Did you also think that caviar were literally eggs that were laid in the bottom of the sea, that somehow divers collected? Don't worry you're not the only one!
Let’s talk about how caviar is made, following the different steps of the process: roe extraction, cleaning and salting of the roe, maturation of the Caviar.
Extraction of the roe
First of all, let’s precise that the roe is extracted only from female sturgeons, as the males do not produce eggs. However, the eggs are not fertilized.
The female sturgeon will produce roe only after a fair amount of time (6 to 20 years). Timing is key, as the roe has to be extracted at the right moment, not too early (as the eggs would be ripe) and not too late (as the roe would be mushy). Therefore, the farmer has to decide when the timing is ideal: he will monitor and probe the sturgeon’s ovaries with ultrasound machines.
The sturgeon is then brought to a laboratory where its gonads with the roe will be extracted from its belly. Sadly, the sturgeon is killed, but this step is made without pain to the fish. This is important, not only for the sturgeon’s well being, but also because stress provokes the release of hormones in the roe and flesh, which ultimately affects the quality of the Caviar.
Cleaning and salting the roe
Once the roe is removed from the sturgeon, it will be carefully rubbed through a sieve/ mesh screen to be cleared from any other organic element. The eggs are then repeatedly soaked and cleaned gently with cold water to remove final impurities (like bits of broken eggs or tissue residues). Once clean, the roe is mixed with a very precise dosage of salt, to maximize the Caviar’s flavors and improve shelf-life. At this moment, the Caviar is ready, and the Caviar Master will decide what quality or grade will be attribute to this batch of Caviar (whether it’s a regular or exceptional quality) - and this will influence the price of the caviar.
Maturation of the Caviar
This mixture, that we can now call Caviar, is separated into big tins that we call “original tin” or “mother-tin”. It’s important to make sure there is no air left in the tin, as this would result in oxidation, and the Caviar would turn bad. The tin is then sealed with a thick rubber band. The caviar will be left in those tins for a certain amount of time, depending on the species, until the Caviar has fully absorbed the salt. Once this maturation process done, the tins will be opened and the caviar will be decanted into smaller tins to be sold.
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