Lox jerky? Is this a thing?

September 10, 2016 6:44 PM

Can I use leftover lox to make jerky?

I've got some leftover cold smoked salmon (sometimes referred to as lox) that needs to be eaten or put up soon. Coincidentally, my food dehydrator just arrived, and so the idea of making jerky out of it came to me. Unfortunately, I've been unable to find a recipe that doesn't start with raw un-smoked salmon.

Is this food-safe? And if so, does anybody have a recipe?

posted by gilsonal to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

I've seen salmon jerky, and it WAS made from raw salmon every time (because the final product was kinda glassy and translucent, not opaque like cooked protein). I'd venture that it IS food-safe, because both smoke and salt (and you will likely salt the fuck off of that lox if you jerky-ify it) are excellent means of preservation (read: warding off bacterial growth and spoilage) in food.
posted by julthumbscrew at 9:14 PM on September 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'd go for it.
I've cured lox and made salmon jerky and salmon candy.
The cure on lox is pretty similar to jerky but saltier.
But I like eating blind robbins with beer. Super salty. Be ready for something like that.
posted by Seamus at 9:32 PM on September 10, 2016 [2 favorites]

Lox is cured with salt + sugar and herbs. Smoked Salmon is dusted with a little salt (sometimes brushed with a salt/sugar mix) then cold smoke cured. Cold smoking means heat is in one box, smoke is funneled into a box with racks of Salmon...

Salmon in the dehydrator makes AWESOME jerky. This will be excellent. Enjoy!
posted by jbenben at 10:51 PM on September 10, 2016

There is a vendor selling lox jerky at the Saturday Embarcadero farmer's market in San Francisco. That stuff is wonderful... the most expensive thing ever, but seriously tasty. You're going to have a good time.
posted by blob at 6:43 AM on September 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Have you ever tasted salmon jerky? It is vastly inferior to lox and in my opinion utterly horrible. You get all the fishy and all the oily, with none of the silky. Maybe try a test quantity first!
posted by pseudostrabismus at 7:59 PM on September 11, 2016

Response by poster: Hmm, luckily I have nothing to lose, as the fish won't be fridge-worthy much longer. I guess I'll just pop it in and see what happens. Thanks for the advice, and the education on the diff between lox and smoked salmon, they were used interchangeably where I grew up.
posted by gilsonal at 8:46 PM on September 11, 2016

You can also freeze lox, FYI. I froze some and defrosted it a few weeks later and it was just fine. So if you want to go really low-effort, that's an option :)
posted by Nibbly Fang at 9:19 AM on September 12, 2016