Posted on 04/09/2020 4:06:57 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Smoked salmon, lox, Nova—they’re all the same, right? Nope. These various categories of cured fish have about as much in common as bread and pasta or salad and pickles. Translation? They can be made with the same raw ingredient, but once manipulated, they’re totally different foods.
As someone who grew up on lox (I literally ate it by the pound as a small child), or what I called lox, I was kind of baffled to learn during a recent visit to Brooklyn’s Acme Smoked Fish that the product I’ve been referring to as lox my entire life is actually smoked salmon. Yes, I’m a food writer and a proficient cook, but did I know actual lox was so salty and smoked salmon was so much more palatable to me? Definitely not.
Enter Matt Ranieri, technical services director at Acme and holder of a PhD in Food Studies from Cornell University. While he oversees research and development as well as food safety and processing at the multigenerational family-owned fish company, Ranieri has a new title to add to his role: Teacher. Recently he launched a Smoked Fish 101 class, which lets students taste a range of Acme’s products to understand the difference between smoked fishes. Ready to dive in? Ranieri shared some of his expertise with us, so you, similar to this lox-and-bagel-loving New Yorker, can successfully identify your favorite cured fishes in the supermarket and beyond.
Pecan Pie Lovers Need to Try This Recipe Made with Country Crock Plant Butter, these Pecan Pie Shortbread Bars are both delicious and dairy-free.
What is cured fish?
“When we cure fish, we are preserving [it] with salt, dehydration, or smoke, sometimes a combination of all three methods,” explains Ranieri. “These methods not only delay spoilage, but when executed with precision, capture and enhance the natural flavors of fish.”
The difference between smoked salmon and lox
“In traditional processing, lox is never smoked. It is cured in lots of salt for months. Then, when the texture peaks, reaches a silky, buttery mouthfeel, salmon fillets are rinsed and ready to slice,” Ranieri explains. “In contrast, smoked salmon is lightly cured with salt and always smoked.” Meaning, if you taste a super salty cured fish, it’s likely lox. And on your bagel, you likely prefer smoked salmon.
Types of smoked salmon and lox
Smoked salmon and lox range in fish species, provenance (where the fish was caught or farmed), special seasoning, and smokehouse. There are so many types that even knowledgeable consumers can feel overwhelmed, Ranieri warns. Here’s how to break it down:
Species: Wild salmon is often firmer in texture, lower in oil content (all that swimming in the wild burns fat!), richer in flavor and brighter in color (thanks to a naturally sourced diet in waterways). Ranieri recommends trying Wild Alaskan Sockeye or King Salmon for wild caught products. The alternative to wild-caught salmon is farmed salmon, often dubbed Atlantic Salmon.
Provenance: Wild caught species like Sockeye, Coho, and King Salmon are likely from Alaska or the Pacific Northwest. “The catch is seasonal, and limited to ensure future generations have access to these species,” Ranieri says. For farmed Atlantic Salmon, common descriptors include Chilean, Norwegian, Irish, and Scottish. “These regions have developed advanced systems to farm salmon,” he says. “Often, Irish and Scottish salmon have the highest fat content, resulting is a silky, rich texture. Chilean and Norwegian fish are slightly more lean, although still [have] two to three times the fat content of any wild salmon species.
Smokehouse: The smokehouse a smoked fish originates from determines which methods are used for curing and smoking. “At Acme, we employ a mix of dry curing, [salt cast by hand across fillets] and wet-curing [a slow, gentle brining bath for large fillets],” Ranieri says. “We then smoke our fish naturally using a blend of hardwoods. Our smoke level is intentionally mild, to complement the flavor of fish.” Other smokehouses may opt for smokier flavors.
I always see sable on deli menus, what is that?
“Sable is a delicious wild-caught species, line-caught from Alaskan waters. The texture is what really stands out—it’s flaky and buttery,” Ranieri says. “Think of it as the croissant of smoked fish. With a light salt and smoke it’s an elegant product on its own or a stand-out on a smoked fish platter.” Writer’s note: I tasted sable and now I can’t stop eating it.
And what’s with those whole smoked whitefish? Smoked salmon and sable have filets, but whitefish is usually shown with its head and tail…
“Whitefish is another wild-caught specialty, coming from the Great Lakes. It has a mild flavor and flaky texture when smoked properly,” Ranieri says. “Because whitefish are small, if filleted they could easily dry out during smoking. So to maintain a tender flesh, and deliver a balanced smoke flavor, whitefish are smoked whole.” There’s also another benefit to the silver skins too: “Ultimately, smoking with the skin on helps retain moisture and preserve the flaky texture. Whitefish has to be one of the more challenging fish to smoke; it’s a narrow window to find the perfect balance of texture and flavor,” he says.
