[Sca-cooks] salmon and gravlax

[Stefan li Rous]

Adamantius replied to my questions with:
> > We've talked about gravlax here before, but I don't remember any
> > specific directions on making it. Since you've done this, could you
> > detail what is involved? Can you make gravlax from any fish or just
> > from salmon?
>
> Well, the "lax" part of the word is species-specific. Lox/Lax/Lachs
> is a word used in Germanic and Scandinavian languages to denote,
> specifically, salmon.

Oh! Until you mentioned this I didn't draw the connection between lox 
and grav*lax*.

>    A related process is used for Greenland shark in Iceland to produce
> hakaarl, everyone's favorite "fermented"/"rotten" shark dish for
> culture-affirming, xenophobic,
> "let's-make-fun-of-foreigners-and-their-wacky-eating-habits"
> purposes, and as such provides a useful service ;-). But for the most
> part, hakaarl is an exception to the rule since the process is taken
> quite a bit farther than it usually is for gravlax.

For those interested in finding out some more about this, you can find 
Nanna's (an Icelandic native and Icelandic food historian and cook) in 
this Florilegium file and probably the second one.
fd-Iceland-msg    (84K)  1/15/03    Food of medieval Iceland. Recipes.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-BY-REGION/fd-Iceland-msg.html
stockfish-msg     (98K) 10/15/04    Period preserved fish. Dried, 
smoked and
                                        salted fish. Recipes.
http://www.florilegium.org/files/FOOD-MEATS/stockfish-msg.html

> I've provided a recipe elsewhere; let me know if you don't find it.
Yes, I did find that message in the next digest. After I'd posted my 
questions. I had originally saved that recipe to my modern recipes 
files because I wasn't sure if it was period or not. In particular, I 
was, and am, questioning the amount of sugar used. Specifically for 
something in a northern European region, even at the end of our period. 
So was this recipe close to a period recipe or is it just similar to 
what a period gravlax recipe would likely be like? Would honey have 
likely been used for this recipe within out period?

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****