Caviar

• 1. Introduction

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  Caviar is a delicacy made of salt-cured fish roe, and one rare kind once sold for £20,000 a kilogram, then about US$34,500. It was an Iranian product called Almas, a name drawn from a word meaning diamond. Its eggs came from a rare albino sturgeon, a fish between 60 and 100 years old, living in the southern Caspian Sea. Most caviar costs far less. Still, why fish eggs can command such sums is a question that follows the food everywhere. Who decides which eggs may legally be called caviar? And what happened to the sturgeon that once supplied tables across Europe and North America?

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• 2. Defining Caviar

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  The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations draws a strict line. Only roe from the sturgeon family, Acipenseridae, counts as caviar. Roe from any other fish is, in its phrasing, "substitutes of caviar".

  The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as CITES, draws the line wider. It covers processed roe from every species in the order Acipenseriformes, which includes paddlefish as well as sturgeon. Tradition is stricter than either body. Traditionally the word names only roe from wild sturgeon of the Caspian Sea and Black Sea, meaning beluga, ossetra and sevruga.

  In practice, shoppers meet salmon, steelhead, trout, lumpfish, whitefish and carp roe sold under the same name. The label even stretches to plants. "Eggplant caviar" and "Texas caviar", made from black-eyed peas, borrow the word for resemblance alone.

  The word itself reached English in the late 16th century. It was borrowed at about the same time from several European languages. French had cavial, Italian caviale, Portuguese caviar and Spanish cabial. All of them trace back to Turkish khāvyār or Greek khaviari, though the ultimate origin is uncertain.

  Early English spellings included chauiale, cavery and cauiarie. By 1625 speakers were already pronouncing it with three syllables and dropping the final e. Russians call the food ikra, and English once borrowed that word too, spelling it ikary in the 16th and 17th centuries.

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• 3. Old Tables

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  In the 10th century, sturgeon and caviar from the Sea of Azov began arriving on the tables of aristocratic and noble Greeks. The cause was large-scale trade between the Byzantine Empire and Kievan Rus'. The Russians probably learned to salt fish eggs from Greek traders who worked along the Black Sea coast. Yet the caviar industry did not develop in Astrakhan until after the Mongol invasions. For a long time afterward, production centered on the Caspian Sea, with Iranians and Russians making most of it.

  In the 16th century, François Rabelais described caviar as the finest item of what is now called hors d'oeuvre.

  Caviar was eaten differently in those days. Medieval Russians often ate it hot. The Travels of Olearius in Seventeenth-Century Russia describes a method of salting the roe and letting it stand for six to eight days. Pepper and finely chopped onions were then mixed in. Some cooks added vinegar and country butter. The author's verdict was "It is not a bad dish." He added that lemon juice in place of vinegar "gives a good appetite, and has a restorative effect."

  By 1569, the Russians had conquered the entire Volga River down to its mouth. The river and its tributaries offered a diverse range of fish, including sturgeon. They also held sterlets, a small kind of sturgeon that pleased Russian locals and foreigners alike.

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• 4. Ranking The Roe

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  Five countries border the Caspian Sea: Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Its beluga sturgeon yield the rarest and costliest caviar. Beluga eggs are soft and extremely large, about the size of a pea. They range in colour from pale silver-grey to black.

  Next comes the small golden sterlet caviar, which is rare and was once reserved for Russian, Iranian and Austrian royalty. After it ranks ossetra, with medium-sized eggs from light brown to rich brown, also known as Russian caviar. Lower in the ranking are grey sevruga, Chinese Kaluga and American white sturgeon caviar.

  The Chinese Kaluga hybrid varies from dark grey to light golden green and is a close cousin of beluga. The Siberian variety, with black beads, resembles sevruga. It is popular because its harvest period is only five years, though it carries more brine than other kinds. White sturgeon is abundant and native to California and the U.S. Pacific Northwest.

  Prices swing widely. Wild Caspian beluga caviar was priced at $16,000 per kilogram in 2012. In 2014, conventional sturgeon caviar sold for about $105 per ounce, and albino sturgeon caviar for up to $800 per ounce. Caviar is generally sold by the ounce, at anything from $45 to $1,000 depending on the variety and other factors.

  Buyers also judge texture, with firmer eggs worth more. They look for creaminess, a buttery taste, and a finish of brine or mild fish. Pasteurizing the roe lowers its culinary and economic value. So does killing the fish, since eggs taken by massage are rated higher. Cheaper alternatives have been developed from whitefish roe and North Atlantic salmon roe. Massage is only one of several ways to take eggs from a sturgeon.

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• 5. Fish To Tin

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  Commercial producers historically stunned the sturgeon and removed its ovaries. A second method takes the eggs through a small incision, which lets the female keep producing roe. Some farmers use "stripping", cutting along the urogenital muscle once the fish is judged ready. An ultrasound scan decides the timing. Massage may give both better quality and a more sustainable source.

  The preparation sequence has barely changed over the last century. The ovaries of a sedated female pass through a sieve that strips away the membrane. The freed roe is rinsed to wash off impurities. A precise amount of salt is added for taste and preservation. The fresh product is tasted and graded for quality. Finally, the eggs go into lacquer-lined tins, to be processed further or sold directly to customers.

  A tablespoon, about 16 grams, supplies 44 kilocalories. That serving provides 53% of the Daily Value of vitamin B12. It also gives moderate amounts, 10-19% of the Daily Value, of sodium, iron, magnesium and selenium. By weight, caviar is 48% water, 25% protein, 18% fats and 4% carbohydrates.

  Caviar is highly perishable and must stay refrigerated. After opening, it should be eaten within 2-3 days. Airtight glass or plastic containers are better than metal tins, which can spoil the flavor. Some people place a layer of vegetable oil over the eggs to keep oxygen away. The ideal temperature is around 32 °F, or 0 °C, and freezing an opened tin harms texture and taste. In the Caspian, meanwhile, the supply of fish to treat with such care was shrinking.

