Salted sturgeon roe, and strictly nothing else — everything sold as salmon, trout or lumpfish caviar is roe under a borrowed name. Nearly all of it is now farmed, and the metal spoon rule is real chemistry rather than affectation.
Roe from sturgeon species, screened from the ovarian membrane, rinsed, salted and packed. The traditional names are species: beluga from Huso huso with the largest grains, osetra mid-sized and nutty, sevruga smallest and most intense. Wild sturgeon are critically endangered and beluga import has been banned in the US since 2005, so essentially all commercial caviar is now farmed, including excellent osetra from Europe, China and the US. Malossol means little salt — under about 5% — which is the premium grade and also the most perishable.
Salt is the only preservative in traditional caviar, and the quantity is the central trade-off: more salt keeps longer and tastes of salt, less salt tastes of roe and spoils faster. Malossol grades at 3-5% need constant refrigeration and have a shelf life of weeks rather than months. The metal spoon convention is genuine — silver and other reactive metals catalyse oxidation of the delicate lipids in the roe, producing a detectable metallic off-flavour within seconds, which is why mother-of-pearl, bone or plastic is used. Stainless steel is largely inert and does much less harm than silver, but the tradition predates stainless.
It's finished and expensive and everything added to it competes.
HowStraight from the tin over ice, with a mother-of-pearl or bone spoon. Blini, crème fraîche and nothing else if you want an accompaniment. Chopped egg and onion belong with cheaper roe.
Fat and starch carry the salt and let the roe's flavour come through without adding anything of their own.
HowOn a warm blini, on a plain potato, on toast with unsalted butter, or on crème fraîche. The neutrality is the point.
Heat bursts the grains and destroys both texture and flavour, so it goes on at the last possible moment.
HowSpooned over scrambled eggs, oysters or a beurre blanc after plating. Never stirred in, never cooked.
Salmon, trout, whitefish and lumpfish roe are excellent in their own right at a fraction of the price and are better suited to dishes.
HowSalmon roe — ikura — has large bursting grains and works where sturgeon caviar would be wasted. Use it for anything mixed, dressed or cooked around.
The mother-of-pearl spoon is not affectation. Silver and other reactive metals catalyse oxidation of the delicate lipids in sturgeon roe, and the resulting metallic taint is detectable within seconds — one of the few pieces of dining etiquette with a straightforward chemical basis. Bone, mother-of-pearl, horn or even plastic all work; stainless is largely inert and acceptable in a pinch. The larger error is heat. The grains are membranes holding liquid, and warmth bursts them and cooks the interior, turning a delicate pop into a grainy paste and driving off the volatile compounds that make it worth the price. If it's going onto something hot, it goes on at the table, at the last second, and never gets stirred.
Farmed osetra is the sensible purchase — wild sturgeon are critically endangered, beluga import to the US has been banned since 2005, and farmed quality is now genuinely high. Look for a CITES code on the tin, which is required and identifies species and origin. Grains should be distinct, glossy and separate rather than a mushy mass, and the smell should be clean and faintly of the sea, never fishy or sour. Malossol indicates low salt and higher quality with shorter shelf life. Buy the smallest tin you'll finish in a sitting; once opened it declines within a couple of days. Half an ounce to an ounce per person.
Doneness: Serve very cold, 28-32°F, over ice — the tin sitting in a bowl of crushed ice. Never heated, never cooked. Unopened tins keep two to four weeks refrigerated depending on salt level; once opened, two to three days at most.
No dishes yet — this cut guide is new.
Not strictly. Caviar traditionally and legally in many jurisdictions means sturgeon roe only; everything else — salmon, trout, whitefish, lumpfish, paddlefish — is roe and is often sold as caviar with a qualifier. That isn't a knock on them. Salmon roe is excellent, has a completely different large-bursting texture, and costs a fraction, which makes it the better choice for anything mixed or dressed.
Yes, and it's chemistry rather than ceremony. Silver and other reactive metals catalyse oxidation of the lipids in the roe and produce a metallic off-taste almost immediately. Mother-of-pearl, bone, horn and plastic are inert. Stainless steel is much less reactive than silver and is fine if that's what you have — the tradition dates from when silver was the default.
Two to three days refrigerated, and it's noticeably worse on day two. Low-salt malossol grades are the most perishable. This is why tins are sold small — buy what you'll finish in one sitting rather than saving it, because unlike most preserved products it doesn't hold.