Beet-Cured Salmon Gravlax - Food Wishes 

Check out the recipe: www.allrecipes.com/Recipe/266045/Beet-Cured-Salmon-Gravlax/

I'm from Sweden and we make gravlax for almost all of our holidays. I often go for beet-curing since it develops that beautiful color. I really recommend to put some dill and lemon zest along with the beets, and for a little extra spice - a few drops of vodka (or Akvavit) :)

Oh man, that color is GORGEOUS! I've never liked smoked salmon or gravlax, but that is so beautiful it makes me want to try again...

Food safety note that Chef John didn't mention. Use Sushi grade salmon. Farmed and wild fish (especially wild) can and usually contains parasites of some form or another. Sushi grade has been inspected and essentially shown to be parasite free. The only time this is super relevant is when you are going to eat the salmon raw, cold cured, or cold smoked, as these methods don't kill encysted parasites or eggs from them. While the odds of catching something are low, finding out you have tapeworms or the like due to fish that wasn't the correct grade or prepared properly still sucks. Not picking on Chef John about this, just something that is heavily noted up here in Alaska as we catch and eat a lot of salmon. Honestly, I'm not sure how widely this is known but it is a thing to remember.

Hello Chef John. Here's a fun little thing you can do as well. Use the gravad mixture, the salt and sugar. And cure egg yolks. They turn out amazing, and you can eat them as is, or even better, grate them over a dish for an amazing boost to the savory factor.

Try it with some thinly sliced cucumber. Total game changer.

i am mecanic from siberia, i make this often from fish from my rivers. i use old car tire from shop for weight, and do cure outside. i like use dill and chervil, and eat on bread with smetana and zakuski (pickle tomato, cucumber). thenks for video

Nights I get to unwind with Chef John and a fresh Food Wishes upload are the best nights.

That's so beautiful! I never thought about combining salmon and beetroots together, guess I should give it a try!

After all, you are the Courtney Cox of your Salmon Gravlax.

I've been making gravlax for years...and it rocks! I like the beet take on it. I came up with my own recipe/method after the first few times. I'm not a fan of dill, so I came up with the addition of...wait for it...caraway seeds! I've never seen salmon paired with caraway, but, oh, man! Does it work! And instead of the ungainly weight, I figured that vacuum sealing would apply even pressure all around the fish, and it totally works. And somehow, it shortens the cure time by about half. Kind of the same way as a vacuum marinade works. I might have to add some beet root to the next batch. A friend likes my gravlax so much that he ordered 5 wild-caught Alaskan salmon filets for me to process.

Also that bagel at the end was so beautiful I had to call my girlfriend over from across the room so she could see it, too.

Wonderfully inventive, CJ! I do the dill version about 4x per year, but will totally do this version--we love beets! My wife sent me to the market for a dozen of those root vegetables, but they only had 11. She said I was "a beet off".

I lived in Alaska for 19 years when I was a young man. I had salmon 100 ways including gravlax. I never thought about using beets...that is a gorgeous looking dish. Bravo!

Really interesting recipe, definatelly gonna try this! One thing I gotta say, is that the A in gravlax is pronounced more like the A in "Bark" or "Park". The word translated from Swedish to English is Grave salmon. It originates from the 17th century where salmon was buried in salty sand and left to ferment. It used to be a lot more similar to surströmming, but the recipe has evolved into what we have today.

Hey guys!! I just finished making the salmon and it was absolutely amazing!! However, I changed two things: I used precooked beet (which perhaps lead to a slightly more purple penetration, nothing too noticeable) and added dried dill in the salt mixture and over the grated beet, which added a nice dill touch into the flavor.

Literally the prettiest lox bagel I’ve ever seen!

This is absolutely gorgeous! Definitely will make it!!!

wow you are going to make a great cook out of me, my first experience with gravlax sounds delicious, thank you.

Gorgeous! Thanks, Chef John! Have a great weekend! ;)

Chef, I have watched a ton of your videos and this is by far the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen you, or pretty much anyone ever make. You have inspired me to pick up some salmon right now. *Dashes off to Sprouts!*

Made gravlax for the 1st time a few weeks ago. Easy and delicious. Your beet gravlax is a must try. Thanks.

