Gravlax is a Nordic dish of salmon cured with a mixture of salt, sugar and dill, with a history reaching back centuries, including a reference in the 1348 Diplomatarium Norvegicum connected to salmon fishery officials. Rather than the medieval practice of fermenting fish buried in the ground, from which the dish takes its name, meaning buried salmon in Northern Germanic, modern gravlax is prepared with a dry marinade of salt, sugar and dill under which the fish cures for between twelve hours and several days as osmosis draws moisture from the flesh into the surrounding mixture. It is typically served as an appetizer, sliced thin and accompanied by hovmastarsas, a mustard-dill sauce, alongside bread or boiled potatoes.
Facts
Partially Attested
Origin Period, To (Year)Sourced to the subject's own accountMarks the conventional end of the Middle Ages, the period Wikipedia's own History section brackets the sand-buried, lightly fermented curing method to, before the modern dry salt-sugar-dill cure used today took over at an undocumented later date. Disputed
Origin Period, From (Year)Sourced to the subject's own accountWikipedia calls this the dish's perhaps oldest reference: a nickname recorded in the 1348 Diplomatarium Norvegicum for a salmon-fishery delegate, not a firm founding date for the dish itself. Classification
Dietary SuitabilitySourced to the subject's own accountContains Fish or Shellfish 1 Origin RegionSourced to the subject's own accountNordic countries (Scandinavia) 1 FAQs
Is gravlax fermented?
Not today; it is cured in salt, sugar and dill.
Not any more. Fermentation is no longer used in the production process. Instead the salmon is cured in a dry marinade of salt, sugar and dill for between twelve hours and a few days, and as it cures osmosis moves moisture out of the fish and into the salt and sugar.
Connections
Expresses Tradition
Source Gravlax (Wikipedia)
In Cuisine
Source Gravlax (Wikipedia)
Uses Ingredient
Source Gravlax (Wikipedia)
Source Gravlax (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Originated In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.
Source Gravlax (Wikipedia)tier 3
Sources
1. Gravlax (Wikipedia)
WikipediaWikipedia, Gravlax, lead paragraph
gravlax...is a Nordic dish consisting of salmon that is cured using a mix of salt, sugar and dill.
History section
Perhaps the oldest reference is found in 1348 in Diplomatarium Norvegicum as the nickname of a man named Óláfr, who was a delegate in a salmon fishery.
Wikipedia, Gravlax, History section, second sentence
During the Middle Ages, gravlax was made by fishermen, who salted the salmon and lightly fermented it by burying it in the sand above the high-tide line.
Introduction
Gravlax (Swedish: [ˈgrɑ̂ːvlakːs]), graavilohi (Finnish: [ˈɡrɑ̝ːʋiˌlo̞ɦi]), gravad lax, gravlaks or graved salmon is a Nordic dish consisting of salmon that is cured using a mix of salt, sugar and dill.
- In Cuisine: Swedish Cuisine, Wikipedia category list
- Uses Ingredient: Sugar, Infobox main_ingredient field: salmon, salt, sugar, dill/spruce
- Uses Ingredient: Dill, Infobox main_ingredient field: salmon, salt, sugar, dill/spruce
Expresses Tradition: Salt Curing, Smoking and Drying, Lead section
is a Nordic dish consisting of salmon that is cured using a mix of salt, sugar and dill
In Group: Raw and Cured Fish Dishes, Lead paragraph
Gravlax (Swedish: [ˈgrɑ̂ːvlakːs]), graavilohi (Finnish: [ˈɡrɑ̝ːʋiˌlo̞ɦi]), gravad lax, gravlaks or graved salmon is a Nordic dish consisting of salmon that is cured using a mix of salt, sugar and dill.
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