Caviar is a food consisting of salt-cured roe of the family Acipenseridae. Caviar is considered a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or spread. Traditionally, the term caviar refers only to roe from wild sturgeon in the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The term caviar can also describe the roe of other species of sturgeon or other fish such as paddlefish, salmon, steelhead, trout, lumpfish, whitefish, or carp.
Salmon roe (left) and sturgeon caviar (right) served with mother of pearl caviar spoons to avoid tainting the taste of the caviar
Beluga caviar
Russian and Iranian caviar tins: Beluga to the left, Ossetra in middle, Sevruga to the right
Ossetra caviar, salmon creme fraiche, potato shallot croquette, basil oil, egg whites and yolks
Roe, or hard roe, is the fully ripe internal egg masses in the ovaries, or the released external egg masses, of fish and certain marine animals such as shrimp, scallop, sea urchins and squid. As a seafood, roe is used both as a cooked ingredient in many dishes, and as a raw ingredient for delicacies such as caviar.
Salmon roe (left) and sturgeon roe (caviar) (right)
Swedish Toast Skagen topped with cold-smoked salmon roe, on bread
Photograph of men harvesting and fertilizing salmon eggs from a female at a hatchery in Alaska by John Nathan Cobb (early 20th century)
Fried roe dish with vegetables
