This delicious cured salmon is best served atop a bagel schmeared with cream cheese. Have it Sunday morning with a nice cup of coffee.

Time

4 days total
40 minutes active

Difficulty

Easy

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Equipment

• Plastic wrap

• Shallow baking dish

• Something heavy

• Sharp knife

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Ingredients

• 1-4lb good salmon
• 1/3 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp fresh ground pepper
• 3-5 juniper berries
• 1-2 cups fresh dill, finely chopped
• a pinch red pepper flakes
• 2-3 tbsp grated raw beets (optional)

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Directions

1. Trim the salmon, remove pin bones, and cut into two pieces as close in size and shape as possible. Place one piece skin-down on a large piece of plastic wrap

2. Combine the remaining ingredients and rub all over the salmon, evenly and liberally, then place the other piece on top, flesh-down, to make a “salmon sandwich”

3. Tightly wrap in multiple layers of plastic wrap, place in shallow baking dish with somehing heavy on top of it, and put in the fridge

4. For the next four days, once or twice a day, flip the salmon. If there’s a lot of liquid, unwrap the fish, drain the liquid, and rewrap in fresh plastic.

5. On the fourth day, remove the fish from the dish, unwrap, and rinse the outsides only (leave them sandwiched together).

6. Pull the pieces of fish apart and brush off the excess rub (keeping as much as you wish for aesthetic purposes)

7. Slice thin pieces on a bias and serve.

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Notes

• Fresh salmon may contain tapeworm larvae which are not killed by the salt cure. It is safer to buy commercially-frozen or previously-commercially-frozen fish; that freezing process does kill the larvae.

• I recommend fish on the fattier end of the spectrum – pictured above is some Sockeye from here in WA.

• The lox should last about five days in the refrigerator – if you are patient enough not to eat it all.