Caviar - an "Egg-cellent" Sea Food

Caviar, a simple food consisting of salted fish eggs, has made a comeback from a rare treat available only to the ultra rich, to a high demand product for today's upwardly mobile consumer. A resurgence in culinary delights in the past few years has led to the growth of appreciation for some of the finer and less common food delicacies such as caviar.

Known since ancient times and dating all the way back to the Persians, who ate caviar in stick form, it has been a sought after and rare delicacy. Traditionally the term caviar is only used for the roe (fish eggs) from wild sturgeon species from the Caspian Sea, Beluga, Sterlet, Osetra, and Sevruga are the only recognized true caviar. These 4 caviar varieties, depending on their quality can reach prices ranging from 6,000 to 12,000 Euro per kilo! The price however does not prevent them from being snapped up as they are in high demand by gourmands world wide.

For those owners of a smaller wallet, there are varieties of lesser fish such as lump fish, whitefish, paddle fish, sturgeon, trout and even N. Atlantic salmon roe (sometimes called red caviar), just to name a few, that are marketed as "Caviar" where the law allows it.[1] While these are not recognized as a true caviar, they allow even the average person a hint of the flavour delights that formerly, exempting fishermen, were not a common fare. It is these fish and their cheaper price tags that have had the greatest impact on providing a cost effective alternative to the real caviar to the average man.

Also making the scene today are fish farms such as the one in Spain which provides an organically certified caviar and faux caviar from Scandinavia made from mashed Cod roe. There are even alternative caviar like products for the vegetarian made from an eggplant and another from algae! Add to that the advance of technology which now allows us to harvest the roe via a technique called stripping resulting in fine quality roe without killing the fish. So rich or poor, anyone can now go out and treat themselves to a delicacy once only reserved for kings and emperors.

[1] FAO Fisheries Circulars - C990, FAO Corporate Document Repository, Fisheries and Aquaculture Department.

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Michelle A. Hoffmann is a Work at Home mother of 4, author, website designer, internet marketer and ezine editor/publisher/owner. You can read more of her articles at http://24karatmarketer.com