Brining (preserving food with salt) is similar to curing, but takes a lot less time.
Lox, which is commonly often served on bagels with cream cheese, was traditionally made from the belly of the fish. These days, other parts of the fish can be used.
What Does Lox Taste Like?
Smooth, velvety, and buttery, lox tastes a lot like other types of salmon. However, it is saltier because of the brining process.
"Lox" and "smoked salmon" are often used interchangeably, but they're not the same.
The difference between lox and smoked salmon is how they are prepared.
Lox is brined, but never cooked or smoked.
Smoked salmon, meanwhile, is cured or brined and then smoked. It can be cold-smoked (slowly exposed to smoke for a few days, but is never fully cooked) or hot-smoked (cooked all the way through, like smoked meat).
Because lox is never cooked, it remains smooth, silky, and translucent. Smoked salmon, through the smoking process, becomes slightly tougher. It looks and tastes more similar to baked or grilled salmon.
The word "lox" comes from the Yiddish word for salmon, "laks."
Brining salmon is a Scandanavian tradition, but it was also popular among Eastern European Jews.
Some of these people immigrated to the U.S. and brought their affinity for brined, cured, and smoked fish with them.
The Transcontinental Railroad is what really popularized lox in the U.S., though.
Trains began to transport salted salmon from the Pacific coast to other parts of the country, including New York (which is where many Eastern European immigrants settled in the late 1800s).
While brined salmon has Scandanavian roots, bagels and lox is a uniquely American dish.
"[Bagels'] arrival was greeted with curiosity and no small amount of disdain. Seventy years after the bagel arrived, more or less, in North America, it had drifted in so many directions that the term 'authentic' had become suspect," wrote Heather Smith in a 2012 Meatpaper article. "By the 1950s, 'bagels and lox' had become an insult—a disparaging term used by Jewish immigrants to describe their counterparts who had become too American. Bagels and lox had no analogue in the old country. It was food as collage — pickled Italian flower buds and Scandinavian-style fish heaped over English-style cheese. It had traveled as far as the salmon, and become something entirely new in the journey."
How to Make Lox
You can buy lox at the store, but it's actually quite easy to make it at home. Learn how to brine salmon (a.k.a. how to make lox at home) with this top-rated recipe.
What Is Gravlax — and What Does It Have to Do With Lox ?
Gravlax is the Scandanavian method of preparing lox. The salmon is coated with a spice blend of dill, juniper berry, salts, sugars, and liquors before it is brined.
How to Store Lox
Lox will last 5-8 days if it's kept tightly wrapped in the fridge. You can also freeze it for up to two months.
Ways to Use Lox
Check out on of our favorite recipes that highlights the salty salmon:
Here's the main difference: smoked salmon is cured and then smoked, whereas lox is only cured, typically in a salt brine and typically for longer periods of time, but not smoked.
Lox vs Smoked Salmon: What's the Differences? While lox is cured in a salty spice blend, smoked salmon may or may not be cured but is always smoked and has a slightly smokier flavor. Sight: Lox and cold smoked salmon are both glossy and thinly sliced. Hot smoked salmon looks like poached fish.
Lox is brined, but never cooked or smoked. Smoked salmon, meanwhile, is cured or brined and then smoked. It can be cold-smoked (slowly exposed to smoke for a few days, but is never fully cooked) or hot-smoked (cooked all the way through, like smoked meat).
What is lox? Originally derived from the Yiddish word for salmon (laks), lox is cured, but not smoked. It was developed to preserve salmon and other fish before refrigeration was widely available. Lox is never cooked; instead, it's made by curing a salmon belly fillet in salty brine, traditionally for three months.
It is smooth, buttery, flaky, delicately salty, and super healthy thanks to its Omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins, and protein of course. It also can be a very confusing thing—because although the word “lox” evokes the classic salmon slices topping a beautiful breakfast bagel, it can mean a few different things!
Is lox hot-smoked or cold-smoked? Neither. Made from the belly meat of a salmon, lox is actually never cooked but is, instead, cured in a salty brine mixture for several weeks. Compared to smoked salmon, lox is saltier with more of a raw texture, making it the perfect addition to a toasted bagel with cream cheese.
The word comes from the Yiddish word for salmon, lax. But in the United Kingdom, where smoked salmon became popularized, “We never call it lox,” said Ondine Sherwood, whose father, Joss Sherwood, ran the British Smoked Salmon Company, inherited from his grandfather, Solomon Scheinbaum.
Since it is already 'cooked', you can eat the succulent slices straight off the package (my personal favorite); put it on toast with cream cheese for a great quick snack; make yourself a smoked salmon sandwich on the go; or prepare a four-course gourmet meal based on the delicate treat.
Gradavlax and lox tend to have higher sodium levels than regular smoked salmon, so we would recommend against choosing these types if you're trying to be healthy. Of course, everything in moderation is fine!
Because lox is only brined, the flavor is very different. It's much more briney and there's no smoky flavor whatsoever. In appearance, these two delicious foods can look very similar. They have a smooth, silky texture and, if preserved using very fresh fish, will have a bright orange color.
If you don't feel like going through the patchke of making gravlax, or don't have the time, there are also some pretty great lox varieties to be found at major supermarkets.
When it comes to keeping your lox fresh after opening, you're going to need to keep it refrigerated, or freeze it if you're intending to keep it long-term. When it comes to storage life for opened or fresh lox from the grocery counter, it will generally last about a week in the refrigerator.
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The term Nova lox originally referred exclusively to salmon from Nova Scotia; today the term describes a specific preparation, in which the fish is cured in a mixture of salt and sugar and then cold-smoked. It's not quite as salty as belly lox, and its smoke flavor is quite subtle.
While the two names are used interchangeably, especially here in the United States, lox is different from smoked salmon. When prepared authentically, lox is cured in salt and not, in fact, smoked at all.
If you want the most authentic option for a bagel and lox brunch, go with the authentic lox. If, though, you want to impress your guests with both your salmon knowledge and your culinary chops, go with the nova lox. Whichever you choose, your taste buds won't be disappointed.
Lox was traditionally only made from the belly of salmon, although other parts of the fish are now also used. The salmon is salt-cured or brined but never cooked or smoked, so it has a very silky, rich texture and translucency.
Introduction: My name is Chrissy Homenick, I am a tender, funny, determined, tender, glorious, fancy, enthusiastic person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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