for Paris
Paris is birthplace of many a trend, just as it was back in the 1920’s when it made caviar fashionable! Straight after the 1917 Russian Revolution, countless Russians fled their homeland and sought refuge in Paris. Within their ranks was the Mailoff family, leading caviar producers in Tsarist Russia, as well as the Petrossian brothers, Malkoum and Mouchegh They teamed up in 1920, opening a shop at 18, Boulevard de Latour-Maubourg. Caviar, of which they were the sole importers, delighted the wealthy migrant family’s also in Paris. In 1927, another Russian exile, Arcady Fixon, founded the Kaspia caviar house near Opéra Garnier. Around the Montparnasse area saw countless Russian restaurant open their doors and caviar became the talk of the town with Parisians discovering the wonders of Beluga, Osetra, and Sevruga caviar with a glass of champagne. The two partners in crime soon became the hallmarks of the festive, light-hearted, creative spirit of Paris during the Années Folles.
The Acipenser persicus sturgeon is a close relative of the Acipenser gueldenstaedtii in the Osetra family and lives solely along the Iranian coastline on the Caspian Sea. Its eggs are golden-yellow, hence its uniquely flavoured caviar often being classed as Gold Osetra. The species prefers the warmer southern waters making it unique to Iran, adding to the prestige and renown of the country’s caviar.
One of the various branches of aquaculture, ‘pisciculture’ refers to the farming of fish in either fresh or sea-water. It was invented in China where the first ever treatise on the matter was written by Fan Li in 473 BC.
It is well known that Americans can be a little mad… following in the footsteps of the caviar omelette, Nino’s Bellissima Pizza in New York put a $1,000 pizza on their menu. The ingredients include fresh cream, four different varieties of caviar, salmon roe, lobster tail, and wasabi.
Today, the three biggest farmed caviar producers in the world are China (nearly 40 tonnes), Italy (30 tonnes) and France (25 tonnes). Following close behind are the United States, Germany, Bulgaria, Poland, and Israel which produce between 5 and 20 tonnes of caviar every year.
Sturgeon prefer fresh temperate water. They used to live in the wild primarily in major rivers and along coastlines in the Northern Hemisphere. Sturgeon populations can be broken down into four major global regions: American sturgeon live in the American Pacific (from Alaska to California), the Atlantic (from Labrador to Florida), and around the great lakes of Mississippi.European sturgeon live primarily along the Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Adriatic coastlines. Eurasian sturgeon live throughout Siberia, the Sea of Azov, the Black, Aral, and Caspian Seas, as well as the tributary rivers (Danube, Ural, Volga...). In Asia, they live mostly in the China Seas and rivers that feed into them (Amur, Yangtze...) and the Sea of Japan. This goes to show that sturgeon do not have just one nationality, which says a lot for some people’s pre-conceived ideas – especially on Chinese caviar.
This term refers to fish that live and migrate solely in fresh water. Trout and some sturgeon species are potamodromous; much unlike salmon and other sturgeon species that are anadromous, meaning they live in the sea but reproduce in fresh water.
The shelf-life of caviar depends on the container it is stored in. Boîtes d’origine are made so that the caviar inside is not only kept at its best, but it also continues to mature and age. Stored at -3°C, such tins can last for anywhere between 6 months to a year. Vacuum packed tins between 25g and 500g can last up to 3 months in the refrigerator when unopened. Once the tin is opened, the caviar should be finished as soon as possible to ensure the flavours are as fresh as can be. Generally speaking, you don’t have to look far to find a willing candidate to finish off the tin!
In the early years of production, caviar was notoriously difficult to store. Prior to the industrial revolution in the 1800’s and the advent of rail transport, which meant caviar could be transported in whole grains, pressed caviar was the preferred format. Sturgeon roe was first cured in brine, pressed, strained, and then moulded in cloth. Disks of pressed caviar were then stored in wooden barrels, or quite simply left to dry in the sun. In disk form, caviar could be kept for up to a year. In Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes, the travelling monk talks of a «black dish that makes you hungry and thirsty».
One has to be very patient when it comes to harvesting sturgeon eggs; time truly is money! It takes three years before you can check what sex the fish is and between 7 and 14 years, depending on the species, for the female to reach sexual maturity and start bearing eggs. In fish farms, farmers pay close attention to the female sturgeon, almost to the point they are spoilt rotten; any stress, no matter how minor, can alter the taste of the roe! Beyond the fact that farming requires constant attention, the actual process of making caviar is also complex. Everything is done by hand: extraction, salting, tinning... the sum total of these steps explains why caviar is so expensive. This handicraft, like fine jewellery, comes at a price, which varies according to the sturgeon species on hand (and its egg laying age): roughly €1,600/kg for white Transmontanus sturgeon; €2,300/kg for Baerii; €2,500/kg for Osetra; and €9,500/kg for Beluga, the rarest and most prized caviar of all.
Be it wild or farmed, caviar is still produced using the same techniques and requires specific know-how. The egg-sac containing sturgeon roe must be carefully removed from the belly of the female sturgeon before being passed through a sieve, washed, then drained. The eggs are then selected according to certain criteria: firmness, colour, size, odour, flavour; then delicately salted by hand. The finely balanced salt to egg ratio is what gives caviar its unique flavour. Once the caviar grains have been evenly combined, they are poured into 1.8kg boîte d’origine tins. Pressure is applied to the tins to extract any excess liquid or remaining air bubbles. Then it is just a matter of waiting for caviar to age.
In the past, wild sturgeon caviar production used to reach 1,300 tonnes (of which only 300 tonnes were exported, the rest eaten locally). Today, wild caviar has all but disappeared with farmed caviar making up 99% of global production at 300 tonnes every year, which represents a three-fold increase on previous figures. France produces roughly 25 tonnes and is set to produce more in coming years mainly thanks to the drive local fish farmers have for high quality produce and intelligent, sustainable farming practices.