Food Of The Gods The caviar chronicles
By Denny Murawska
It is coveted as a food of kings, and certain grades are valued as one would calculate the price of gold. The best in the world can sell for over $23,000 per kilogram, which is a shade over two pounds. This precious commodity is caviar, and few of us get to taste the really good stuff.
Beluga caviar comes from a type of sturgeon that lives in the Caspian Sea. They can weigh over 900 pounds and live more than 100 years. Ostreca and Sevruga come from other sturgeon species and are also praised by gourmets the world over.
Environmental neglect, pollution, and other devastations wreaked upon the Caspian Sea by the former Soviet Union have greatly reduced a once-thriving fishery. Although you can still purchase these finest of caviars, some speculate it is laced with pesticides and heavy metal contaminants. For many of us, our only taste of caviar has been the grocery store variety, an expensive blend of fish eggs that tastes very salty. It is not everyone’s cup of tea as far as snacks go. Whereas, the roe of salmon is made into caviar as well and is much less salty. It is
definitely scrumptious, in my opinion. The sensation of the individual eggs exploding in one’s mouth has to be experienced. It is sublime. Still, it is quite expensive, when you can find it in a store.
Now, being a fish taxidermist and incurable scrounger of free stuff one can get from the wild, I started thinking about caviar when a fellow brought in a pike that had been freshly caught through the ice and was chock full of eggs. Granted, pike eggs are fairly small, but what they lack in size they make up for in sheer numbers.
I freely admit to making some horrible culinary blunders in my past, all in the name of curiosity. One was batter-fried perch eggs, said to be crispy on the outside and full of creamy goodness inside. If you can imagine biting into an egg roll full of awful goo reminiscent of cod liver oil, you are on the right track.
I had also seen salmon burgers in the frozen food section of many grocery stores and reasoned that I could take some less than prime cuts, shred them, and make my own. I believe using a blender with some amount of liquid in it is what rendered my burger into more of a fish slurpy. It was really disgusting.
So it was with some trepidation that I ventured into my caviar enterprise. Luckily, it was not difficult to locate some interesting procedures on the Internet.
After carefully removing several membrane-bound eggs sacs from the pike, they were rinsed in ice cold water. Freeing individual eggs from the membrane is the challenging part. With a combination of fillet knife, hands, and a colander with quarter-inch openings, I freed the eggs into the ice water.
After that, it is simple. For each cup of eggs, I used two cups of water mixed with ½ cup of kosher salt. The mix was left to sit for half an hour and the eggs were then drained and refrigerated. It is important not to freeze them because they will turn to mush. Also, metal bowls and spoons should not be used, as they can impart a metallic taste to the finished delicacy.
Taken from clean waters, fish eggs appear to be a nutritious food. They are high in protein, have few carbs and a bit of heart-healthy fats and oils. With about 70 calories per ounce, you won’t put on pounds from indulging now and then.
My favorite way to eat them is on a piece of French or Italian bread, spread with cream cheese and topped with caviar. In this way, you do not overpower the delicate taste. If you are any good at rolling sushi, topping it off with fish eggs is a common practice. Try a roll with some wasabi and a layer of eggs inside. Delicious!