The delicate berries of true caviar come from a variety of sturgeon, an ancient fish with a life span of over a century. The female has the ability to retain her eggs for several years waiting for the perfect conditions to continue the cycle: Because the sturgeon is a bottom dweller, it has encountered difficulty traversing man’s obstacles along world rivers like the Thames, the Seine, and the Po, to name a few. Pollution in parts of the Caspian Sea has diminished the population, and longline fishing and countless ghost nets have led to a near extinction of the Beluga.

Political tensions along the Caspian coastline also contributed to deregulation of both the fishing and processing industry. This is an area that has for centuries had the perfect ecosystem and habitat for sturgeon. In a very short time, irrigation and industry has left the northern Volga delta changed forever, eliminating the world’s best sturgeon spawning grounds.

VARIETIES

Supported by a cartilaginous skeleton, sturgeons have no bones; they have not evolved since the Jurassic period. Although sturgeon easily crossbreed, Beluga, Sevruga, and Ossetra are the three varieties that are important for their caviar.

In the United States and France, only the processed roe of sturgeon is allowed to be called true caviar. However, the law is hard to enforce and has been interpreted more leniently in the United States, and as long as the type of fish is identified on the label, various kinds of fish roe may be sold as caviar.

GRADING

Individual caviar eggs are referred to as berries, which are graded for color, using a scale of 000 for the lightest colored caviar to 0 for the darkest. In addition to color and size, it is also graded within each variety. Beluga caviar has the largest eggs, and they are graded large or coarse.

Ossetra eggs are slightly smaller than Beluga, and Sevruga are the smallest of all. Beluga eggs, from the largest of all sturgeon, comprise over a quarter of its body weight and are pale to dark grey, almost black, with a delicate outer skin and a briny flavor. It has always been sold in blue cans or glass jars with blue lids. In 2005 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service banned the importation of beluga caviar from the Black Sea. Over the past several decades the population of beluga sturgeon has diminished to a critical point and for the species to survive the fish and its roe must be left alone.

Sevruga eggs are grayish green to black, fine grained, and have a unique and distinctive flavor. Because sevruga is the most plentiful, its caviar commands the lowest price. It is always sold in red jars or tins.

PRESSED CAVIAR

Pressed caviar is made from mature, broken, or overripe eggs. The salted eggs are put into a linen sack and pressed until all of the fatty liquid is released. The result is a marmalade-like substance that is often spread on black bread. The flavor of pressed caviar is more intense than other varieties.

OTHER VARIETIES OF “CAVIAR”

Other fish roes can be processed in the same manner as sturgeon roe and are available fresh and pasteurized. Roe from the salmon, paddlefish, crab, lumpfish, sea urchin, mullet, tuna, whitefish, flying fish, and cod each have unique sizes, textures, and flavors, and are sustainable and reasonably priced.

• Salmon caviar is golden pink to orange in color and the eggs are large.
• Whitefish from the Great Lakes and Canada produces a roe with a golden color and mild taste.
• Cod or carp roe is small and often salted and pressed.
• Tuna and mullet roe are common in the Mediterranean region where it is referred to as boutargue or botarga.
• Flying fish roe, known as tobiko are small in size and often colored with wasabi or other ingredients to produce unique colors and flavors.
• Sea urchin roe, known as uni in Japanese, is eaten both raw and processed and has a very fi ne texture and earthy flavor.
• Lumpfish roe is off -gray in color and is typically dyed red, gold, or black using vegetable-based dyes or cuttlefish ink. It is the least expensive of all roe available on the market.

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We can all thank legendary CIA pastry chef instructor, Dieter Schorner, for reinvigorating the United States’ collective love of crème brûlée as pastry chef of New York City’s famed Le Cirque in the 1980s. Enjoy our classic version, but don’t be afraid to add spices or other flavorings to find your inner Chef Schorner.

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Striping the pasta is really fun, but also takes some time. You may want to batch it out and save some of the dough for later. When you make this, you may want to prepare extra ravioli and freeze them. The sauce will also freeze well if you don’t add the heavy cream until reheating and serving. The sauce should taste like a buttered ear of corn.

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Across much of the world, oysters are an iconic New Year food tradition, but especially in France, where pop-up oyster stalls emerge throughout Paris to supply the city with this holiday staple.

