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

[Phil & Susan Troy]

Craig Jones. wrote:
> 
> <Snip>
> >>seaweed, Gravlax (salmon spiced and fermented for a few days),
> >>brandade, jelly fish salad, beef tendon noodle soup, sea cucumber,
> >>pork and beef dumpling soup, Alys' recipe for bull penis, mountain
> >>oysters, kimchee, <snip>
> 
> Some quick questions:
> 
> How do you make Gravlax?  Have any good recipes for serving it?  Is it
> period?

Yes, it appears to be period, although in slightly altered form. The method of
storing your catch refrigerated by burying it in the sand above the high tide
line is prehistoric. When you bury salmon you have gravad (as in grave) lachs.

We used to make this almost daily in a restaurant I worked in, according to
_fairly_ traditional, albeit updated, methods. Everything was done more or
less by eye, so I don't have really well-defined quantities for the
ingredients. But fear not, last time I checked, when I didn't feel like typing
a lot of stuff, I found several recipes on the Web.

What we used to do is fillet (and completely debone, including the little guys
that live along the lateral line) a whole, cleaned, 7-8 pound salmon, skin on.
We would prick several holes just through the skin side, without cutting into
the meat, to facilitate penetration of the marinade. On top of a sheet of
plastic wrap, we would lay out the two fillets, side by side, almost touching
along the back, and skin side down, so it looks like an orange oblong butterfly.

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
surface was white like snow. Okay, snow with black pepper in it. Sometimes
we'd need to make more of the mixture depending on the size of the salmon, but
it should be fairly thickly coated.

Tradition calls for a topping of coarse-chopped fresh dill, again, a thick
coat so the surface is now completely green. We would first add sliced
shallots to almost cover the fish, and it's good that way, but not really
standard traditional. A light sprinkling (maybe an ounce) of some kind of hard
spirit (ideally akvavit, but I've seen it done with gin and a bunch of other
types of hooch) is optional. We'd then fold the fillets together along the
back line, like a book, and wrap our fish, sugar, salt, and dill sandwich up
tightly in more plaswrap. We used to place the package in a hotel pan, a.k.a.
a steamer tray, and top it with a perforated hotel pan liner, and place a
weight on top of this. I seem to recall tomato cans were the approved item,
totalling maybe four or five pounds. We found it was necessary to move the
weights around because they wouldn't stack well on the non-level surface, and
as the fish cured it would compress and the angle would change.

We used to turn the fish over daily, and pour some of the resulting brine back
over the fish package. Oh, and I forgot to mention: this was kept
refrigerated! It could be considered done after it had macerated and cured for
as little as two or three days, but we used to think it was best after
pickling for four days, at which time it had shrunken a bit, darkened a bit,
and acquired a waxy shine to the meat. We'd scrape the blackened dill off
(sometimes rinsing to get the last of it off), pat dry with towels if
necessary, and allow it to sit for a few minutes for the surface to dry a bit
in the air, maybe five or ten minutes.

We'd slice this in paper-thin slices with the only viable salmon knife on the
premises, which happened to belong to me ;  )   : Thin, long, flexible, and
very sharp. The kind of knife commonly called a ham knife works well, just
make _sure_ the knife is not serrated, or you really _will_ have ground Nova.

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.

Need I mention that gravlax made from an eight-pound salmon goes a fairly long
way? It might get you something like twenty good-sized servings.            
 
> Alys' recipe for bull penis:  Is it period and is the recipe
> available.  I'd love to serve this at a feast (if I could get my hands
> on half a dozen thingys).

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I found strange, and strangely-labelled,
items wrapped in the usual styrofoam meat tray, and labelled "cow pennis" in
the Asian grocery about a half mile from home. Bearing in mind that cows are
female, I have to assume that what I was looking at was some
bull...uh...members. What gets done with this item I have no idea, but I
wouldn't be at all surprised if it were used to make a medicinal soup.

Adamantius, with profound apologies for calling akvavit "hooch"! 
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com
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