Cured Vs Brined Fish: What's The Difference?

Although many people use the words "curing" and "brining" interchangeably, the two fish preservation methods do differ, though both involve treating the fish with salt. To make a long explanation short, dry curing is when you preserve fish in a dry salt mixture. Wet-curing, or brining, is giving your fish a dip in a saltwater bath in your fridge. There's an argument for dry curing, of course. The dry curing mixture sucks the moisture out of the fish. Where there is no moisture, there's no harmful bacteria. This allows the meat to keep in the fridge — usually for several weeks, but several months isn't unusual in this scenario, depending on the recipe you use to salt cure your fish.

In the simplest set-up, a piece of fish is buried in salt, sometimes sugar, and occasionally with extra seasonings like dill to flavor it up. Gravlax is an example of this; it's salmon that's basically buried in what may metaphorically be a salt and sugar grave. This method of preservation is akin to cooking the food without the necessity of the flame. Some recipes call for a few more complications, meaning that in addition to being dried in the salt, the fish in question also gets a good smoking or spends some additional time in a vinegar or brine bath. Lox, like the salmon lox you put on your bagel and cream cheese, is an example of this. It's salted and then smoked before it's ready to be served.

If you have a piece of lean fish, it may dry out without the help of the salt brine process. With this method, you'll mix something like kosher salt in with water and whatever spices and herbs you'd like. Once the fish is in the salt water bath, the brine soaks into its muscle fibers, separating them. This allows the liquid to soak into the muscle meat, leaving it more moist than they would have been.

Often, brining recipes call for the fish to be put into the fridge overnight. However, some quick brine recipes, like with a salmon brine, only require the fish to be soaked for an hour or so. Most brined fish still requires cooking. This should be done immediately following the fish's stint in the refrigerator. However, you won't be baking or grilling your fish straight out of the brine. Typically, it gets a good rinse and a drying before it gets tossed over the flame.

Finally, most types of fish take to both methods of food prep, though there are some fish, like salmon, shrimp, mahi mahi, and trout, that are used often in these curing methods. The method you choose for your fish really depends on whether you want to preserve it for another time or if you want to add moisture to the meat and cook it right away. Once you know the answer to that, you'll know how to proceed.