Share your smoked fish
Smoked fish is one of those foods that’s certainly better with friends and family, particularly on weekend mornings. “Like most great foods, smoked fish is meant to be shared,” Ranieiri says. His suggested serving style: Make a platter with sliced tomatoes, onions, capers, cream cheese, and your favorite bases, like rye bread, sourdough, bagel, cucumber slices, or crackers, so everyone can personalize their own snack.
Storing cured fish While curing preserves fish, unfortunately it doesn’t leave fish without a shelf life. A lot depends on where a product was purchased and how it’s packaged, but Ranieri’s general guideline is that vacuum packaged fish should last about two weeks with proper refrigeration (less than 38°F). If the product is wrapped in deli paper, it’s generally good to consume it within 3-5 days. About to miss the cut-off? Consider your freezer.
“While fish can be frozen, it’s often detrimental to the texture and flavor,” Ranieri warns. Eat defrosted cured fish within two months, preferably as an ingredient in a cooked dish, like a quiche, omelet, or pasta sauce.
To quote John Cleese, “Cured of *what*, remains a mystery.”
The jury is still out on Omega-6. In moderation the consensus is that it is heart healthy. Further, farm raised salmon never has parasites, while wild salmon are always infested with parasites. This is why farm raised salmon is one of the few fish that are safe to eat raw. Wild salmon should never be eaten raw.
As for taste, the farm raised is much superior due to its higher fat content. The finest Scottish lox makers only use farm raised salmon. I make cold smoked lox from farm raised atlantic salmon and imho it is better than the most expensive commercially produced lox.
Smoked salmon made at home Is so much better than store bought. Try an overnight white wine brine in the fridge with a cup of sugar and a half cup of salt and spices of your choice. Then indirect smoked for 50 to 80 minutes in an indirect smoker with apple wood.
My grandfather once shared his favorite recipe for baked carp with me:
One large carp, headed and gutted.
Cover with two pounds of dried horse manure ground with onions, garlic, salt, and pepper.
Place the carp on a greased cookie sheet and cover with the mixture.
Bake at 350* for one hour.
Throw away the carp and eat the horse manure.
YUM!
This helped me.
Thank you.
Fresh from the Little Chief smoker white king salmon. Hands down.
I haven’t had Lox in years. Everything is smoked salmon. I’d almost give an eye tooth for lox on bagels with cream cheese (good cream cheese). I used to take this for lunch in grade school. I was a weird kid. But this combo I could eat and not trip my food allergies. One particular grocery store had the lox and that’s where we got it.
We would harvest dozens of suckers in the spring run up the Namekagon river.
In those cold waters, the suckers were delectible once they were smoked.
My father would smoke them in an old refrigerator, using maple chips. An electric hot plate could be regulated with a tin plate on top with maple chips in it, to get just the right combination of heat and smoke.
It would take about a day to smoke a refrigerator of fish. The racks in the old refrigerator were used to put the gutted fish on. The skin was left on the fish.
After being smoked, the fish were kept in a large freezer for the rest of the year.
As I recall, they were delicious.
**Smoked salmon, lox,***
In the military LOX was liquid oxygen.
Lox, vs. smoked salmon, vs. sable
Kudos to you. Great post.
Smoked chubs YUM. A favorite treat when I was young. I was the only one of the 3 kids who liked them. Every now and then up through high school Pop would come in and toss a white wrapped paper in front of me at the table. Memories. Favorite now is salmon cooked any way. Last year we learned how to do a salt cure with herbs, it only took a few days in the fridge, absolutely delicious.
http://koshereveryday.com/cant-believe-theyre-passover-bagels/ I don’t know... maybe cardboard
African or European?
My dad was born before refrigeration. He loved salt cod and tried to share it with us kids. Your post cracked me up, but made me miss my pop.
“Ah, then clearly you know the visible and chemical differences between farmed & wild-caught salmon. /s”
Sorry Sparky.
The OP clearly indicates farm raised is bad, wild caught is good. Clearly indicates “Atlantic Salmon” should be avoided. And, this piece is about a distinction in preparation. Not so much thec kind of fish used.
Apples and Oranges.
Or more appropriately, Nova & Lox.
Clearly, you need to clean your glasses and get that stick out of yer keister.
Thanks, but I think I can wait a week until we can have REAL bagels. Most KLP baked products just don’t do it for me.
Funny story about smoked ‘White’ fish.
My Grandmother saw it on sale in the newspaper ad (this would be back in the early 1980s) - apparently she had enjoyed some version in younger days.
She told me to go and buy some; but when I got to the store, all I could buy was an entire, huge fish.
When I got home, she chastised me for spending so much money; but we feasted on that beast for days.
(I don’t know what species it was, but I remember thinking that it was almost like eating meat, not fish - and it was wonderful.)
I think you’re as likely to get the latter as lox, unless you’ve got a serious Jewish deli nearby.
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