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• 6. Caspian Crisis

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  In September 2005, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service banned imports of Caspian Sea beluga caviar to protect the endangered beluga sturgeon. A month later the ban widened to cover beluga caviar from the entire Black Sea basin. Overfishing, smuggling and sewage pollution had by then cut the Caspian sturgeon population considerably.

  In January 2006, CITES supported an international embargo on caviar exports. In January 2007 the ban was partly lifted, allowing the sale of 96 tons, which was 15% below the official 2005 level.

  Russia's own restrictions overlapped. The harvest and sale of black caviar was banned there in 2007, and caviar exports were banned from 2002 to 2011. Separately, wild production was suspended between 2008 and 2011 so that stocks could replenish. Iran, by contrast, still allows sturgeon fishing off its coasts.

  In July 2010, Russia and some other CIS countries restarted exports. The 2010 quotas allowed three tons of beluga, 17 tons of sevruga and 27 tons of osetra. In September 2010, Kazakhstan launched a state monopoly brand, Zhaik Balyk, named with the Kazakh words for the Ural River. Under the CITES agreement, Kazakhstan could produce 13 of the 80 tons allowed until the 28th of February 2011.

  The ban on sturgeon fishing in the Caspian pushed producers toward aquaculture, which became an economically viable way to make caviar commercially.

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• 7. Rivers Gone Quiet

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  In Venice in 1564, Cristoforo da Messisbugo published a book titled Libro novo nel qual si insegna a far d'ogni sorte di vivanda. Page 110 holds the first recorded Italian recipe for freeing eggs from the roe and preparing caviar, either fresh or for keeping. The sturgeon of the Po mattered enough that in 1753 a diplomatic war broke out between the Papal States and the Venetian Republic. The quarrel was over fishing rights in the river, which formed the border between them. In 1771, the writer Jérôme Lalande noted in his Voyage en Italie that many sturgeon were caught in the Po delta, in the territory of Ferrara.

  From about 1920 until 1942, a Ferrara shop called Nuta processed all the sturgeon caught in the Po. The name came from the nickname of its owner, Benvenuta Ascoli. She used an elaboration of the Messisbugo recipe and shipped the caviar across Italy and Europe. A new owner sporadically continued production until 1972, when the sturgeon stopped swimming up the Po. Since 2015, some have reappeared.

  Spain tells a similar story. The 17th-century book Don Quixote mentions "cavial" at a banquet of German pilgrims. Until 1992, sturgeons and caviar were collected in the lower parts of the Guadalquivir, Ebro, Duero and Tajo rivers. From 1932 to 1970, the Ybarra family ran a factory in Coria del Río. Overfishing, pollution and the Alcalá del Río dam eliminated the wild population of Acipenser naccarii.

  In the early 20th century, Canada and the United States were the major caviar suppliers to Europe. They harvested roe from lake sturgeon in the North American Midwest. They also took it from shortnose and Atlantic sturgeon spawning in East Coast rivers. The American industry began when Henry Schacht, a German immigrant, opened a business catching sturgeon on the Delaware River. He treated his caviar with German salt and exported a great deal of it to Europe. Sturgeon were fished from the Columbia River on the West Coast too. American caviar was so plentiful that bars gave it away to make patrons thirsty or keep them thirsty longer.

  Today the shortnose sturgeon is rated Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List and Endangered under the Endangered Species Act. In 2021, investigators discovered and broke up a significant illegal sturgeon egg harvesting and selling ring. It was run in part by the former top sturgeon biologist of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

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• 8. Farms And Imitations

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  China produced 100 tonnes of caviar in 2017, the most of any country. Russia followed with 49 tonnes, Italy with 43 and France with 37. The largest caviar company in the world is the Chinese brand Kaluga Queen, which raises sturgeon at Qiandao Lake in Zhejiang.

  Italy's output comes almost entirely from bred sturgeon, concentrated around Brescia, considered the capital of Italian caviar. At Calvisano, in that area, sits the world's largest sturgeon farm, producing 25 tonnes of caviar each year.

  Landlocked Armenia has built an industry on farmed sturgeon in the Ararat Valley, with estimates of 10-20 tonnes a year. Its most famous brand, Petrossian, was founded in 1920 by two Armenian brothers and is headquartered in Paris. Kibbutz Dan in Israel produces four tons a year on a farm fed by the Dan River, a tributary of the Jordan.

  Since 2018, Madagascar has been the first African country to produce and export caviar. In Tanjung Malim, in Perak, Malaysia, farmed sturgeon yield what is marketed as "tropical caviar". The first Malaysian brand launched in March 2019.

  Elsewhere, a farm called Caviar de Riofrío makes organic caviar at Loja in Granada, Andalusia. France produces a small amount in the Gironde estuary. Uruguay has become a major producer and exporter. Farmed Fraser River white sturgeon supply caviar in coastal British Columbia, and northern California is reported to account for 70% to 80% of U.S. production.

  Imitations fill the gaps. Black or red lumpsucker roe is sold across Europe in small glass jars. In Sweden and Finland, the roes of vendace, burbot, salmon and common whitefish are eaten in a similar way. Locals enjoy them in their own right rather than as substitutes.

  Spherification with alginate, a seaweed polysaccharide, recreates caviar's texture from flavored liquids. The result is kosher and vegan beads that look like beluga. Film and television use them as food props, and vegetarians eat them.

  In Scandinavia, a sandwich spread made from smoked cod roe is called smörgåskaviar, meaning "sandwich caviar". Outside Scandinavia it is sold as creamed smoked roe, or in French as Caviar de Lysekil.

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