Well, my friend took off for New Zealand/Australia for a 2 month vacation last week, and left me some of the food in her fridge, including expired spinach (mini rant: this is the second person in the last couple weeks to leave/move out and give me expired food, without alerting me to its expired status and nearly causing me to get sick. WTF?) and caviar.
I’ve never had caviar before. I don’t hang out in the kinds of elite circles that would be eating caviar. So I was delighted at the opportunity to try this cuisine which I’ve heard so much about.
It came in a little jar with “Romanoff” in fancy lettering and an image reminiscent of a medieval family crest on it, with no other markings (such as say, an expiration date or a nutrition label). Anyway, Luxury! I think to myself. I’ll be dining like a king tonight.
So I open it up, scoop out a very small spoonful and… oh man. That is frigging rancid. It’s hard to describe the taste, but it seems like some kind of potent combination of salty, sweet, and bitter.
I’ve only had it in my fridge a couple days, but God knows how long she had it before that. Is it possible that it’s expired, or is caviar just supposed to be disgusting?
Yes caviar is pretty grim eating in my opinion.
Add in the fact that sturgeon caviar (beluga caviar is a sub set of caviar, lots of other fish eggs get called caviar , but the real deal stuff comes from sturgeon) comes from the caspian sea which is pretty nasty (hunderds of years of pollution from one of teh major petrochemical prcesing area of teh USSr times, the ruskies also used to keep a couple of chemical weapons warfare divisons stationed in azerbaijan, what happend to a lot of the weapons is not clear but I’d stear clear of eau de mar caspio if i were you, kazakhstan has a bloddy great uranium mine and the ruskies surface tested a few nukes there as well, what turkmenistan has dumped into it god only knows).
On top of that international trade in sturgeon caviar is now banned, so if it is the real deal you can shop your friend to the customs people, that’l teach 'em for leaving you a mouldy bunch of spinach.
On the whole it’s best avoided.just my humble opinion.
There’s lots of caviars other than sturgeon, and, there’s no reason to think that was a jar of “real” caviar. Caviar from sturgeon costs anywhere from $100 an ounce on up, and unless your friend is very well-off, I can’t imagine leaving a jar. There are many (cheaper) caviars from salmon or whitefish or lumpfish, say. The Romanoff caviar website doesn’t list sturgeon or beluga caviar, so I think NaturalBlondChap’s comments are true but not applicable to your situation. You’ve got a cheaper caviar (or caviar-like substance), perfectly legal but fairly common. The taste should NOT be rancid. Yes, it is sort of salty and sweet, but not bitter. Had the jar been opened before?
I’m not a fan of caviar, but I agree that it shouldn’t taste rancid. I have to ask though… why are you eating your friend’s food, and why don’t you *check * the expiration dates? I throw out anything in *my * fridge that I’m unsure of, so why would I blindly eat stuff from someone else’s?
I’m not even sure what “expired” spinach means. If it was frozen (which isn’t fit for human consumption anyway, IMO), it shouldn’t “expire.” If it wasn’t, it should have been pretty evident that it wasn’t exactly at the peak of freshness.
Salty and fishy is the best way I can think of to describe it. IIRC, it’s eaten on small crust free pieces of toast with crumbles of hard boiled egg and finely diced onion. Of course, you probably want a shot of ice cold vodka as well.
My GF is a native of Ukraine. She and her family enjoy caviar very much; I’ve had it at their house many times. They buy some pretty expensive stuff. They eat it on slices of fresh, lightly buttered bread. It has a mildly fishy flavor with a noticeable (but not strong) saltiness. I’m not experienced enough with different kinds to be onto the subtle nuances of caviar, but they place a lot of emphasis on the size of the eggs and the “feel” of the caviar in one’s mouth. None of what I’ve had with them could be described as the least bit bitter or rancid.
Caviar has a briny and somewhat fishy flavor (like Scumpup said). The best thing about caviar, though (imho) is its “bursting” in your mouth. It’s a palpable sensation that’s hard to describe, but very pleasant.
I’ve had Romanoff caviar before (just curious - was it red or black?), on points of toast with cream cheese. It was reasonable just out of the jar - fishier than I would generally, but edible. I can’t see it improving with age. :eek:
Caviar, champagne and cheese is our standard Christmas snackage. Oh, and pate. Yum.
