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Gravlax is a Scandinavian style of preparing salmon. The salmon is cured, but not smoked: it's more like pickled, raw salmon.

Fresh pieces of salmon are marinated (cured) in sugar, salt, dill and black pepper.

You can buy it prepared or make your own.

Some recipes for making your own will have you let the salmon pieces sit in the marinade for 3 to 4 days either in the fridge or at a temperature between 3 and 4 C. The salmon pieces are turned twice a day. See health note below in Nutrition regarding curing times.

Smoked Gravlax

Gravlax that is first cured as above, then hot-smoked. The smoking process changes the taste, but will kill any parasites or tapeworms possibly in the fish.

Nutrition
As in eating other raw fish, such as sushi or ceviche, there is a risk of parasites or tapeworms in eating Gravlax. Many recipes call for Gravlax to be cured for 7 days, which some say would also meet the safety requirements. When making your own raw fish dishes at home, however, health ministries of various governments advise starting with commercially frozen fish to negate the risk. See the main entry on Fish, under Nutrition.

Language Notes
"Lachs" or "lax" means salmon; "graved" means buried. It used to be that the salmon was just buried in sand on the shore.

Gravadlax (gravad lax) is Danish; gravlaks is Norwegian.

See Also:

Lox, Smoked Salmon

Other entries for:

Salmon
Farmed Salmon, Gravlax, Lox, Pacific Salmon, Smoked Salmon, Wild Salmon

Other entries for:

Pink Fish
Arctic Char, Trout

Other entries for:

Fish
Anchovy, Blue Fish, Eels, Fish Worms, Fugu, Grey Mullet, Herring, Mahimahi, Mola Mola, Poutine, Sardines, Shellfish, Swordfish, Tuna, Vesiga, White Fish, White Seabream, Yellowtail Jack, Yellowtail Rockfish, Yellowtail Snapper, Zander