Caviar & facts - Chef Raman

Caviar & facts - Chef Raman

Air Beluga Merges with Buluga Caviar

Caviar has a long and fascinating history as a highly prized delicacy, it's usually extremely expensive, and frequently enjoyed only by the rich. There are many types of caviar, ranging in price from unaffordable for most people, to within the average family budget. Made from numerous different fish sources, it's caviar from the Sturgeon fish that commands the highest prices and is most commonly favoured by people with discerning palates. Here are eight more things you may not know about caviar.

* Caviar is made from fish eggs, sometimes called 'roe', and the best, made from Sturgeon eggs comes in four main varieties: Beluga, Ossetra, Sterlet and Sevruga.

* Eggs from the Beluga Sturgeon as the largest and have a creamy flavour and vary in colour from light to dark grey.

* Ossetra caviar tastes quite nutty and varies in colour from dark brown to greenish grey.

* Sterlet caviar has a golden colour, hence the reason it was sometimes reserved for aristocrats and royalty.

* Sevruga is the smallest and most common species of Sturgeon fish, and is usually light grey in colour and has a stronger flavour than most other caviars.

* Most Sturgeon caviars come from the seas around Russia and Iran, although recently the United States and China have begun farming their own Sturgeon fish to produce their own caviars.

* Size and colour of eggs leads to some types of caviar being much more expensive and desirable than others. The most expensive eggs, favoured by connoiseurs worldwide, are generally coloured gold or silver and give the appearance of precious metals that make them much more attractive to look at than caviars made from small eggs and coloured dark grey or black.

* Experts say the best caviar comes from wild Sturgeon, both tasting and looking better than roe taken from farmed fish. That said, however, farmed caviar is becoming more popular with consumers and chefs alike and generally costs less than the wild variety.

So maybe one day caviar will be accessible to everyone, regardless of budget, and that's something we can all look forward to with glee.