whitefish
Caviar & Roe
Caviar means salt-cured roe from a sturgeon — osetra, sevruga, kaluga, Siberian, beluga. Salmon roe (ikura), flying-fish roe (tobiko) and capelin roe (masago) are roe, not caviar, and cost a fraction as much. Serve it cold from the tin, half an ounce a person, never heated.
In one line
Only sturgeon roe is caviar. Everything else on the ice is roe, and some of it is better value.
Buy it if
You want the real thing and you'd rather spend the money on the roe than on the ceremony around it.
The word has a real definition. Caviar is salt-cured roe from a sturgeon — family Acipenseridae. Osetra, sevruga, kaluga, Siberian and beluga are sturgeon species. Ikura is salmon roe, tobiko is flying fish, masago is capelin, and trout roe sits between them in size and price. All are worth eating; none of them is caviar.
Almost all caviar is farmed now, and that is the good news. The United States barred imports of beluga caviar in 2005 after listing the species under the Endangered Species Act, and the rest of the trade runs under CITES controls. Aquaculture in China, Italy, France and the US supplies essentially all the legal caviar in the world.
"Malossol" is a method, not a grade. It is Russian for "little salt" — a cure under roughly five percent salt. It tells you the roe was fresh enough to need less preservation; it says nothing about species or quality by itself.
Don't use a metal spoon. Metal can leave a distinctly metallic edge on the flavour. Mother-of-pearl, bone, horn or even plastic all work. And the chopped egg and minced onion of the classic service exist to stretch cheap product — good roe wants a blini, crème fraîche, or nothing.
Where it comes from on the animal
| Species | whitefish |
|---|---|
| Subprimal | cured roe, sold by the tin |
What else it’s called
How to cook Caviar & Roe
| Best methods | Raw |
|---|---|
| Skip | Pan sear Oven roast |
| Cook to | Never cooked and never warmed. Straight from the fridge, tin set on ice. |
Common questions
What actually counts as caviar?
Salt-cured roe from a sturgeon. Osetra, sevruga, kaluga, Siberian and beluga are all sturgeon. Salmon roe (ikura), flying-fish roe (tobiko) and capelin roe (masago) are roe, and correctly labeled as such — they cost far less and are genuinely good on their own terms.
Is farmed caviar worse than wild?
No. Wild sturgeon stocks were fished to the edge, which is why the US banned beluga caviar imports in 2005 and the rest of the trade is CITES-controlled. Essentially all legal caviar today is farmed, and farming is what makes buying it defensible.
Why not a metal spoon?
Metal can impart a metallic taste to the roe. The traditional answer is mother-of-pearl; bone, horn and plain plastic do the job just as well. It matters more with delicate sturgeon roe than with a robust salmon roe.
How much do I need, and how do I serve it?
About half an ounce per person as a starter. Keep it cold, set the opened tin on ice, and serve it plain or with blini and crème fraîche. Never heat it — the eggs burst and the texture is the entire point.
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