# Lox v Smoked Salmon



## JustJoel (Nov 25, 2018)

I came across this article (more of a blurb, really), and wondered what y’all think of it.

I remember the salmon that my grandpa would bring to brunch being quite salty, and the perfect topping for bagels and cream cheese. Today’s supermarket versions just aren’t salty enough!


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## Andy M. (Nov 25, 2018)

I really enjoy smoked salmon on my onion bagel. However, I wouldn't turn my back on a bagel with lox.


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## taxlady (Nov 26, 2018)

Isn't the word "lox" just Yiddish for salmon? Laks is salmon in Norwegian and Danish and "lax" is salmon in Swedish. Isn't "Nova" just salmon from Nova Scotia? Personally, I would eat any of it as long as it isn't cooked or hot smoked.


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## CakePoet (Nov 26, 2018)

Lox is like gravlax,  but the  gravlax is less salty  but it the same processes, except gravlax  is turned to give an even cure. 

I  prefer warm smoked salmon.,


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## Andy M. (Nov 26, 2018)

taxlady said:


> Isn't the word "lox" just Yiddish for salmon? Laks is salmon in Norwegian and Danish and "lax" is salmon in Swedish. Isn't "Nova" just salmon from Nova Scotia? Personally, I would eat any of it as long as it isn't cooked or hot smoked.



Yes, but...

Lox has come to mean thinly sliced cured salmon. Nova, while the first part of the province name, has come to mean thinly sliced, cured, cold smoked salmon.


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## Caslon (Nov 26, 2018)

Lately, I've looked for, but no longer see for sale those small snack packs of quality smoked salmon or smoked herring (for when I got that smokey salty fish craving, but didn't want a lot). They were always located  off to the side of the butcher/fish section of the store. They were obscure brand names, but quality and tasty


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## buckytom (Nov 26, 2018)

A bagel, some lox - eh, mebbe some smoked salmon, and a schmear.

What's not to love?

Mazel tov!


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## Kayelle (Nov 27, 2018)

Caslon said:


> Lately, I've looked for, but no longer see for sale those small snack packs of quality smoked salmon or smoked herring (for when I got that smokey salty fish craving, but didn't want a lot). They were always located  off to the side of the butcher/fish section of the store. They were obscure brand names, but quality and tasty




Caslon, the Souschef buys those every week from Von's for our Sunday Bagels and Lox breakfast. Ask the butcher, I can't imagine them being discontinued.


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## JustJoel (Nov 27, 2018)

Related:
I was raised on Philly Cream Cheese. Mom went through a brief period when she used Neufchâtel cheese, thinking it would help her lose weight, but it never really caught on with the family.

Kraft makes several different cream cheese spreads. I thought their smoked salmon (flavored) cream cheese spread might be an economical way to get my morning fix of lox and cream cheese on a bagel. BIG mistake! The stuff is AWFUL. there is a vague salmon taste, but it mostly just tastes fake. I’d rather get a good can of salmon, drain it well, and mix it into some plain cream cheese.

Kraft’s garden garden vegetable cream cheese spread, however, is not bad!


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## CharlieD (Nov 29, 2018)

Ah, those translated words, who really knows what they meant originally.


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## Addie (Dec 1, 2018)

I always thought "Nova" was Latin for "new". At least when I took Latin, it did.


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## Addie (Dec 1, 2018)

JustJoel said:


> Related:
> I was raised on Philly Cream Cheese. Mom went through a brief period when she used Neufchâtel cheese, thinking it would help her lose weight, but it never really caught on with the family.
> 
> Kraft *makes several different cream cheese spreads. *I thought their smoked salmon (flavored) cream cheese spread might be an economical way to get my morning fix of lox and cream cheese on a bagel. BIG mistake! The stuff is AWFUL. there is a vague salmon taste, but it mostly just tastes fake. I’d rather get a good can of salmon, drain it well, and mix it into some plain cream cheese.
> ...



