My mom has been making lox for years, she has tried various flavors, including curing it with

tea. She buys special curing salt online, but I skipped that. I made two variants, one using basic ingredients anyone can find, and one a bit more special. Both are exceptional, better than just about any lox one can buy. It started last Friday when we were shopping in Flushing. We were walking around a Chinese supermarket that has a good fish section. I asked the fish monger if he had any whole salmon, and he took out a beautiful, 18-pound salmon, which he was willing to sell me for $4 per pound. While I would love it, we have no room in our kitchen for that size fish. So with the help of my mother-in-law (to do some translation into Chinese), I requested that he fillet and clean half and sell me that portion, it came out to just under six pounds and he charged $4.99 per pound. When we got the fish home, I used some clean needle nose pliers to pull each of the pin bones out. I also cleaned off any remaining scales and wiped the salmon as dry as possible with paper towels. The final step before rubbing was to slice the side into four roughly equal lengths made two rubs. The first was kosher salt, light brown sugar, and ground black pepper. The second was the same, but I replaced kosher salt with Applewood Smoked Salt. The magic ratio seems to be:
y y y

1/4 cup of salt 1/4 cup sugar 1 tablespoon of pepper

Use that amount per pound of fish.

The next step is to thoroughly, VERY THOROUGHLY, cover each piece of salmon in the rub. Really pack the stuff on. Try to get it built up on top and along each side. The texture is something like sand, so think of building a sand castle. You only need to get the rub on the flesh, don t worry at all about the skin side. If you get some on the skin, it s fine, but won t help much. did two pieces of the basic rub and two pieces of the smoked. It is important to have two of each type you do, because the next step is to sandwich the pieces, flesh to flesh. When making the sandwich a lot of rub is going to fall off, try to minimize it. And after the sandwich is done, press more of the rub into the sides. Be generous!

Wrap the sandwich in plastic wrap. Try to pull the wrap so the pieces are pressed tightly together. The trick is not pull the sides tightly closed. The salt and sugar are going to pull water out of the salmon and you want that to run off and out of the plastic.

Most of the sites I ve read about making lox recommend the technique my mom uses: just put the lox on a plate that is deep enough to hold the liquid. However, I m not a fan of this approach, because I ve seen first hand how it results in the fish sitting in the liquid. I tried something else. I used a steamer upside down in a Cambro box. Because it left space in the corners, I stuffed that loosely with aluminum foil. This worked really well! The foil helped support the weight of the fish and the steamer left plenty of space for liquid to run off.

I packed in the fish sandwiches, the smoked one on the bottom, then the basic on top. My thinking was that the liquid run off from the basic would not contaminate the flavor of the smoked, but vice versa may not be as favorable. Plus, I rotated the packages 90 degrees, so the side opening wouldn t be in the same place. I hoped this would also help sharing of liquids.

Notice how the salmon was a good inch over the rim of the box? By the time the lox was done, it was at least half an inch under the rim. When I put the whole thing in the fridge, I weight it with whatever was around in the fridge. Eventually, when it was below the rim, I found a plastic container cover that fit perfectly, then I weighted that down. Each day, I poured all the liquid out and flipped each of the sandwiches. After five days (today), it was time to clean the lox. When it came out of the sandwich, the rub was really packed into the flesh. It looked like gravlax.
Then I headed to the sink to wash off the rub. I used a gentle flow of freezing cold water. It took quite a while, because I kept stopping when my hands went numb. Whatever I couldn t get off wit h the water, I worked on with paper towel. That worked well as it s important to dry the lox after rinsing it. The lox darkened dramatically and was tighter and smoother. It smelled wonderful

sliced off a few slices as thin as possible using our sashimi knife. Ideally you should use the sharpest, longest, thinnest blade you have. A nice aspect of the yanagi-ba is that the blade is single edged. If at this point your lox is too salty, you can soak it in water for a few hours (or even up to a day), to reduce the salt level. You need to be careful though, as this can water log the lox and destroy the flavor. Fortunately, my lox came out perfect. 1. May 26, 2010 at 7:37 pm I havent got any salmon yet,has anyone tried any other versions from jessicas? Joy said Sams club sells Lox,but are you sure its not just smoked salmon? Everyone sells smoked salmon but confuses it for Lox.

