Smoked Salmon: Going Super Nova

This article first appeared in my
Tastes column in the Wine Spectator. 

As I was interviewing him several years ago about smoked salmon, Buzz Billick sensed I was about to ask him “the most popular question of all time,” at least as far as smoked salmon is concerned: What is the difference between Nova and lox? Basically, said Billick, executive vice president of Marshall Smoked Fish Co., Inc. of Brooklyn, NY, Nova is cured, lightly smoked salmon. Lox is cured, unsmoked salmon. More in a moment.

Once the sole province of Eastern European immigrant Jews, who, you’ll pardon the expression, religiously put it on bagels with perhaps a schmear of cream cheese, smoked salmon is now ubiquitous. (Surprisingly, Jewish lox eating habits began in New York earlier this century, according to Leo Rosen in The Joys of Yiddish.) Today, smoked salmon is stuffed into Belgian endive leaves for hors d’oeuvres at cocktail parties. It is tossed with pasta in Italian restaurants. It even gets a Tex-Mex treatment with cilantro and tequila. While smoked salmon isn’t exactly lunchmeat cheap, prices haven’t gone up that much over the years.

The reason, says Peter Heineman, co-owner of Homarus, a fish smoking company in Mt. Kisco, NY, is glut of salmon created by fish farms from Chile to Norway. Before 1981 when Heineman bought his first container of Norwegian farmed Atlantic salmon, all the smoked salmon in the United States was made from wild Pacific salmon, a different species. And while Pacific salmon—primarily the king variety—could be superb when smoked, it was often inconsistent in supply, fat content, and the way it was handled by fishermen. “The diet for farm-raised salmon is monitored for optimal fat content,” Heineman says. “And let’s face it, fat is flavor.”

The abundance of salmon spawned fish-smoking operations all around the country, like so many microbreweries. Homarus was one of the earliest ones, started by Heineman and Karen Benvin in 1975, with trout smoked in an L.L. Bean smoker in the back yard. Benvin peddled the fish to top New York restaurants, like La Cote Basque, which were thrilled to get locally smoked fish for the first time.

(Note: Since this article was first written, Marshall and Homarus have merged into Homarus Inc, based in Miami, Florida. Heineman and Benvin are no longer with the company.)

Kirk Avondoglio, owner of Perona Farms in Andover, NJ, started smoking salmon for his family restaurant in the early 1980s. Now Perona custom smokes fish for the likes of David Burke, chef of New York’s Park Avenue Cafe.

Zabar’s, New York’s (and by extension, America’s) smoked fish mecca, gets the bulk of its salmon from old-fashioned Brooklyn producers like Marshall. Brooklyn has been a hub for smoked (or more accurately, cured) salmon production since the early part of the century. Barrels of salted Pacific salmon came east from the west coast. After 90 days, the salmon was soaked in water to remove much of the salt. This is lox, from the Scandinavian lax and the German lachs, words for salmon.

A more common method is to wet cure the fish in a brine of water, salt and brown sugar. After the fish is dried, it is smoked at 76 degrees for about 12 hours, using apple wood and cherry wood shavings. This is what most people refer to as Nova. The name comes from wild Nova Scotia Atlantic salmon, which were common before that species was fished out years ago. Nova has a less salty, more refined taste than lox.

The distinction between Nova and lox is not the only example of confusing smoked salmon terminology. Even though it may come from elsewhere, smoked salmon is routinely called Norwegian because Norway pioneered Atlantic salmon farming. Scottish salmon and Irish salmon usually refer to farmed salmon from those countries but not necessarily to methods of curing.

Most small smoked salmon operations use a dry cure method because it takes less time and space than wet curing. But Saul Zabar, president of Zabar’s, says dry curing is less consistent and depends more heavily on the skill of the curer. “Dry curing is like a virtuoso violinist, sometimes he’s great, sometimes not,” he says. At Homarus, the filleted salmon is sprinkled with salt and brown sugar. After two days under refrigeration, the fish is gently smoked at 70 degrees for eight hours, using sawdust from hickory or maple wood.  Pinneys smoked salmon from Scotland uses sherry barrels—which some single malt Scotch producers use for aging—to flavor its smoke.

The Homarus Norwegian salmon has a silky texture and delicious, rich flavor with just enough salt. Perona Farms is quite similar. Both make smoked salmon in several flavors. Perona’s pastrami is spicier, great on rye bread. Homarus’ orange-cured salmon is subtle, a good match with Sunday brunch mimosas. Others, like Perona’s Moroccan and Homarus’ tequila and cilantro, seem more contrived. (I prefer bagels to tortillas.)

My favorite of all the smoked salmon I tried was Zabar’s house brand Nova, presliced in four and eight-ounce packages. It was rich and silky with just the right balance of fat, smoke, and salt. I found Zabar’s hand-sliced Nova bland and too fatty, almost like belly lox, traditionally a fattier part of the fish. The wafer-thin slices from Zabar’s salmon surgeons were gorgeous, though. Zabar’s hand-sliced Irish salmon, from Clarke’s, an Irish family operation, was a smokier version of Zabar’s presliced Nova.

Another excellent smoked salmon, especially if you like a heavier smoke, is Pinneys Scottish salmon. Even smokier is  Maine’s Duck Trap. But the smoke in the Petrossian salmon was barely detectable.

While the wet and dry cured salmon mentioned above are what is referred to as cold smoked, kippered salmon is hot smoked at temperatures around 180 degrees. This gives the salmon a flaky texture and baked flavor. Zabar’s kippered salmon is rich and pleasantly smoky with more salmon flavor than cold smoked salmon. My only cavil is the annoying bones. A similar kind of hot smoked salmon comes from companies like Washington state’s Seafood Direct, which uses the more robustly flavored sockeye Pacific salmon. Seafood Direct cooks the salmon in a vacuum-sealed container, which obviates the need for refrigeration. But the taste is more like canned salmon.

While smoked salmon is a versatile ingredient in food preparation and marries with a variety flavors, it is best savored simply. Saul Zabar likes his with nothing more than rye bread. Benvin likes her salmon on French baguette slices with a martini. Gin isn’t a bad idea with smoked salmon, but iced vodka is a better choice. As for wines, I liked those at both ends of the sweetness spectrum. A bone dry Sancerre was great, but in its own way, so was a Moscato d’Asti, provided the latter is very cold. And speaking of sweetness, cream soda might not be a bad idea with pastrami salmon. But hold the Russian dressing.

How To Get It

Just after he sent back 300 pounds of Nova because it was too salty, Saul Zabar told me the best way to buy smoked salmon—other than to patronize a reputable purveyor—is to taste before you buy. “Even we screw up once in a while,” Zabar says. Smoked salmon will keep under refrigeration for two to three weeks, one week after opening. It can be frozen for up to three months. Here are some mail order sources.

Ducktrap River Fish Farm, Belfast, ME, (800)-828-3825, www.ducktrap.com.

Homarus Inc., Miami, FL, 800-654-6682,  seafood@seafoodspecialties.com

Perona Farms, Andover, NJ (800) 750-6190; www.peronafarms.com

Petrossian, New York, NY, (800) 828-9241; www.petrossian.com

Seafood Direct, Woodinville, WA 800-732-1836; www.buyseafooddirect.com

Zabar’s, New York, NY  212-496-1234; 800-697-6301(outside NYC); www.zabars.com