cured fish

Seaside breezes. The smell of salt and sea in the air. Gorgeous grottos set against a dark blue sea. Sicily. The land of my ancestors, calling to me. When I picture the beauty of this mysterious island, with its rich culture and heritage, I can’t help but feel drawn back to it. And, when I come down from my reverie, and realize it’s not pragmatic to go jumping off to Sicily on a whim on a random Wednesday, like any true Italian, I connect to my heritage with a culinary project.

Mosciame is a charcuterie project that I had been wanting to do for a while. My first taste of this illusive treat was on a trip with the family back to Sicily. At the time I didn’t know, or fully appreciate, what I was eating. After I started to become invested in making my own cured meats, I rediscovered this curiously attractive project and became adamant that it was a project I needed to do.

Mosciame is traditionally made in fishing villages, where tuna has been prevalent and finding a means to preserve it was a necessity. It has been said that the Phoenicians were the first to cure tuna, and even used it as a currency of a sort, which would make sense given their history as a sea faring peoples who set up many port towns. The Phoenicians were well known for their ability to convert salt water to salt, a precious commodity at the time. They were able to use the salt that they procured to preserve the abundant tuna that they caught in the waters surrounding Sicily. Because of this history, mosciame tends to be made in areas where the Phonecians had a large cultural influence. This includes the islands of Sicily and Sardegna, as well as in some areas of Spain.

Mosciame is known by many names; in Italy it is mosciame, in Spain it is mojama, in Portugal it is muxama, and I am sure that I am missing many names, in many dialects. It is thought that the name is derived from an Arabic word, although the exact derivation is not agreed upon. Some say that it is from the Arabic word musama which means dry. While others say that it is from the word mosammed, meaning a thing that is hard and dry. Others say it is from the Arabic word almuxama. Not being an expert in Arabic or word derivations, I cannot really claim to know which of these have more truth behind it, but suffice it to say, it is most likely a word derived from Arabic due to their influence in the culture of these regions.

Today, most mosciame is made from tuna, specifically the loin of the tuna. Traditionally, it was also made with dolphin. In reality, just like most charcuterie, it probably can be made with other fish as well and is just awaiting brave experimenters to jump in and unknowingly try to replicate a lost local secret of some remote village.

There are quite a few ways to go ahead making mosciame. There is the traditional way, which I did not try to replicate but will explain for anyone who is a pure traditionalist to try. There is a traditional modern adaptation which I tried here. There is also the more modern way, which is how I do most of my cured meat projects, with variations on certain aspects of it. I will detail the process that I followed for my first modern style mosciame attempt below.

Traditional: The tuna loin or belly is harvested from the whole fish and it is cleaned and washed. It is packed in excess salt and is allowed to stay in the excess salt cure for 48 hours. After 2 days, the salt is washed off, and the tuna is patted dry. At this point, the tuna is hung outside to dry, preferably in a cool place with a good sea breeze for 2-3 weeks. Many Sicilians hang their homemade mosciame out in their backyard, some even utilizing their clotheslines for the purpose!

First Modern Trial: In my case, I bought a piece of sushi grade tuna loin.

Curing (48 hours):

I used equilibrium curing in order to cure the fish, using a mix of salt, cure #2, spices, and the starter culture B-LC-007.

Only salt and cure #2 are necessary. Spices can be adjusted based on personal preference. In this case, I added a starter culture to give the meat an extra earthy flavor, but it was more of an experiment than anything else and definitely not necessary.

After the meat was allowed to equilibrium cure for 48 hours, the cure was washed off and the meat was patted dry.

Casing: (1 hour)

Then, the meat was stuffed into a beef bung casing.

Drying (1 month+, until 30% of weight is lost):

Temperature: 54F/12C, Humidity: 70-80% RH

It was added into the curing chamber and allowed to lose 30% of its initial weight.

After the meat lost 30% of its weight, I pulled it from the chamber.

First, I pulled off the beef bung casing.

Then, I rinsed the outside off with white vinegar, patted it dry, and rubbed some olive oil on the outside of it.

Tasting: The mosciame was sliced, and boy oh boy did it hit me.

This meat was the most powerfully flavorful of any that I have made. Personally, I really enjoyed the end product. It was a full, strong earthy almost yeasty product that was as complex as it was beautiful. However, like a good cheese, it had a strong smell that was off putting to some. I find that it is great paired with some olives and wine, or on top of a dish of papas bravas.

The mosciame was stored under vacuum in the fridge for future tastings.

Disclaimer: Curing fish is a hobby that comes with inherent risks. We can all do things to limit this risk by educating ourselves about the process and the utilizing the safest known methods to create our products. This website is for educational purposes only, and all experimentation should be done at each individuals own risk.

