"Pico Rico" > wrote in message
...
>
>> "During the Middle Ages, gravlax was made by fishermen, who salted the
>> salmon and lightly fermented it by burying it in the sand above the
>> high-tide line. The word gravlax comes from the Scandinavian word grav,
>> which literally means "grave" or "hole in the ground" (in Swedish,
>> Norwegian, Danish, Dutch and Estonian), and lax (or laks), which means
>> "salmon", thus gravlax means "buried salmon".
>>
>> Today fermentation is no longer used in the production process. Instead
>> the salmon is "buried" in a dry marinade of salt, sugar, and dill, and
>> cured for a few days. As the salmon cures, by the action of osmosis, the
>> moisture turns the dry cure into a highly concentrated brine, which can
>> be used in Scandinavian cooking as part of a sauce.[1] This same method
>> of curing can be used for any fatty fish, but salmon is the most common."
>>
> Why did it ferment in the middle ages, when it seems about the same
> technique is used today?
I don't know. It may have fermented because of the lack of salt. I suspect
the term in Wikipedia is incorrect. But who knows?

Kent