SC - Gravlax and the thingy recipe (a bit OT)

[Phil & Susan Troy]

Par Leijonhufvud wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 14 Sep 1998, Phil & Susan Troy wrote:
> 
> > We'd mix together approximately 1/2 cup Kosher, pickling, or sea salt
> > (non-iodized!), and 1/2 cup sugar, along with about 2 Tbs cracked black
> > peppercorns. We would spread this on the flesh side of the salmon, until the
> 
> Ah, yes. sugar. I knew the recipie didn't look quite right. Hm, with
> Norwegian salmon only being $5/kg perhaps one should make some...

Perhaps. I went directly to the Fulton fish market at around 4 AM for mine the
last time I made this at home, and paid about $20 US for a nine-pound fish. 
> 
> > This was (and is) traditionally served with bagels or brown bread,
> > topped with a thick, creamy olive oil / white wine vinegar
> > vinaigrette, with added sugar, some prepared mustard (we used Dijon)
> > and much finely chopped dill (no stems this time) stirred in.
> 
> Traditionally? Bagels? Without looking in sources either on the net or
> at home I can't swear that you've gotten the recipie for
> "hovmaestarsaas" (LaTeX "hovm\"astars\aa s", html
> "hovmästarsås", funny letters'R'Us) right, but the only thing
> that look a bit off is the Dijon mustard. Traditionally it's supposed to
> be a sweet, mild (i.e. useless for anything else) mustard, but Dijon
> might actually be an improvement.

A bagel tradition does exist outside of Scandinavia. I should have written
that in reverse order, though, huh? I also neglected to mention various
knackebrots, crispbreads, lompe and lefse. Sorry. As for the Dijon, there is,
I think, a brown Swedish mustard that is probably best for this, but Dijon is
what we used to use for general purposes.

> Being able to tuck away a pound of this I challenge you to make 8 lb
> last for 20 good sized servings. Definitely 20 "a bit on the side"
> servings, but not *real* servings. Fond memory of company paid
> "christmas buffet", 3 guesses on why I nibbled on the standard items[1],
> and ate my fill (as in full plate) of gravlax, smoked salmon and smoked
> eel.

I figure a random sample of folks in the USA would work out about right,
unless one accidentally ran across a bunch of Swedes or Norwegians ;  ). Some
will have tiny portions, some large ones, etc. It was just a rough guess,
though. I'm reminded of disparities I've seen between haggis recipes: One made
a three-pound haggis and claimed it would serve six or eight, another made a
five-pounder and said it would serve one Scotsman. I seem to recall Jeff
Smith's recipe for faux haggis says it will serve 20 Norwegians or four
Scotsmen. 
> 
> /UlfR
> 
> [1] ham, 42 kinds of herring, trotters, head cheese, meatballs, spare
> ribs, etc, etc.

Ah, you arrived late and they had run out of the other 83 kinds of herring,
eh? ;  )

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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