Lox. Lox. Lox. Down in my belly. Lox is one of those delicious foods that you can spend a whole life missing out on after one bad experience. My first experience trying lox was at a Bar/Bat Mitzvah reception, where I cautiously loaded it onto a bagel, took a bite, and was less than pleased with the results. It was a good 5 years or so before I tried it again. My next experience was life altering. At least, culinary life changing. The fatty flavor of the salmon, salty without being overpowering, paired with the spice profile of peppercorns and dill was utterly delicious. I think I ate lox for a week straight after that experience. It was another 3 or so years, fed up with the high price of lox and the lottery of whether it would be fresh and delicious or older and less so, when I decided it was high time I learn to make my own lox.

Lox is one of those foods that is fascinating to explore the instructions on how to make them because there are so many traditions intertwined with history, that each takes you down a path of exploration that can distract you all day. There are different traditional methods on making lox, as well as new innovations and fusion spice profiles that lead to endless ways to make lox.

After doing a good amount of research, I choose a path of doing a less salty cured and smoked Nova lox. Some lox is considered finished after it has been cured for the appropriate amount of time, while others are cold smoked after they are cured. It’s a matter of preference, time, and ability, but the Nova lox I had grown to love so much was cold smoked, so I had to take the extra step. This post will detail what I call my “3 Step Lox.”

The Fish

The first step is to buy or catch a salmon. You will want it filleted in half, with as many of the bones removed as possible. Wild, fresh salmon is the best, but you can work with what’s available.

Step #1: Dry Cure (10-12 hours)

The first step is to dry cure the salmon. Using a 1:1 cure of brown sugar and kosher salt, I completely covered the exposed salmon, coating all of the fish except for the skin. After adding the cure, I wrapped the fish in plastic wrap, although any container will really do if you are opposed to the use of plastic. I placed this overnight in the refrigerator, with a weight on top of it (textbooks) to help increase the surface area contact and pressure. The solute particles in the cure act to create an differential gradient, leading to osmosis of water out of the salmon and into the cure, so beware, this will leak into your fridge if you don’t be careful and place it on something that can catch the extra liquid. This is a good sign, and it means you are starting to cure the salmon.

Note: Some recipes only use a dry cure for a certain amount of time (the longer, the saltier). Others only use a wet cure. In the days when curing salmon was done due to necessity, the lox was a lot saltier because there was no refrigeration and the salt cure needed to keep the fish edible for longer periods of time. In today’s world, curing salmon is done largely for the culinary pleasure of it. Because of that reason, we can get away with using much less salt/less curing time than traditional recipes call for. In the end, it’s what you prefer and can eat safely.

For the sake of experimentation, I first tried making lox using this 3 step method of a dry cure, a wet cure, and cold smoking. There is room to change any and all of the ratios/times listed here, and I have played around with most parameters. I have found that I prefer the results of this “3 Step Lox” to other methods when I have the time to make it. When I don’t, I make my “Quick Lox.”

Step #2: Wet Cure (10-12 hours)

The salmon is washed in cold water to clean off all of the dry cure. After this, it is submerged in a wet cure (brine) composed of salt and white sugar that are dissolved in water (1 L of water, 70 grams of salt, 4 grams of white sugar- scale up or down based on need). I use a vacuum sealer and associated vacuum sealable bags to submerge the salmon in the brine. This is put in the fridge overnight again.

Note: After the wet cure stage is done, you have cured salmon. The last stage, smoking the salmon, is an additional step that was sometimes done in order to further preserve the fish, being a convenient way to increase its edible lifespan given the ubiquitous nature of fires and therefore smoke in the lives of the earliest lox makers.

Step #3: Cold Smoking (4 hours)

Cold smoking is a method of smoking meat, fish, cheese, what have you, without actually cooking it with heat. It is done with temperatures under 90F/32C, which allows the fish to remain “uncooked” while picking up the complex flavors that smoking imparts upon food. There are many many ways to cold smoke, but most require you to be outside and are similar to a grill set up. I have two methods that I use to smoke salmon. My first choice is to use an outdoor cold smoking set up, where I use an A-maze-N tube smoker in a Weber grill, carefully monitoring the temperature level to make sure it never rises too high.

If I don’t have easy access to one, I use a jerry-rigged indoor set up, using a Smoking Gun attached to tubing that sends the smoke into a Styrofoam cooler.

Before cold smoking the lox, I add simple spices to the cured lox: fresh dill and both black and white peppercorns. Using my cold smoking set up, I cold smoke the salmon for 4 hours. After this time, I set the salmon on a rack in the fridge and allow it to rest overnight.

The next morning, the salmon is cured, smoked, and ready to enjoy!

Slice it thin and enjoy!

It is great on homemade bread, matzah, bagels, or even just by itself!