Lox 101

Here’s a guide to your smoked and salted salmon:

Lox: Salmon (usually the belly) that’s soaked in a salty brine and never cooked. Served in thin, silky slices and usually paired with cream cheese on a bagel.

Gravlax: Salmon that’s covered in salt and herbs for 3-5 days, then rinsed and sliced thinly. A Scandinavian method of preparing lox.

Nova Lox: Salmon soaked in a brine, like lox, and later cold-smoked at 80 degrees for a few days. It’s not cooked, so it retains a silky smooth texture and translucent pink color. Nova refers to the place it’s from–Nova Scotia–often times from the Gaspe region. There are several varieties of Nova Lox, including Western Nova (Wild Pacific Salmon), Norwegian smoked salmon (mildly smoky), and Scottish smoked salmon (strongest smoke flavor)

Hot-Smoked Salmon: Also known as kippered salmon, which is first brined and then smoked at 130-140 degrees for a few hours. It’s smoky and has the flaky, moist texture of cooked salmon.