Easy Homemade Dill-Cured Lox

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Easy Homemade Dill-Cured Lox is a simple recipe for the cured salmon often found in specialty food shops.

This traditional dry cure of salt, sugar, and fresh dill creates delicious, quality lox that is not prepared in a smoker.

This 5-ingredient recipe brings flavorful, deli-style lox to your table at a fraction of the cost of store-bought versions.

Slice it thin and pile it onto a fresh bagel with cream cheese. It is perfect for your next brunch or dairy event.

Lox is traditionally made from salt-cured or smoked salmon.

This recipe uses a dry cure of salt, sugar, and fresh dill, mirroring the classic flavor profile of gravlax.

With only 5 ingredients, the preparation is straightforward: season the salmon, wrap it, refrigerate for a few days, and turn it once daily.

This recipe provides a cost-effective way to prepare high-quality cured salmon for a brunch spread or dairy event without the need for smoking or a smokey flavor.

As a classic Jewish deli specialty, it is an excellent addition to a fresh bagel and serves as a budget-friendly alternative to store-bought lox.

While the ingredients for this particular recipe may not be ones that someone would typically find in their pantry, there are many seasonings, spices, herbs, and other ingredients that are helpful to keep in your kitchen for many spur-of-the-moment or last-minute recipes that will keep you from running out to the store or borrowing from a neighbor.

These are mostly what I keep for that purpose:

• salt (my recipes use regular table salt)
• ground black or white pepper
• granulated garlic or garlic powder (I prefer granulated)
• onion powder
• sweet paprika and/or sweet pepper flakes (paprika is ground dried red pepper, pepper flakes are crushed dried red pepper)
• hot paprika, hot pepper flakes, or cayenne pepper (moderately spicy dried ground chili pepper) for those occasional spicy dishes
• ground turmeric
• ground cumin
• ground cinnamon
• ground ginger
• ground nutmeg
• ground cloves (for pumpkin flavors)
• sugar (granulated)
• brown sugar
• chicken consommé powder / beef bouillon powder (regular or vegetarian)
• onion soup mix
• onion flakes (substitute for fresh onion—3 tablespoons for 1 medium onion).
• various herbs
• additional spices to adapt taste to preference
• oil / margarine / butter / cooking spray
• coconut cream as a dairy-free cream substitute
• flavorless milk substitute as a dairy-free milk alternative
• cornstarch as a thickening agent
• flour
• baking powder
• baking soda
• bread crumbs or cornflake crumbs (you can make these with your blender or food processor) for coating
• condiments, such as ketchup, mustard, barbecue sauce
• tomato sauce/tomato paste/canned tomatoes—diced or crushed/pasta sauce
• soy sauce (makes a great flavoring for savory foods)

And we always have eggs in the fridge and onions, rice, and potatoes on our shelves, as well as pasta.

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Yield: 4 four-ounce servings

Easy Homemade Dill-Cured Lox

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Easy-to-make, delicious, 5-ingredient homemade lox similar to gravlax using a dry dill cure and not a smoker.

Prep Time 10 minutes

Total Time 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 1 pound of fresh salmon filet, skinned
• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
• 4 ounces sprigs of fresh dill, chopped
• 1 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

Instructions

1. In a bowl, mix the salt, sugar, chopped dill, and black pepper.
2. Lay a length of plastic wrap on the table that is a few inches longer than the piece of salmon and more than twice as wide.
3. Place half of the mixture from the bowl on the plastic wrap in the size of the piece of salmon.
4. Cover the top part of the salmon with the remaining mixture.
5. Wrap the salmon with the mixture in the plastic wrap and place in a baking pan.
6. Place another baking pan on top of the fish and put a few canned goods (or something similar) in the top pan to weigh it down.
7. Place in the refrigerator for 2-3 days, pouring out any liquid from the bottom pan and turning the salmon over approximately every 12 hours or so.
8. After 2-3 days, remove the salmon and wash well (the more you wash, the less there will be of a taste of the dill).
9. Slice into very thin slices.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 295Total Fat: 14gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 10gCholesterol: 71mgSodium: 15202mgCarbohydrates: 15gFiber: 1gSugar: 12gProtein: 26g

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