Gravlax still red on skin side after 24h of curing

curingsalmon

I am trying to make gravlax (lox).

Method

  1. Clean off salmon fillet (~200g tail portion)
  2. Mix 50/50 table salt and sugar
  3. Coat skin side in salt/sugar mixture, rub in
  4. Coat non-skin side in dill
  5. Coat non-skin side in salt/sugar mixture, rub in
  6. Place in covered container
  7. Place in fridge for 18-24 hours

Problem

After 24 hours, the thin parts are cured, but the skin side of the thick part is still red.

gravlax still red on skin side

What I have tried

Cutting off the skin – completely effective, but makes it very tough, also all the videos I watched had it cured with the skin on, and those came out fine

Curing for longer – did not seem to have any effect

Rubbing salt/sugar mixture directly on end – this seemed to help a bit right on the end, but it was still red further in

Place weight on top – some videos I watched had the fillet wrapped in cling wrap and smooshed with a weight, but this did not seem to have any effect

professional smooshing setup

Best Answer

So, first, I don't think that gravlax looks that bad. Gravlax is never going to be the uniform peach/orange color that cold smoked salmon is (lox). It just looks a little bit under-cured.

There are two things I do that are different from you, when I make Gravlax:

  1. I cure it for a minimum of 72 hours, turning every 12 hours or so (and pressing the whole time, but that's a texture thing).

  2. My cure includes a couple shots of aquavit. I find that the alcohol helps the cure penetrate into the center of the salmon.

Here's my recipe.

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