The short answer
- Mix salt and sugar 1:1; allow about 100g of the mix for every 400g of trout.
- Fillets in pairs, flesh to flesh, sealed with pepper and dill.
- 3 to 4 days in the fridge, turned once a day.
- Brush off the cure, slice thinly, serve on bread with cream cheese or honey-mustard sauce.
Curing, the easy way
Dry curing draws water out of the fish with salt and sugar, firms the flesh and seasons it right through. Most people know it from salmon gravlax, but trout fillets cure beautifully too, and they're smaller and quicker to handle. The vacuum bag keeps the cure against the fish, holds the liquid it draws out, and keeps the fridge clean. Start with fish that was bled and iced on the day it was caught. From catch to freezer
Recipe
Ingredients
Trout fillets, skin on and pin-boned; equal parts salt and sugar, about 100g of the mix per 400g of fish; freshly ground pepper; a bunch of dill.
1 · Cure
Lay the fillets skin side down, sprinkle them with the salt and sugar mix, pepper and chopped dill.
2 · Pair and seal
Put the fillets together in pairs, flesh to flesh, skin outside. Seal them in a bag cut from a roll; a LiquidStop strip catches the brine before it reaches the seal. For a bigger catch, rub the fillets and layer them in a vacuum container with the rest of the cure.
Helps: E-Vac rolls · LiquidStop · ES-Line containers
3 · 3 to 4 days in the fridge
Turn the pack once a day so the brine reaches both fillets evenly.
4 · Brush off and slice
Take the fillets out, brush off the cure, pat dry. Slice thinly at an angle, off the skin.
Serving
- 1
ClassicOn fresh baguette or rye with cream cheese, red onion and capers.
- 2
Swedish styleWith honey-mustard sauce and a cucumber salad. Gravlax and its sauce
- 3
Keep the restRe-seal what's left; it keeps in the fridge for some days or can be frozen.
Cured fish is raw fish. Use only very fresh fish you'd be happy to eat raw, and keep it at 5 °C or below throughout. Pregnant women, young children, older people and anyone with a weak immune system should avoid raw and cured fish.
LAVA AustraliaOfficial LAVA distributor and vacuum-packaging specialists since 2018.
