. For an Ontario girl used to poutine, it was a whole other world — and a memory I treasure.
Ingredients (period version)
- Very fresh salmon fillet with skin — a nice piece (base)
- Salt — generous (curing)
- Sugar — generous (balance curing)
- Fresh dill — a large bunch (signature Nordic aroma)
- Coarsely ground pepper — a little (seasoning)
Ingredients
- Extra-fresh salmon fillet with skin (sashimi grade) — 500 g (base)
- Coarse salt — 60 g (curing)
- Sugar — 50 g (balance)
- Chopped fresh dill — 1 large bunch (signature aroma)
- Coarsely ground black pepper — 1 tsp (seasoning)
- Mild mustard + strong mustard — 2 tbsp total (hovmästarsås sauce)
- Vinegar and neutral oil — 1 tbsp + 4 tbsp (sauce)
- Rye bread — as needed (accompaniment)
Method
- Mix coarse salt, sugar, and pepper. Place half the dill in the bottom of a dish.
- Place salmon skin-side down, cover with salt-sugar mixture, then remaining dill.
- Cover with plastic wrap, place a weight (a board + a can) on top, and cure for 48-72 hours in the refrigerator, turning the fillet daily and discarding any liquid that accumulates.
- Rinse quickly, pat dry, then slice very thinly on the bias, leaving the skin.
- Prepare sauce by whisking mustards, a pinch of sugar, vinegar, oil, and chopped dill.
- Serve slices with sauce and rye bread. Such a long cure requires impeccable fish: buy extra-fresh and keep well chilled.
How it was made : Gravlax (from grav, 'buried', and lax, 'salmon') dates back to a medieval Scandinavian technique where fishermen buried salted salmon to lightly ferment it. The modern version, simply cured with salt-sugar-dill, has become a classic of Swedish festive tables and Christmas cuisine (julbord).
The contemporary twist : Arrange the slices in a radiating fan around a dollop of sauce, like a 'light pulse' — a nod to the pulsed laser that earned Strickland her Nobel.
Donna Strickland · Charactorium