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What is Caviar?

Most commonly, caviar is salted fish eggs taken immediately from the fish during spawning season. Different countries use different harvest techniques, different salts, in different quantities. The end product should taste buttery with fresh, clean flavors of the sea, not overly fishy or salty.

Caviar is now made on 4 continents, and the definitions and techniques vary widely. The Little Pearl has tested every major caviar making method and invented several others in our search for the world's best caviar making technique. Here are a few definitions to help you understand this simple, but often confusing product:

Biologically, caviar is the unfertilized eggs of fish. Roe is fertilized.

The FDA ingredients list for caviar reads (roe, salt.) "Roe" in this case means unsalted fish eggs, not fertilized fish eggs gathered in the stream bed.

French law states: if the name simply says caviar, it's from sturgeon. Caviar from other fish must list the species name, such as "salmon caviar."

This definition has carried over to the U.S. and the FDA says when the word caviar is used alone on a label it means the eggs are from sturgeon: "the name "caviar" unqualified may be applied only to the eggs of the sturgeon prepared by a special process."

In Russia, sturgeon caviar is often referred to as black caviar, and salmon caviar is referred to as red caviar.

However, in much of northern Europe, black and red caviar are dyed lumpfish, capelin, or whitefish caviar.

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What is Caviar?