Someone else suggested brining for prep, and IME that’s good advice, so I’m skipping that half of the question to focus on this half.
This web page has good advice on selecting your smoke wood for salmon.
TL;DR? Alder is traditional. (FWIW, I think this is often used in commercial smoked salmon, and would be considered the canonical “smoked salmon flavor”.) Mild fruitwood like apple, or other mild hardwood like beech or maple, also seem to be favored. Avoid heavy smokewood like hickory or mesquite unless you really love the taste of smoke and don’t mind overwhelming the subtle taste of the fish.
Apparently that company in British Columbia went out of business at some point in 2007. I was able to find an archived copy of their products page, which should yield some additional ideas.
Traditional lox is cured in a very salty brine and not smoked. There is a Nova Scotia variant that is cured with a milder brine and then cold-smoked. Consumer preference these days is leaning toward a Nova Scotia style, because most people today prefer the taste.
I suspect that the lox I’ve had is the Nova Scotia kind, because I don’t recall it being extremely salty and it seemed like smoked salmon. (Oh, and it was delicious, and I’m someone who isn’t a big salmon fan.)
Yeah, you’ll find it at stores sold as “Nova lox.” Most places I go to get bagels and lox seem to all use Nova lox, which is smoked. I love straight-up unsmoked lox or gravlax. Pretty easy to make at home, thankfully.
Can you get smoked herring locally? It’s much less expensive and, I think, better than whitefish. Check the deli counter at grocers that have a European customer base.
Also consider canned fish. Sardines, trout, herring, salmon, shellfish. I’ve rediscovered them during the last few years and they’re great with a ton of variety. I mostly like the smoked stuff but some herring or mackerel fillets in sauce have been good, too.
I’ll point out that I prefer my seafood to be less “fishy”. I love seafood like shrimp, clams, squid, and octopus. They are more “meaty” than “fishy”. I also like canned tuna a lot and can’t stand tuna that is rare. (I’m a heathen, I know.) Though tuna in sushi is fine once you add the ginger and soy sauce.
So that’s probably why if I’m having salmon, it’s got to be smoked, because that keeps the fishiness down. I imagine that traditional lox is extremely fishy because you’re just adding salt on top of what it normally tastes like. And for some people that’s awesome. I’d probably hate it.
But Nova lox on a bagel with cream cheese and capers, my mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Ditto with salmon cream cheese that I can put on anything and eat.
Ahem!! Sushi fan here. You do not “add ginger” to sushi. Ginger is meant to be a palate cleanser between courses. Also, as I learned to my embarrassment many years ago at a fine sushi bar, the amount of soy sauce (if required) is minimal. The usual technique is to hold the sushi upside down so that only the fish barely touches the sauce. Optionally, the chef will often lightly brush the soy sauce on it for you. And don’t ask for wasabi. In a decent sushi restaurant, the right amount of wasabi (if required) is already in it, between the rice and the fish. Many types of sushi don’t require soy, but are anointed with specialized sauces.
Tuna, particularly tuna belly, and particularly otoro – the fattiest part – makes some of the finest sushi. Otoro will usually be served raw, but tuna sushi can also be blowtorch-seared or sometimes smoked. I once had a sushi chef playfully serve up three different cuts of tuna, from otoro down to the leaner cuts, and then for good measure torch some of them so we could experience that difference, too. There was a wide variation in taste and texture but it was all delicious. The particular attribute of otoro is that it quite literally melts in you mouth.
I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood. I remember being at a friend’s house and having lunch with their parents. The mom asked if I wanted some lox on my bagel and I said yes. The mom was reaching into the refrigerator and the dad said, “No! Give him the Nova”.
I realized many years later she was trying to pass off some lower grade salmon.
I don’t know if I would call it a lower grade salmon. It’s just differently prepared, and probably what more people expect when they ask for “lox.” Like if someone came to my house and asked for bagels and lox and I happened to have both around (which has never happened), I’d give the Nova unless I know the person wants unsmoked lox. Or I’d ask, of course, but that person may not know what the hell the difference is. Like if my wife asked, I’d definitely give her the Nova and not confuse her with the question and an explanation. I know that’s what she is expecting.
Then I’m not a real sushi fan. Ginger is essential to making the sushi palatable. Without it, I’m not eating it.
Then again, I absolutely love ginger. To me it enhances the flavor. Eating sushi without it is kind of gross.
It’s the difference between having something delicious and something I have to choke down.
My intention is to enjoy my meal, not raise my sushi bar credentials.
Note that I had said before that fishiness is something I avoid. Cleansing the fishiness from my palate is suboptimal, rather I seek to avoid it. Considering that, putting ginger on sushi is the correct way to eat it.
If I ask for “lox” I’m expecting nova. I have had the unsmoked stuff that’s too salty, and it’s okay, but not nearly as good as the less salty cold smoked stuff.
If you’re inherently anti-fish, then maybe you really aren’t a true sushi fan. But I never experienced really excellent top-tier sushi until maybe 15 years ago, and the difference from the mediocre stuff is like night and day.
But I’m a culinary liberal – if you like ginger with you sushi, go for it. The thing about too much soy sauce that I was doing isn’t about raising my sushi bar credentials, it’s about how I learned to genuinely enjoy good sushi more by not drowning it in soy sauce. I genuinely appreciated the chef’s advice (which I would have followed anyway because of the way he was waving around a large sushi knife!).
I should also acknowledge to your ginger-loving self that I was wrong to imply that ginger is never actually added to sushi. On occasion it is. One example is katsuo sushi. Katsuo is a small species of tuna, also known as skipjack, that is frequently smoked. Sushi chefs will often pair it with ginger and green onion as a complement to the smoky flavour.
It’s not the intended way to be used, but you’re paying for it so why not, I guess? (For me it would ruin it, but I don’t find sushi “fishy” in the way I think of “fishy.”)
IMHO, good sushi should never taste “fishy”. Mostly it has very delicate and subtle flavours, but occasionally something exotic comes along that is surprisingly intense, usually complemented with an equally intense sauce or spice. The general sense of “fishy” is what I tend to associate with fish that is in the process of spoiling, or has already done so.
I think I’m with you on this actually. Too much soy sauce can ruin it. I dip my sushi a bit into soy sauce before taking a bite.
I used to also mix in wasabi (in small amounts) but now I can’t touch anything spicy anymore for medical reasons, so sadly that part of the experience is no longer available to me. I used to just use a tiny amount. Now, pickled ginger is about as spicy as I can safely go.
Also, I generally only do maki sushi. Nigiri is okay, but not my preference. It’s not that I never eat it, but I don’t seek it out. If I get a platter that comes with a variety that includes nigiri I will usually eat it.