I used to buy them in the little glass jars. Just the right size for little hands. Unfortunately over the years they got all broken. Time to start a new collection. 

I wonder if those little jars of cream cheese could be used for a different flavored cheesecake.


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## GotGarlic (Dec 1, 2018)

Addie said:


> I always thought "Nova" was Latin for "new". At least when I took Latin, it did.


It is. Nova Scotia, the name of the Canadian province, is Latin for New Scotland. Nova salmon is the name of a type of cured salmon from there.

"Nova

The name for this salmon comes from its origin, in Nova Scotia, Canada, where salmon is cured and then cold smoked. The color is a much deeper pink, almost a burnt orange, compared to other cured salmon. The fish flavor is also a bit more intense than lox or gravlax."

https://www.cookinglight.com/cooking-101/essential-ingredients/difference-lox-gravlax-nova


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## CakePoet (Dec 1, 2018)

I am pondering pulling out my  mum's recipe making  gravlax for Christmas...


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## msmofet (Dec 1, 2018)

I haven't had cream cheese and lox on a bagel in forever. So I looked to see if my store carries it. Can someone please explain the last line in the Usage Directions / Dosage instructions to me.


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## GotGarlic (Dec 1, 2018)

Dosage? :duh:


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## msmofet (Dec 1, 2018)

I was referring to: *Keep frozen* or refrigerated at 38 degrees F or below. *Do not freeze* product. 
Oxymoron?


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## GotGarlic (Dec 1, 2018)

Ha, that, too [emoji38]


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## taxlady (Dec 1, 2018)

The whole usage section is just weird. Dosage? Really?


"Keep frozen or refrigerated at 38 degrees F or below. Do not freeze product." Maybe they mean to leave it frozen, but don't freeze it yourself? I dunno. I think they are confused.


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## Andy M. (Dec 1, 2018)

I've frozen small amounts of smoked salmon with no apparent ill effects.


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## CharlieD (Dec 2, 2018)

I have some friends, well more like acquaintances, in business. There is this fish company in NY I always buy stuff. They have the best lox and the best caviar ever. They've told me that it is not a problem to re-freeze lox. Ok, maybe not do it every day, but when I schlep stuff from NY here, it always gets defrosted, so I always put back in the freezer. No change in taste at all.


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## buckytom (Dec 2, 2018)

I'm hoping to get down to Russ and Daughters before Christmas this year.

Russ & Daughters


Btw, Happy Hannukah, Chuck.


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## JustJoel (Dec 2, 2018)

buckytom said:


> I'm hoping to get down to Russ and Daughters before Christmas this year.
> 
> Russ & Daughters
> 
> ...


Hey! Is Chuck our only Jewish member?


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## Kayelle (Dec 3, 2018)

JustJoel said:


> Hey! Is Chuck our only Jewish member?




Souschef is Jewish also Joel. He has an electric menorah in the window, and will light the next candle in the table menorah at sundown. 



By the way, he freezes packages of lox all the time without damage.


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## Andy M. (Dec 3, 2018)

JustJoel said:


> Hey! Is Chuck our only Jewish member?



We have several Jewish members I know of. No doubt there are more who haven't mentioned it or I didn't hear of it.


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## buckytom (Dec 3, 2018)

JustJoel said:


> Hey! Is Chuck our only Jewish member?



Hey don't be such a yenta. 

That's Mr. Charles of the Ukraine to everyone else, btw.


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## CharlieD (Dec 6, 2018)

buckytom said:


> I'm hoping to get down to Russ and Daughters before Christmas this year.
> 
> Russ & Daughters
> 
> ...



Thank you. Happy Chanukah to everybody who celebrate, and even those that do not. Chanukah is a universal  celebration of age old concept good over evil.


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## Addie (Dec 6, 2018)

Hi Chuck. Happy Hanukah to you and yours. Having lived in the midst of a Jewish community, I really do understand just how important Hanakah and Yom Kippur are to all of our Jewish friends. One year my landlord who lived on the first floor invited my family to their Hanukah Celebration. It was a lot of fun. They even had a present for each of my kids. My poor kids couldn't get over that they didn't have a Christmas. How do you explain it when the oldest is only five years old. 

