Caviar Essay

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CAVIAR Caviar, sometimes called black caviar, is a luxury delicacy, consisting of processed, salted, non-fertilized sturgeon roe. Caviar is defined as "the product made from fish-eggs of the Acipenseridae family by treating with food-grade salt". "Fish eggs" is defined as "non-ovulated eggs separated from the connective tissue of the ovaries" or "ovulated eggs from aquacultured sturgeons". The roe can be "fresh" (non-pasteurized) or pasteurized, the latter having much less culinary and economic value. Traditionally the designation caviar is only used for sturgeon roe from the wild sturgeon species living in the Caspian and Black Sea (Beluga, Ossetra and Sevruga caviars). These caviar varieties, according to their quality (based on flavour, size, consistency and colour) can reach (February 2009) prices between $8,000 and $16,000 per kilo, and are associated with gourmet and Haute cuisine environments. . Caviar is commercially marketed worldwide as a delicacy and is eaten as a garnish or a spread; for example, with hors d'œuvres. It is also considered by some to be a condiment and can be used in place of salt or seasonings. Varieties: Caviar is simply sieved and lightly salted Sturgeon roe. The four main types of caviar are Beluga, Sterlet, Ossetra, and Sevruga. The rarest and costliest is from the beluga sturgeon that swim in the Caspian Sea, which is bordered by Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. Wild caviar production has now survived only in Azerbaijan and Iran as Russia maintains a self-imposed ban on caviar trade from wild sturgeon. Beluga caviar is prized for its soft, extremely large (pea-size) eggs. It can range in color from pale silver-gray to black. It is followed by the small golden sterlet caviar which is rare and was once reserved for Russian czars, Iranian shahs and Austrian emperors. Next in quality is the

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