A friend of mine resided in the former Soviet Union until just before its collapse. He was acquainted with several sturgeon fishermen in his day, and found that caviar was a regular delight, when obtainable. He spoke of sitting down before an iced bowl containing a liter or two of caviar just recently harvested from the Volga, and downing it companionably by the spoonful along with his friends, and a lot of vodka.
After he left his home in the USSR, he eventually settled on the shores of Lake Winnebago, home to a rather uncommon game fish, the sturgeon. And he continued his love affair with caviar. Yearly, during the sturgeon season, either he or one of his fellow huntsmen manages to procure a sturgeon laden with roe, and using tried and true techniques brought over from the Volga, it is converted into caviar.
And in a fit of largesse today, he presented me with 8 ounces of this product. He pronounces it to be as good as many caviars from the rivers and seas of Russia, and not far off the best of them.
So now we plan dinner. Baguettes with creme fraiche, toast points with butter, salmon with a whipped cream/caviar sauce! Them’s good eating!
I did sneak a few tastes of the pure caviar before turning it over to Mrs. Mercotan. I’d feared it’d be nasty and fishy and otherwise not something favored by my taste buds. It has been years and years since I had sturgeon caviar, rather than that from a lesser fish such as salmon or whitefish (cold fish jelly sums those up nicely!)
But no, it certainly was not that. Rich, rather complex, and not a taste easily definable! I’m looking forward to trying more tonight.
I eat caviar on toast points with nothing else. I tried a caviar (I don’t remember what kind) with buttered toast points, but I thought the butter overwhelmed the roe.
Hm… I might have to take a run down to the Russian market.
Caviar = bait. It never ceases to amaze me that people will actually spend large sums of money on fish eggs. Hell, I think I could sell the gourmet crowd squirrel guts on toast if I called it something fancy.
Heh. I like the episode of Frasier where Roz held the same reverse bigotry opinion about caviar, and sneered similarly at Frasier and Niles. Then Frasier gave her a taste of the contraband caviar he had bought, and she found it utterly delicious. They played the rest of the episode as though Frasier and Niles were trying to make their connection with some sort of Russian drug (caviar) czar to purchase more, with Roz getting the shakes because she couldn’t score a hit of the sturgeon eggs to which she had become addicted. Funny!
I wish I could take a spoonful or two off your hands, Doc. I’ve never tasted topnotch sturgeon eggs and I’d like to.
Doc, I appreciated all your advice in my New Years Eve caviar thread. As a thank you, I’ll be right over to help you with making all the black yummy goodness go away.
Seriously, enjoy the decadence and report back, please.
I’ve always had it with warm blini and a dab of sour cream. I sometimes have to travel to Russia, far into Russia, 5 time zones east of Moscow, although the time zones get pretty close together that far north. One compensation is the caviar and the vodka. The caviar tastes like the sea, and each individual egg bursts on your tongue like fireworks. I love the flavor, but most of all the texture. The blinis are soft enough not to mask the exquisite mouth feel of the caviar.
We decided to enjoy about a half ounce with thinly sliced baguettes, toasted, with a thin layer of neufchatel cheese on them, laden with caviar!
No fishy taste, (I hate hate hate fishy tastes) just a delightful yet difficult to describe subtle flavoring of briny nut-like (but not really) bursts of flavor.
I’ve still at least 7.5 ounces left, and we’re making more plans on how to enjoy them!
I’m envious, Doc. All I’ve ever had was what I could find in a grocery store, Whitefish and something else who’s name I’ve forgotton, and I thought even that was pretty tasty. Real Sturgeon would be a well anticipated cullinary adventure.
Ok so it may seem that I’m new to the boards because of my low post count but I’ve been lurking for years. I feel like I know all of you so very well. So I ask Qadgop, please please please have me over to your house to help eat it. I was given about an half oz 8 years or so ago by someone who was going to trash it cause they thought it was nasty. It was the worst thing a person could do. Sitting here thinking about those wonderfull bursts of happy goodness for all these years, it will drive a man mad. You can have my kids and I’ll split the rest of the 7.5 oz with you.
Americian style McCaviar, large coke with ice and a side of fires with it…
… groans… actually try chilling it to just above freezing, and serving it rolled inside of steamed , cooled arugula leaves
(about the size of a pencil)
