Midsummer Gravlax with Dill

Gravlax — salmon cured in salt, sugar, and fresh dill — is the centrepiece of Swedish Midsommar celebrations and one of Scandinavia's most elegant seasonal preparations. The name means 'buried salmon' — the historical method involved burying the cured fish underground for fermentation. The modern version uses dry curing: a mixture of coarse salt, sugar, dill, and sometimes white pepper is packed around a salmon fillet and the fish is pressed and refrigerated for 48–72 hours. The result is a salmon that is silky, silkier than smoked salmon, with a deep dill fragrance permeating the fish and a texture somewhere between raw and cured — yielding, barely firm, with the fat having had time to redistribute through the flesh. Served with the traditional mustard-dill sauce (hovmästarsås), new potatoes, and rye crispbread, gravlax is the taste of Nordic summer — clean, bright, and precisely seasonal.