Each Christmas (and occasionally at other times), I do a whole salmon
as Gravad Lax. Recipe is my own which I have developed over time and
with experimentation and I won't claim a scandanavian would recognise
it as Gravad Lax, but it's very much liked by my family. One thing I
do which is unusual (unique as far as I know) is that I very accurately
measure the sugar and salt to match the fish weight, so that when the
fish is ready, it's in osmotic equilibrium and can be left in the
pickling mix without continuing to turn into something resembling a
piece of tough leather.

Anyway, this Christmas I wasn't too well, and although I prepared the
Gravad Lax, it wasn't eaten because I thought afterwards there was a
chance I might have been unknowingly infectious when preparing the fish,
and pickling doesn't kill viruses.

4 weeks later, I still have the fish in pickle. It's been refrigerated
all this time. I opened it, smelled it, and tasted a little, and it
seemed fine. Had some more the next day, and had no ill effects, and
it is very nice. So I conclude from this that it's kept fine for 4 weeks;
I've never previously kept it for more than a week after it was ready,
before it was all eaten.

So my question is - how long should pickled fish like this keep?

--
Andrew Gabriel
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