Caviar - heavenly pearls

Think of royal Russian food and you think of caviar. These days, supplies from the Caspian Sea have been banned in part due to poaching which has reached rigidly organized extremes. With prices as high as $1000 for a 1/2 kilo tin, you have to know what you are buying.

The roe of the female sturgeon, its glistening pearls come a rare pale grey, gleaming black, or dark greeny brown.

• Beluga is the queen of caviar and the most expensive, with the largest grains.
• Ossetra has grains that are medium-sized
• Sevruga grains are the smallest
• Malossol means lightly salted
• Pressed Caviar is a paste made from drained broken or mis-sized eggs

Until 1900, the United States produced about 150,000 pounds of caviar annually, primarily from stocks in the Delaware River. Now the American sturgeon is being farmed again. In Elverta, California, the Stolt Sea Farm, 916 991 4420, is selling four grades of caviar under its brand name Sterling: Sterling Classic, Premium, Royal Black and, the top category, Imperial. Between $30-$60 an ounce, eggs are the same size as beluga, but range in color from deep black to blond.

The spoonbill or paddlefish, one of five different types of American sturgeon, is also being farmed for eggs that look and taste like sevruga - but without its subtlety. At a far lower price than Iranian and Russian sevruga, generous servings make up for lack of complexity of character.

Mark Grobman, marketing director of Browne's Trading Company in Portland, Maine, one of the largest US suppliers of imported and American caviar to restaurants, retailers and mail order catalogues, says, 'It's sevruga-like, but a little saltier, a little strong, not as refined as Iranian. But it's good on hors d'oeuvres.' 

Increasingly, high end chefs are turning to it for their main courses too. 

To read my article on caviar's history and the new American caviar in The National Interest.

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