four Baerii
Acipenser baerii is a species of sturgeon from Siberia that can grow up to 3 metres long in the wild and is primarily farmed in the Aquitaine Basin in France’s south west. First imported for farming purposes in 1989, it is now the most widely used species in sturgeon rearing, primarily in the Gironde. Baerii caviar is firm and dark-charcoal grey. Its flavour profile has briny and earthy notes, with a lingering dried fruit after taste.
Sturgeon are completely blind. To cope with such poor eyesight, they have protractile mouths and four barbels. The slender, whisker-like organs play a role in both taste and touch, helping the fish use its pointed nose to search for food on the sea-floor.
Sturgeon are completely blind. To cope with such poor eyesight, they have protractile mouths and four barbels. The slender, whisker-like organs play a role in both taste and touch, helping the fish use its pointed nose to search for food on the sea-floor.
Jean Becker directed the 1965 spy film Pas de caviar pour tante Olga (No Caviar for Aunt Olga) with Pierre Brasseur and Sophie Daumier. Released in August 1965, the film was an adaptation of the Charles Exbrayat novel Espion, où est-tu, m’entends-tu ?
Like Romeo and Juliette, this match is one of passion! Caviar imbues a delicate silkiness to the fermented notes of malted barley, softening the natural bitterness with its woody and buttery flavours. A perfect example of how opposites do attract.
«A marriage is like caviar at every meal – you keep devouring what you love to the point it makes you sick.», Love Lasts Three Years
Every fisherman worth their salt in the Caspian Sea dreams of one day catching a large Beluga, the Huso huso sturgeon. Also known as the Elephant Fish, it is the largest and only carnivore of the sturgeon family. This large-mouthed traveller is always on the scout for its next prey. Sometimes reaching 6m in length, it can also weigh more than 1 tonne and hold up to 200kg in caviar. A true record breaker! It is also the hardest of the sturgeon family to catch due to the fact it lives deep underwater. Native of the Danube River, Beluga farming is uncommon with only very few farms ready to wait the 15 years – at least – for the fish to produce its first roe. Just as the Beluga is quite the sizeable beast, so too is its large, creamy roe. Beluga caviar ranges from light to dark grey and is renowned for its thin membrane, delicate buttery flavours and long-lasting aftertaste.
«Caviar is weighed down with symbolism and each dream of caviar brings new flavours with every bite… To taste caviar is not just to taste a dream of grandeur, it is to also taste nostalgia for the Garden of Eden.», The Taste of Dreams
Black Caviar is a thoroughbred English mare born in Australia in 2006. A racehorse of legend with 25 consecutive wins, she is considered the greatest mare of Australian horse-racing history and the world’s best sprinter. Her popularity reaches far beyond the confines of the racing world with her Facebook fan page touting more than 50,000 members; she even made the cover of Vogue Australia!
Once Americans discovered they could make a fortune selling sturgeon eggs, a Black Gold Rush swept the nation: in the 1860’s, more than 400 fishermen moved to banks of the Delaware where they founded the town of Caviar, USA, with its own train station and line for transport. Every day, roughly 15 wagon-loads would be sent up to New York. Back in the day, more than 2,300 tonnes of Delaware river sturgeon were caught every year; fishing became so intensive that American sturgeon population numbers slowly dwindled. Today, the former township has disappeared, swallowed up by the town of Bayside, New Jersey.
The iconic blue tin used for storing caviar is known as the boîte d’origine and can hold anywhere from 1kg to 1.8kg. Historically, caviar was stored in lime-wood kegs; near the end of the 17th century, Dickman & Hansen, German merchants and Europe’s primary caviar providores, were the first to use such tins to ensure optimal ageing and preserving of caviar grains. As tins are closed, they are placed under high air pressure thereby ejecting any excess liquid or air bubbles; only the lowest level of humidity necessary for transport remains.
Secret Agent 007 likes women, vodka martini, and caviar. In Thunderball, Bond orders a bottle of Clicquot rosé with a serving of Beluga caviar; On Her Majesty’s Service shows Brittan’s favourite spy dining on Beluga caviar on toast. However, the most iconic scene of the franchise is in Casino Royal (2006) when late one night, James Bond (Daniel Craig) and Vesper (Eva Green) meet in the restaurant of the Grand Hotel Pupp. On the menu that evening are two weapons of seduction: caviar on toast and a bottle of Bollinger champagne.
Caviar is natural and fragile, and needs to be preserved. Two ingredients are required: salt and borax. But, what exactly is borax? Long used as a preserving agent in caviar, it keeps salt levels low and colours vibrant. It is a colourless, odourless mineral found in the dry-lake regions of Tibet, Persia, and Egypt. Widely used throughout history, it has many properties that some claim to be magical. Both an antiseptic and preserving agent, it was widely known of in Iran as «Persian salt»; in fact, the word comes from the Farsi burah which means ‘shiny’. However, all that glitters is not gold; borax is toxic in very high doses, which explains why, for example, it is banned in the USA and Japan. Nevertheless, the level of borax in caviar never exceeds 4/100ths. Far from being a key suspect in cases of intoxication, it is in fact deemed by modern medicine as beneficial, in small doses, for joint ailments and metabolising calcium in the body.
Marlene Dietrich wasn’t the only one to eat caviar for breakfast. In the film Foolish Wives by Erich von Stroheim, the Russian count played by von Stroheim himself – a real Casanova who extorts money from wealthy women – devours a ladle of caviar and a glass of strong red wine for breakfast.