Nova Lox (smoked)

Servings: many

Ingredients:

1 lb. salmon fillet

1/3 c. kosher salt

1/3 c. brown sugar

Procedure:

Put salmon into freezer uncovered until it is almost frozen. This is to dry it. Remove from freezer. Put into glass baking dish and cover with salt and sugar mixed. Cover with Saran wrap. Let sit in refrigerator for a day or two. This will salt it and draw more liquid out of it. Remove from refrigerator and rinse the salmon in plenty of cool water. At first the salmon will be rather hard but will soften as it is rinsed and soaked. Finally cold smoke it for about three hours using one pan of chips. Note: it must be cold smoked.

The method for cold smoking is to put salmon on a small baking grate set up with soft drink cans so that it is above the top hole on a Little Chief smoker, then cover the salmon/grate/cans with a small closed box such as a shipping carton with the top removed. Up end the box over the salmon, etc. Be sure to cut a small hole in the box so that the heat can escape. The idea is to trap the smoke from the smoker as it exits the top of the smoker but not heat the salmon. It is only safe to do this when the temperature is at or below freezing. If the salmon is heated it will be ruined.

Source: Steve Schwartz

Recipes collected and reproduced by Diane and Steve Schwartz and family and friends.