Homemade Lox

There's nothing quite like the taste of the salty goodness that comes from well-cured salmon. Salmon itself isn't all that cheap, and the cured stuff--forget about it. I only sometimes splurge and spend nearly $10 on a lox bagel for lunch but only when I'm really craving the stuff. Then I realized I could just make my own at home for 1/4 of the price! Lox is similar to gravlax by way of curing. Both are cured with a mixture of salt and sugar, but gravlax typically calls for additional herbs such as dill. I tried a few different variations until I reached what I believe makes the perfect lox. Hope you like!

What you need:

1 lb salmon cut into 2 equal portions
plastic wrap
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons Himalayan Pink Rock Salt
1 teaspoon pepper
baking pan
small baking pan
weighted object

Place salmon portions skin side down on plastic wrap. Combine sugar, salt and pepper in a small mixing bowl and mix until all ingredients are well incorporated. Rub salmon with salt/sugar mixture. Press flesh sides of each salmon against each other as if sandwiching them and wrap with plastic wrap. Make sure it's firm but not too tightly wrapped because you want to be able to release the liquids. Place the salmon in a baking dish. Place another baking dish over the salmon (or a plate) and place a weight on the dish. I used a bottle of olive oil. Place in refrigerator using something to prop up the pan the salmon is in so that it is tilted and the liquids can flow to one side. The object here is to avoid the salmon having to sit in it's own liquids that will be released in the curing process. Let it sit like this for 24 hours. Remove the pan and discard the accumulated liquid--it should have a syrup like consistency. Then place the salmon back into the refrigerator, this time flipping the salmon over and switching the side it was previously tilted towards. Leave for another 24 hours. After 48 hours of curing, you should be good to go but I let mine sit an additional 10 hours mainly out of forgetfulness. Remove the salmon and rinse off all of the salt mixture under cold running water. Slice downwards towards the tail and enjoy!

For a simple tea time snack, I spread goat cheese on sesame flat bread, topped with thinly sliced cucumbers, then with the lox, and a few capers. Cheers!