Gravlax appears as a signature dish in 1 Sweden cities. See each city's local variant and where to eat it.
Gravlax (dill-cured salmon) · Stockholm
Gravlax is salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill for 48 hours then sliced thin and served with mustard-dill sauce, rye bread or boiled potatoes. The Stockholm classic of the smörgåsbord.
The word gravlax means buried salmon: medieval Baltic fishermen buried salted salmon in shore sand to ferment slowly through preservation. The dill version codified in the 17th-century Stockholm court kitchens and standardised in Cajsa Warg's 1755 cookbook. By the early 20th century gravlax was the bourgeois holiday-table dish. Today every Stockholm saluhall counter sells it: Lisa Elmqvist at Östermalms Saluhall cures the reference version daily.
Where to eat in Stockholm:
- Lisa Elmqvist
- Wedholms Fisk
- Sturehof
- Operakällaren
- Den Gyldene Freden