Although they now more closely represent the staple of every effective hungover brunch I’ve ever had, bagels and lox will always have a deeper personal significance for me. With Yom Kippur fast approaching, I’ve been reflecting on all of the High Holidays I’ve spent at home with my family, and more importantly, on all of the bagels and lox we’ve eaten to ring in each and every New Year.
In the spirit of starting anew and of being quintessentially Jewish, I decided that I did not want to pay for lox this year, but I definitely wanted to eat it. Good news! It turns out making the stuff yourself is a lot easier than you might think, and the better news? You can do so for 1/4 of the cost. I did it in the comfort of my dorm’s hallway, and I only got a few nasty looks about the aquarium-like aroma that permeated my entire floor for three days.
Jewish Deli Lox
Ingredients
Instructions
Rinse salmon and check your fillet for pin bones by running tweezers or pliers through the fish (these would be along the thicker side).
Mix sugar and salt.
Cover fillet with a full, opaque layer of the sugar/salt mixture on both sides.
#SpoonTip: Really pile this stuff on. More is more.
Cover salmon very tightly with a few layers of Saran wrap and cut a slit on one end of wrapped fish.
Place fish in a cake pan (or really anything with edges taller than your fillet), and cover it with another pan-like object. (I used the plate from my microwave.)
#SpoonTip: To get fish juices out, angle pan so that slitted side slopes downward.
Check fish fillet after 24 hours have passed.
#SpoonTip: If salt/sugar mixture is gone, re-add more mix, re-wrap fish, re-slit one side, and pour out fish juice that has accumulated at the bottom of the pan.
Place pan back in fridge for another 24 hours, and unwrap the fillet after another day has passed.
Slice off the skin and slice your lox into thin pieces on an angle.