CNN Food and Health

Made in the USA: Caviar

Salmon eggs Orange caviar

Americans hatching challenge to Russian delicacy

October 5, 1995
Web posted at: 10:30 p.m. EDT

From Correspondent Linda Ciampa

Beluga caviar

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- For $60 an ounce, patrons at Nikolai's Roof in Atlanta can feast on beluga caviar.

Considered the finest of fish eggs, beluga has long been imported to America from the Caspian sea. But now, American farmers see a golden opportunity in their tanks.

"The Russian fisheries are in disarray and so is the caviar business, with the waters polluted (and) overfishing, and so it's on a rapid downhill slope," explained Tom Jahn of Sierra Aqua Farms. "Within three, four, or five years, there will not be much production of sturgeon meat or caviar."

Sturgeon fish

From his spread in El Verta, California, Jahn has raised white sturgeon, a close relative to beluga sturgeon -- for 12 years.

"Normally, beluga is the top and osetra right behind it," Jahn said. "What we do is very close to osetra and maybe the best qualities of ours is close to beluga."

Caviar dressing

All good things take time, and it can take 20 years for the beluga sturgeon to produce caviar in the wild. Researchers at the University of California-Davis, are trying to speed up the sturgeon's reproductive cycle in an effort to get the treasured eggs to market sooner.

"We are trying to find the optimal conditions to hold the male before spawning," said Serge Dorachev of UC-Davis. Also under observation is the effect of water temperature in the river on potential degeneration of the eggs."

Caviar plate

Meanwhile, some chefs are doing their own experiments with American caviar. For example, Jean Louis Gerin of Greenwich, Connecticut, combines it with eggs from other fish for a salad dressing.

(1,989K QuickTime movie) of Gerin explaining different types of caviar

And as more American fish farmers successfully produce these delicacies, the taste of luxury could become more familiar to the common man and woman.



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