John has one of the best voices ever. I love his voice

The slices look gorgeous! Like a sunset

Excellent! Thank you for being yourself in this video! Jajajaja love it!

Ok this came out amazing for me! It is super buttery and tender, and only mildly fishy the way it’s supposed to be. You don’t even really taste the beet, it just gives it a beautiful color. It was really really easy to make. There is no excuse not to make this unless you don’t like cured salmon. I want to share a picture but alas, I cannot. Just know that it was perfectly delicious and perfectly beautiful on a bagel with cream cheese. Great recipe chef, thank you!

Lovely to see you curing salmon without the alcohol that is present inmost recopies but completely unnecessary. We have a lot of sick fish up here in the Great White North and I have been curing it for years. My latest creation was Birch Syrop, with sumac and juniper berries, delicious. It is a simple process that produces wonderful results. I hope all your viewers take this recipe and play and enjoy..

I love mine with fresh dill and some lightly pickled red onion, which helps cut the sweetness. Thanks Chef

a wild gravlax appears!

This channel is truly my happy place. This beautiful recipe is the perfect vision to hold on the way to Sleepy Town. I will definitely be making this soon. Nightnight!

Midsummer eve is coming upon us, would love to see Chef Johns take on pickled herring. I will definitely put this gravlax on the table with the other mandatory dishes, and some not that mandatory.

I just have to try this for our next Swedish Christmas eve dinner, that color is amazing :)

That looks amazing!

That is pretty as heck! Never thought to put beets in there. Thanks, Chef John!

Drop a beet. Very good Chef John.

Thank you i will try this too!

Just love all your videos.. So much attained with minimal efforts and added to that your voice 😍❤

Gravlax is amasing and easy to make. Takes 0 effort and usually gets great results. I personally prefer a mixture of 40%salt to 60% sugar. It gives it a little less oversaltyness (thats not a word >.

5:50 lol. 6:05 lol. I love when things like that happen to you :-) And this is the most gorgeous salmon gravlax I've ever seen.

YUM!!!!!!!! omg, i'm making this....

we did this in culinary school! it looks great if you use it to make salmon roses! the two tone really pops out

Harry Chapin of beet scrapin! You always come up with one of those for almost every video!!!!

My old boss taught me this recipe about 8 years ago. Brings back a lot of memories.

I swear I just saw a pic of a piece of nigiri on Reddit the other night with beet cured salmon. After seeing it I was like man I wanna make that. Then boom this video pops up in my feed.

Beets are one of my favorite root vegetables. And I so love fly casting for Salmon, thou I don't get to fish for the Atlantics like I did in the past. A King Coho, or Red salmon would work with this one.

Stunning!

Good work chef! Damn I'm starving 🤤

Oh, that IS beautiful!!

How in the hell is "drop a beet" not one of the top comments?!?!

That would make a pretty unique sushi topper too I think. It is simply stunning.

Very unique recipes! 👍👍👍

super yummy... looks great.

Beautiful video and result. Really enjoying your videos and laid back style

I love this guy!

Awesome video John!

GREAT video AS always

Oh that so good gotta try it

Such mesmerising colour wow

I want to try this on some other fish like walleye or northern pike. Is there any reason why it wouldn't work?

I’m impressed 👍🏻

Chef John Rocks!!

Nice, must try this. Thanks

That thumbnail is gorgeous. Looks awesome Chef John!

Is leaving the skin on completely necessary, or can it be done skinless? Curious as to if it's there to help with flavor, or texture, or structure as it's curing. Looks super amazing!

Wow, relatively easy even having to wait a couple of days!

Its been 1 day, way to go. Thank you Chef John

loved this. any chance you can help me curing roe? i tried once and messed up. i think i salted too much and it was a brick

thanks so much !

I make my own gravlax.....and it is so easy and sooooo tasty! will try this one.

Boom! Awesome!

gonna make this one

Great chef John I have made it with golden beets now I will try with red beet better presentation 😀

Would I follow same instructions say if I wanted to use Jalapenos or something spicy. Thanks for another great video Chef John.

So I made this a few days ago and enjoyed it tonight.. which was.. amazing, so thank you! My friend asked me why I had to use salmon with the skin on... and I couldn't come up with a better answer than 'well cause Chef John said so" which really was good enough for me but I figured I'd go to the source.. so if anyone can answer why it's better to cure (and cook) salmon with the skin on my curious friend and I would greatly appreciate that!

