Cured Salmon / Salt cure for smoking

Herb cured Salmon delicious for salmon tartar au grenobloise or as a starter with candied beetroots, horseradish, za'atar and labneh.

1x side of fresh Salmon
2x lemons plus zest
3x lime

1tbsp fennel seeds
300g of sugar
200g of salt
1x bunch of fresh dill chopped
1x bunch of fresh parsley chopped
1x tbsp of chopped tarragon
90ml of water

Day1
Zest the water, lemons and limes, mix with rest of the ingredients.
Spread the curing paste on one side of the salmon, wrap in a cling film and leave to cure for min 6h - 10h in the fridge.

Day 2
Next day wash off the paste and with the paper towel or cloth dry the salmon. Make a nice thick layer of curing paste on another side of salmon. Wrap and leave to cure for min 6h -10h.

Day 3

Wash off the cure, dry the salmon and keep covered up to 5 days.

Remember when we cold smoked salmon we keep skin on. Before smoking we cure our fish using only sea salt. There is an option to use any spices or herbs to mix with salt, like fresh chopped thyme, dill, ground cumin, fennel or coriander. 

We spread the salt on the bottom of the tray, lay the salmon skin side down and sprinkle more cure mix on the top of the salmon and, cover completely with salt. Cling film the tray and cure for 8-10h. Then dry the salmon hanging the fillets for 8h. At this point fish is ready for 24h cold smoke.