Naket Salmon

Naket Salmon: Cured Thirty Hours in Sea Salt and Honey Whiskey

Salmon cured with whiskey, which sounds like a gimmick until you taste it. The alcohol does not survive as heat or harshness — thirty hours of curing takes that away and leaves what is underneath: a faint sweetness from the honey, a warmth behind the salt, and salmon that tastes more like itself rather than of anything added. Boneless, silky, and cut for slicing.

How We Make It

• Boned by hand. Every bone removed before the cure so nothing interrupts a slice.
• Steeped in sea salt and honey whiskey. Real whiskey, not flavouring. This is the whole idea, and it is why we do not use cheap spirit — bad alcohol tastes like bad alcohol no matter how long you cure it.
• Cured about thirty hours. Controlled temperature and humidity across more than a day. Time is what softens the alcohol and firms the texture.
• Nothing added. No preservatives, no dyes, no gluten.

How to Eat It

Twenty minutes out of the fridge before slicing. Cold fat is stiff, and with a cure this delicate you would lose most of what makes it interesting.

• On bread with olive oil. Good bread, oil, a squeeze of lemon. The plainest version and the best one.
• On a board with cheese and fruit. The honey note gives it somewhere to go — pears, walnuts, a hard cheese.
• Through pasta. Stirred in off the heat at the very end. It is cured, not raw; heat only toughens it.
• Sliced thin, alone. Black pepper, nothing else. This is how you taste the whiskey.
• To drink. Dry white wine, or whiskey itself if you want the joke to land.

Keeping It

Sealed and refrigerated at 32–39°F it holds up to three weeks. Once opened, eat within three to five days and press the air out before resealing — the delicate notes fade with air exposure long before the fish goes bad. It freezes at 0°F for up to two months; thaw overnight in the fridge.

Fuller guidance is in our storage guide.

Common Questions

Does it taste of alcohol? No. Thirty hours of curing takes the sharpness out entirely — what remains is a warm, faintly sweet note behind the salt. Most people cannot name it as whiskey unless told.

Is there alcohol in it? Trace amounts. Most of it dissipates during the long cure, but it is not alcohol-free. If you avoid alcohol entirely — for medical, religious or personal reasons, or if you are pregnant — choose our Tanned Salmon instead, which is cured with salt alone.

How is it different from Tanned Salmon? Same care, different cure. Tanned is salt-cured and smoked over alder and applewood; this one is cured with whiskey and never smoked. Tanned if you want smoke, Naket if you want the salmon itself with something warm behind it.

Is it cooked? Cured, not heat-cooked — the same principle as gravlax. Ready to eat from the pack.

Are there bones? None. All removed before curing.