Im just curious what the pink peppercorn adds instead of using the black ones? thx 2. jessica says: May 27, 2010 at 5:06 pm Hi Renata.Desiree made our recipe for lox and I believe someone else will e-mail me theirs soon. I know that BJs does sell lox and it is different from smoked salmon. Pink peppercorns are lightly fruity but still have a little spice. 3. renata says: May 27, 2010 at 6:48 pm what state and city is BJs in? 4. jessica says: May 30, 2010 at 4:56 pm Hey Renata, BJs has a ton of locations.click here to their site. 5. Trudy Roudette says: June 26, 2010 at 9:12 pm Lox LoxLox , my favorite dish. Never really knew how to make it. My live in friend never ate lox and can not fandom me loving raw fish. Here in Texas lox is only known by jewish and German people oh yes, Polish people too. I did not know how to make lox. I always purchased fresh Alaskan Salmon, sliced it in thin eating portions placed in a glass bowl with salt, and refrigerated it. Well, I visited my Sister in Pal Beach Florida and Lox is always on her menue. She buys it in the jewish market. It tasted better than mine. So I found on the Internet your resipee and I must say I can not thank you enough for publishing your art in making my favored fish. thanks a million time, and the good thing is it was for FREE. 6. hotdog says: October 12, 2010 at 2:02 am It looks delicious, however I prefer it well-done by the way those high quality photos look great 7. Julie says:

January 3, 2011 at 12:30 am Wow, thanks for the terrific post. My boyfriend and I are dying to try it. Weve been talking about it for sometime. We will let you know how it goes. 8. raquel says: January 15, 2011 at 2:06 am Is the salmon in Sams fresh enough to make lox out of it, and can i put less salt since i have high blood pressure? thanks a lot for your help. i am very excited 9. jessica says: January 15, 2011 at 9:25 am Raquel, Im not sure about the salmon from Sams since Ive never been there but ask them if the salmon was frozen before. You dont want to use salmon that has been frozen. Unfortunately, you cant make a low salt version of lox. Its not there just for flavor. You need it to draw out the moisture to cure the fish. You wont get to that texture without enough salt. 10. charles says: April 3, 2011 at 10:46 am I have been making gravlax for years using your basic recipe however, I have been adding dill and vodka to the recipe about 3 tablespoons of vodka and one cup chopped fresh dill per 2 pounds of fish. it is absolutely delicious you should perhaps give it a try. 11. jessica says: April 6, 2011 at 10:23 am Charles, weve done dill but not vodka. After Im done breastfeeding, well give that a try! 12. scott says: April 18, 2011 at 12:11 am Here in Philadelphia, lox is around $26/ pound and theres really only a handful of delis around that still sell it hand-cut. It is delicious and I even remember going to get it with my mother when I was younger. Back then, it was about $14/ lb and we could only afford 2 oz but I cherished whatever I could obtain. I read your recipe and a few others online and got a nice cut of salmon at $8/ lb [still < 1/2 the going price for lox at the deli]. After

only 36 hours of curing, I had to check it out and cut a small sliver, rinsed it off and testtasted it. Then I went and cut another slice[ just double checking you know]. I can't believe i never did this before. I called my mom and told her I'm taking orders for the holidays for all her friends. Next, I'm gonna mess around with some flavor additions to give it a bit of originality. BTW, Bj's lox is technically lox because it doesn't taste smoked at all, but the consistency is tougher, much more dense and dry, and above all has less flavor than deli cut lox. In my opinion BJ's lox is a weak substitute for the real deal. I do have a question though, would usuing dark, light or even plain sugar really make much of a difference? And what could I addthat could flavor my lox? I was thinking maybe somekind of herb that is lemony like? 13. natholin says: June 15, 2011 at 3:23 pm Is it possible to just pack the fish in the salt mix, with out the plastic wrap? 14. Lon says: June 16, 2011 at 2:37 pm Scott Nice!! I feel exactly the same. Regarding the sugar; I find light brown sugar to be the best for several reasons: first, the molasses in it allows it to clump together, so it stays on top of the fish better (not a big deal since the moisture will eventually help as does the plastic wrap); second, its a lighter flavor than the dark brown but not as cheap tasting as white sugar. I have not tried any other sugars, such as the organic we now use for other cooking, that may be interesting. You can use lots of flavors; herbs are a good start as are liquors. Gravlax is classically done with lots of dill and aquavit. The pastrami technique uses a lot of peppercorns and mustard seeds. My mom uses tea leaves (my favorite was the blueberry-flavored tea leaves). Also, dont hesitate to use sauces with it, such as a nice garlicky aioli. Natholin Absolutely. Salt-cured fish has been around thousands of years, plastic wrap is pretty new. In various cultures the salt-curing is done in barrels, in the ground, in leaves, lots of ways. That said, the wrap does help reduce smelling up your fridge, it also helps keep the right pressure on the fish, and I feel like it may require less salt/sugar rub. I havent experimented enough to know for sure. 15. Terry says: July 1, 2011 at 2:56 pm

Just unwrapped the package after 5 days, washed it off, sliced a couple of slices and shared it with my neighbor. I had to tackle him as he was heading out the door with all of it. My first time doing this so easy. Thanks for the recipe!