Gravlax

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Gravlax on crisp bread, garnished with pepper and lemon

Gravlax (Swedish), also known as Gravad laks (Danish), Gravlaks (Norwegian), Graavilohi (Finnish), and Graflax (Icelandic) is a Scandinavian appetizer consisting of thin sashimi-like slices of salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill.

Gravlax is traditionally served with a dill and mustard sauce and crisp bread.

During the Middle Ages, gravlax was made by fishermen by salting the salmon and lightly fermenting it by burying it in the sand above the high-tide line. The word gravlax comes from the Scandinavian words grav, which means literally "grave" or "hole in the ground" (in Swedish, Norwegian and Danish), and lax (or laks), which means "salmon", thus gravlax is "buried salmon", or, more literally, "entombed salmon".

Today fermentation is no longer used in the production process. Instead the salmon is cured in salt, sugar and dill, often weighted down by a stone. Ironically some people infer grav nowadays refers to gravitation since a stone (and its gravitational force) is used to "press" the cure into the fish.

See also

• Lox (salmon)

External links

• [Cooking For Engineers: Gravlax] - recipe with step-by-step pictures

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