The one thing I do remember most is that the schools closed for Yom Kippur and not for the Christmas Holiday. Now that was a new one for me. 

For Yom Kippur, I made sure my kids stayed in the house so that his family could put that time to their prayers.


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## caseydog (Dec 6, 2018)

I watched this video last night. I never thought much about lox and bagels, but this sandwich looks good. There is some good history (and a visit to _Russ & Daughters_) in the video, too. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYq0D9tK2dk

CD


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## buckytom (Dec 6, 2018)

I forgot about the shaved red onions. 

Or sometimes I like a few capers on a bagel, lox, and a schmear.


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## taxlady (Dec 6, 2018)

That's how we do a lox on bagel sandwich in Montreal too. Of course, we prefer it on Montreal bagels. That sandwich is perfection, even without any nostalgia. I have learned to put the capers on the cream cheese and press them lightly into it. That keeps them from rolling away.


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## buckytom (Dec 6, 2018)

What's the difference between a regular bagel (NYC style) and a Montreal bagel, Taxy?

I feel like I'm walking into a joke, here.


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## caseydog (Dec 6, 2018)

buckytom said:


> What's the difference between a regular bagel (NYC style) and a Montreal bagel, Taxy?
> 
> I feel like I'm walking into a joke, here.



It is a food rivalry, kinda' like the Pork Roll vs taylor ham thing. 

CD


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## Andy M. (Dec 6, 2018)

buckytom said:


> What's the difference between a regular bagel (NYC style) and a Montreal bagel, Taxy?
> 
> 
> 
> I feel like I'm walking into a joke, here.





I keep hearing it’s the NY water that makes the bagels so good.


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## taxlady (Dec 6, 2018)

caseydog said:


> It is a food rivalry, kinda' like the Pork Roll vs taylor ham thing.
> 
> CD





buckytom said:


> What's the difference between a regular bagel (NYC style) and a Montreal bagel, Taxy?
> 
> I feel like I'm walking into a joke, here.


 Yup, it's a big time food rivalry.

Here's the visual difference







The Montreal bagels are smaller and chewier. They are boiled in honey water. They are usually baked in a wood burning oven. They are often eaten straight out of the bag, with nothing else. They are quite good that way.

This is one of the two most famous bagel shops in Montreal, Saint-Viateur Bagels.







 I used to live around the corner from that one.


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## buckytom (Dec 6, 2018)

Wow, those look really good. I like a more chewy bagel. So many places make them too big and poofy.

Kinda like people who refer to Taylor Ham as pork roll.


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## taxlady (Dec 6, 2018)

buckytom said:


> Wow, those look really good. I like a more chewy bagel. So many places make them too big and poofy.
> 
> Kinda like people who refer to Taylor Ham as pork roll.


 I really like those bagels. I tried a bagel in NYC and I found it too poofy.

One of the things I love about that bagel shop is that you can see the mountain of dough and one or two people cutting and rolling the bagels, while you wait in line. That takes place outside that picture, to the left. They usually come with "white seed" (sesame seeds) or "black seed" (poppy seeds). That's the traditional way to ask for them.


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## buckytom (Dec 7, 2018)

There are good bagels here, and there are bad ones. I guess the blessing is that we have a choice.

Traditinally, a NYC bagel is semi- large and dense with a good crust.

Unlike people from South Jersey and Philly who are more of the latter two.


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## caseydog (Dec 7, 2018)

I like NYC-style bagels, myself, along with Philly soft pretzels, which are made in a very similar way to bagels. 

CD


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## CharlieD (Dec 14, 2018)

Andy’s bagel recipe beats all others.


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## JustJoel (Dec 14, 2018)

caseydog said:


> I like NYC-style bagels, myself, along with Philly soft pretzels, which are made in a very similar way to bagels.
> 
> CD


I’m with you on both!


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