A raw salmon fillet cured for several days in salt, sugar and dill, thinly sliced and served with a sweet-sour mustard and dill sauce. The great classic of Scandinavian banquets.

Why this dish? Salmon was one of the noble fish of the Swedish table, and gravlax the showpiece of grand receptions. Mittag-Leffler, who held salons and hosted the greatest mathematicians of Europe in his Djursholm villa, could not offer a festive smörgåsbord without this rosy splendor.

Here, my dear colleagues, is what I reserve for grand occasions — when mathematicians from Berlin, Paris and Göttingen crowd under my roof. The salmon, we bury for three days in salt, sugar and an abundance of dill; in olden days it was even buried in the sand of the shore, hence its name. We slice it as thinly as a page of my Acta Mathematica, and nap it with a sauce where mustard contends with dill. Serve this with a small glass of ice-cold aquavit, and I guarantee the scholarly conversation will be all the more brilliant.

How it was made : The word gravlax comes from gräva ('to dig'): in the Middle Ages, Scandinavian fishermen lightly fermented salmon by burying it salted in the sand above the tide line. By Mittag-Leffler's time, fermentation had given way to simple salting with salt and sugar, yielding the 'mild' gravlax we know today.

The contemporary twist : A thin layer of grated beetroot in the cure colors the salmon edges a brilliant pink — a spectacular presentation for a festive table.

Gösta Mittag-Leffler · Charactorium