Kippered (Cured and Baked) Salmon

Can I convince you to add a little sodium nitrite to your diet? The pink salt version of this recipe is both firmer and juicier than the one made with a plain salt brine. In any case - mix up the brine ingredients and make sure they are quite cool before adding the salmon, then store in the fridge for exactly, precisely 12 hours. OK, just kidding - how about anywhere from 1 to 24 hours? Just one hour is enough to plump up the fish; 24 is about when absorption really slows down, and you're just giving it a bath. 12 hours is a nice compromise.

Preheat the oven to 225 F. Drain the salmon, pat dry with paper towels, sieve on the paprika and bake until the internal temperature just reaches 120 F, about 40 minutes - I recommend an iGrill device, but an instant-read thermometer will do. This should cook slowly enough to avoid the white lips of coagulated protein that like to form in the crevices.

Let cool completely before refrigerating. This is great on bagels - better than lox, some say, because you can lay it on thicker - but also makes a luscious, summery salad. The waldorf-y version below is just the kippered salmon plated on red lettuce with celery, avocado, toasted walnutes and thin slices of sweet green Granny Smith apple.

As I was saying, kippered salmon can definitely hold its own on a bagel. Here's a camera-ready specimen that appeared briefly on a pumpernickel bagel spread with my Everything Schmear, along with red onion, tomatoes and capers. It disappeared soon after.