back of receipt cured salmon

as the name suggest, the original recipe transcribed here lives on the back of a receipt. I have been curing salmon for a while and after some experimenting, I am finally happy with this recipe, it has a good balance of sweetness and warmth that complements the fatty fish well.

portion size - hard to say

preparation time - 15 mins

curing time - 18h-48h to taste

difficulty - very easy

ingredients

• 1 kg of salmon
• 60g of fine salt
• 40g of light brown sugar
• 1 tbsp coriander seeds
• 1 tbsp powdered sumac
• ½ tbsp mustard seeds
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 1 bunch of dill
• 1 orange zested and juiced
• 1 lemon zested and juiced

⍝

for special occasions, I trim a full side salmon to get a neat even thickness of fillet, squaring the head end and cutting the tail and the belly where they get thinner

method

1. heat up the salt and dry spices (coriander, sumac, mustard, white pepper) to a dry pan to activate them
2. grind the spices to crack the coriander and mustard seeds
3. mix the spices and salt with the remaining ingredients
4. unroll kitchen wrap on a countertop or in a dish to raise the sides, place the mixed spices, dill and juices in roughly the shape of the salmon fillet, then place the salmon fillet meat side down into the spices
5. wrap the salmon tightly with as little air as possible, place it in a freezer bag and in the fridge meat side down, optionally place a heavy item on top of it which helps the cure permeate evenly
6. turn the salmon every 12h while you cure it for 18 to 48 hours depending how cured you want your salmon, see below for my list of curing times
7. once cured, take the fish out of the curing mix and rinse it with cold water
8. for longer curing time, wrap the fish again and allow it to rest in the fridge to allow salt, moisture and taste to redistribute more evenly

curing times:

very light cure - 18h

bare minimum amount of curing, just pushes the fish past sashimi level, a special treat if you trust the salmon and you eat it right away, don’t do that with supermarket yellow label reduced salmon

light cure - 24h

salmon is lightly salted, closest to common smoked salmon, how I usually prepare my cured salmon because it’s a crowd favourite and I tend to prepare this for gatherings

medium cure - 48h

salmon starts to form a bark of saltier dryer fish on the outside, this is the first curing time I would say needs resting after curing

heavy cure - 72h

full on bark that is well on its way to jerky, definitely needs to rest, spices are in full effect, I personally like this very much but wouldn’t have it often