Few foods are as polarizing as oysters. Diners either passionately endorse the intake of these bivalves or are repulsed by them. Whether people compare eating oysters to either “kissing the ocean on the lips” or “eating salty boogers,” you’ll rarely hear someone say that they “can take ’em or leave ’em.”

Edible oysters all belong to the family Ostreidae, and there are only a few different species that are commonly sold in the United States: Crassostrea virginica (including the Eastern oyster) and Ostrea lurida (including the Olympia oyster). The famous Bélon oyster is Ostrea angasi, and is also known as the European flat oyster. It may surprise some of you that all edible oysters fall into just two genera, especially if you’ve been to a raw bar where they had twenty different kinds of oysters available.

The trick is that, somewhat like wine grapes, oysters are sensitive to their growing conditions. Different foods, temperatures, and even the shape of the estuary floor can drastically affect the shape, flavor, and texture of the oysters. This is why (as in wine) many oysters are named for their place of origin, like Nantuckets, Chincoteagues, and Fanny Bays—all of which are the same species.

The different species do, indeed, have some basic differences that might help you to pick a favorite. Bélons are wide, flat, and meaty, and great to cook with. Olympias and other West Coast oysters can often have a scent of watermelon rind and are rather soft in texture. We think East Coast oysters provide a good balance of texture and flavor, either raw or cooked. Try them all to see which you like best.

Once you’ve chosen which oysters you are going to serve, you need a stiff scrub brush, an oyster knife, and either a kitchen towel or a shucking glove. Scrub the oysters under running water to clean off mud and debris.

Then, either hold the oyster in the middle of a folded towel on a cutting board or in your hand with the shucking glove. Make sure the flat shell is on top, the cupped shell on the bottom. Insert the oyster knife in the hinge (pointy part) of the shell. Wiggle the knife around, pull it out and wipe off the muck, then put the knife back in. When the knife feels like it is firmly in place, twist the knife to break open the hinge (this requires more technique than brawn.) Keep the knife parallel to and against the top shelf and sweep the blade forward to sever the abductor muscle from the top shell.

Now, if you’re French, you serve the oyster like this, with the bottom of the muscle still attached. If you prefer to slurp the oyster out of the shell, the muscle needs to be severed. To do this, turn the curved side of the knife down, and then gently turn over the oysters to present the rounded side on top. The oyster will appear plumper.

Whichever way you shuck the oyster, be careful not to lose any of the “liquor” that’s in the shell—it tastes good. If the oysters are pristine, all they really need is a squeeze of lemon juice, and maybe a grind of black pepper. While folks like mignonette (a vinegar-and-cracked pepper sauce), hot sauce, or cocktail sauces, we say avoid the sweet, thick cocktail sauce because it obscures the flavor of the oyster.

Wondering what to drink with your oysters? Try Muscadet Sur Lie, Sèvre-et-Maine or lager beer. Perhaps the driest and simplest of all white wines, Muscadet stands in for the lemon that many a Breton would squeeze onto their oysters and shellfish. A crisp, dry lager beer will do just fine as an alternative to wine. If it’s just oysters you’re serving, Guinness Stout is a surprisingly perfect partner.

When researching for their book, Bistros and Brasseries (Lebhar-Friedman, 2008), John Fischer and Lou Jones celebrated New Year’s Eve in France and shared their oyster-rich experience:

When we were on our Tour de France Gastronomique, New Year’s Eve was celebrated at the home of Chef Xavier LeRoux’s brother. This being in Brittany, the meal began with a mind-boggling array of chilled shellfish served on ice. The serving vessels (literally) were miniature Styrofoam rowboats with Blavez Mad (Breton Gaelic for “Happy New Year”) emblazoned across their bows.

The meal was amazing, with the duck main course being served at 2 o’clock in the morning. Obviously, New Year’s Day began a bit late for us, as we headed back towards Paris. We stopped to look at the Port de Bélon along the river of the same name. We hadn’t seen Lou for a few minutes, until I spotted him through the viewfinder of the video camera I was using to document our trip. He was sipping Champagne and eating oysters with some locals who were picnicking from their car! He motioned us over, where we joined in the largesse of our mobile hosts. Under blue skies, bracing New Year’s Day winds, enjoying good Champagne and Bélon oysters at the Bélon River was a good way to start the year.

Oyster Outside Bakery photo courtesy of: kattebelletje; Flickr creative commons license

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