Hello, your vids are awesome. I was hoping you can make a piped pureed carrot type side dish. think it would taste nice. TY

I just love you!

Can I use organic cane sugar? I don't have Kosher but I do have regular iodized Table Salt, Celtic Sea Salt, and Pink Himalayan Salt, which is best?

So. Much. YES!!!!!

Love your videos! Keep it up!

Its swedish midsummer in 3 days and this year might as well be the year i actually make my own gravlax instead of buying it. I kind of cant deny this would look so much better on the table than the regular store bought. Its decided! IM DOING IT!

just made some with dill and its great. im now going to try some with the beetroot as it looks great. one thing I like to do is to wash and dry the skin after the meat has been cut off and fry it. makes a tasty snack.

is there a reason you need to use a tail piece? i got a center-cut to cook up at home but wanted to try this can i not make it without the tail piece?

Make this monthly only vary it with Pernod and Dill sometimes. I use brown sugar. I also cold smoke it for 1 hr with Alder wood after its cured and sits for a day. Gives it just a touch of smokey flavor, never over powering. Everyone wants the recipe every time. Its always a winner. Bagles cream cheese, onion, capers and dill.

Interesting....I want to make this now

Hej Chef John! Tantor from Sweden here! I´ve been following your RU-vid channel for the last 4 and a half years and you are by far the best educator on RU-vid when it comes to cooking techniques. I always checking out your channel for new videos and I have tried a bunch of your recepies with, if I dare to say it, great succes. (I´m making your take on Peposo for dinner tomorrow) This video really shows off your understanding of tecniques from all over the world. Gravlax is something we have been making here in Scandinavia for the last four hundered years or so and the way you do it in this video is quite new. My Grandmother taught me how to make Gravlax the traditional way with equal parts salt and sugar and lots of dill and a healthy touch of freshly grounded white pepper when I was young. Many here in Sweden have been experementing with other spices like whole mustardseeds and, yes beetroots, with good results. If you´re lucky enough to get your hands on a bottle of Absolute Pepper pour a couple of shots over the salmon when you are preparing the dish and let the pepper vodka give the Gravlax an hot and intense pepper flavour. It will rock your world! This way of making Gravlax is really excellent. The colour you get from the beets are perfect and it gives the salmon a very nice earthy taste. With your videos as guide and inspiration I have been a kitchen hero for years and I hope to be for many years to come. So please continue to be the inspirational kitchen hero You are Chef John!

Chef john, thanks for making this video...love them and been a long time follower. Can we use any store-bought salmon or does it need to be sushi grade? Also, could you tell us the dill-version during the curing process

i'm sure your right and i'm wrong. what i know is i'm subscribed and you always get a thumbs up.

You are the only person who can convince me to try beets again. I never liked it. But because I have blind faith in your recipes I will try this one too.

My mom makes this, sans dill or beats, and freezes it in chunks wrapped very tightly in saran wrap. It's not as firm after thawing as it is fresh, but it's still pretty great.

Chef John is my hero

Yum

can we do this with a large cut and store it whole while only slicing off what we need once in a while? I love cured salmon so much but buying it already made at the store is Expensive so I don't get it often. if I had the opportunity to store it in bulk so I could eat it every day I would!

You should try the blodpudding next time your at Plaj. I love to see you recreate it for us!

That is the reddest piece of fish I've ever seen. The only way it would be more red is if you cured ahi instead.

Chef John, will you make a video about making cured meat? Thanks for your work and greetings from Italy!

Gloves, dude! Marvelous invention! They fit over your fingers and hand. Amazing things!😂😂😂👵

We dump the fluid after 10 hours. Great effort Chef.

Looks delicious, I'll try this. Why not remove the skin prior to slicing?

a tip for gravlax is to pan fry it lightly and serve it with boiled potatoes in a dill bechamel, its a wonderful summery dish. In Sweden it is called bräckt gravad lax and it is usually made with lightly cured salmon.

One of my Jewish recipes from my dad's father's father's side -- which are WWII defectors -- is dill-brined gravlax wherein you stew the fish in a pickle jar after the pickles are gone for a day then you smoke it over pecan wood.