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Somehow, to me, gravad laks seems a little out of the realm of the traditional open-faced sandwich, because I can’t ever remember eating it when I was young in Denmark. However, I include it here in my list of important recipes for a few reasons.

1. Some people in Denmark do eat it - For me, it’s as Danish as apple pie (personally, I think it’s Swedish)
2. It's very difficult to find in super markets (unlike smoked salmon)
3. It's super delicious and easy to make

So what exactly is gravad laks? Basically it’s salmon cured with a mixture of sugar, salt, dill and (optionally) assorted other spices. Yes indeed it is similar to gravlax, but the Danes don’t normally eat it with bagels and cream cheese – they eat it on light rye breads like surbrød (see the Shrimp blog post for a recipe on how to make surbrød) or other lighter flavoured breads.
Gravad laks is wonderful for its fresh and delicate flavour. As such, it should not be adorned with over-powering “accessories”. While some traditional recipes call for a kind of mustard sauce (recipe below), I believe gravad laks is best simply with a squeeze of lemon, which adds a touch of acid that balances perfectly with the light sweetness of the cured salmon. If you insist on tarting up your gravad laks, sliced tomato adds a pretty splash of color and compliments the salmon nicely.
Making gravad laks is very simple. In fact, no cooking is required, and other than very fresh salmon filets and a few bunches of dill, you don’t need much else. The goal is to cure the salmon by coating it generously with sugar and salt and then let it sit in the fridge, bathing in its own scrumptous juices. It needs to sit about 2-3 days, with a flip every 12 hours. At the end, it’s good to go, however many recipes call for freezing the gravad laks for 24 hours as a way of destroying any harmful bacteria that may have survived the curing process. And while I have been known to recklessly indulge in "unsafe" gravad laks (and am still here to write about it), freezing has no adverse effects on the fish, so I suggest this additional precautionary step. Why play Russian Roulette with your life? Smørrebrød is good, but there are limits…

Ask a Dane: So what exactly does gravad laks mean? I don't actually speak Danish, so I needed to go to the streets of Copenhagen to ask an actual Dane for a precise translation. Here's what I got...To start with, laks means salmon. That makes sense. Gravad is a bit more unusual and means "in the ground" - or in other words - buried. So I guess you could say that gravad laks means buried salmon. Maybe a better question to ask is where does the name come from? So here is a little history: During the Middle Ages, fishermen buried salmon in the sand above the high-tide line in order to preserve it. This naturally preserved the meat by a gentle process of salting and fermenting. Thus buried salmon. Yum!
So here is how to make gravad laks using today's modern kitchen techniques (no burying required):

Ingredients

• 2 kg salmon filet (freshest possible), cut in two equal pieces
• 5 tbsp sugar
  5 tbsp coarse salt
• 2 large bunches of dill, coarsely chopped
• 2 tsp crush coriander seed
• 1 tsp each of ground cumin, mustard seed, fennel seed, black pepper

Instructions

1. Make sure you have a very clean glass casserole dish large enough to hold the filets.
2. Rinse the salmon filets and scrub away any scales, then pat dry with paper towel.
3. Lay the filets skin side down next to each other.
4. Make the cure by mixing together the salt, sugar, and spices.
5. Rub all of the cure into the meat of both filets.
6. Spread the chopped dill evenly across one of the salmon filets. Flip the other filet over and lay on top of the dill.
7. Place the filet stack in the glass casserole and cover with plastic wrap. Place a cutting board or other flat object on the top filet, and add a weight of some kind (like a brick) to press down on the filets.
8. Refrigerate the salmon for 3 days. During these 3 days, flip the filets every 12 hours.
9. After the 3 days, cut the filets into several pieces, wrap in plastic, and freeze for 24 hours.
10. When you want to eat your gravad laks, take a piece out of the freezer and slice thinly by cutting diagonally across the filet. I find the slicing is much easier when the fish is still frozen. It’ll just take a few minutes for the slices to thaw at room temperature.
11. Serve the sliced salmon on buttered surbrød with lemon and a slice or two of tomato.
    

Note: If you really want to make the traditional rævesauce honey-mustard accompaniment, here is the recipe.

• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tbsp vinegar1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp Worchestershire sauce
• 5 tbsp Sunflower or Canola oil
• Generous handful of chopped dill
• Salt and pepper to taste

1. Mix together the first four ingredients in a bowl.
2. Slowly drizzle the oil into the bowl, beating constantly with a whisk. Basically, you are making an emulsion like mayonnaise.
3. Once combined, stir in the dill and season with salt and pepper.
4. Serve on the side with gravad laks smørrebrød.