Caviar is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 28 recipes to get you started.

What is caviar?

Caviar is salt-cured fish roe. The tiny eggs are gently seasoned with salt so the shells firm up and the flavor concentrates into something briny and buttery with the taste of the sea.

In its strictest sense the word means only sturgeon roe, the eggs behind beluga, osetra, and sevruga.

In everyday cooking the term has stretched wider. Salmon roe, the large orange pearls you see on sushi, along with the small black or golden eggs of lumpfish and whitefish, are all sold as caviar, and they cost a fraction of the real thing.

The appeal is texture as much as taste. Good caviar pops between the tongue and the roof of your mouth, releasing a salty oceanic burst. That pop is exactly what you are paying for.

How to Serve Caviar

The first rule is restraint. Heat dulls the flavor and bursts the eggs, so caviar is almost always served cold and barely cooked, spooned on at the very last moment rather than stirred into a hot pan.

Serve it simply on its own, with blini or toast points and a few classic garnishes such as crème fraîche and finely chopped shallot. A glass of chilled Champagne or icy vodka is the traditional partner.

It also works folded into cold, creamy dishes where its salt and pop carry through. A Caviar Mousse and a Caviar Pie both use it this way, and so does a quick Caviar Dip.

The cheaper salmon and lumpfish roes are the right call there, since their flavor is not lost under cream cheese and sour cream.

For a plated touch, spoon a little over something rich and mild so the burst registers. Chive Potato Pancakes with Smoked Salmon & Golden Caviar and the smoked fish in a Terrine of America's Three Smoked Fish both do exactly that.

Serving Mistakes and Pairings

The classic mistake is the metal spoon. A regular steel spoon gives caviar a tinny, metallic taste, so serve it with a mother-of-pearl or bone spoon instead.

The second mistake is overwhelming it. Strong onion and sharp vinegar bury the delicate flavor you paid for, so keep accompaniments mild and let the roe lead. Soft, buttery, starchy bases flatter it best, which is why potato and crème fraîche are the classics.

The third is heat. Folding caviar into a warm sauce or baking it kills the pop and turns the eggs to mush, so always add it off the heat as a finishing garnish.

Substitutes

For the look and burst at a fraction of the cost, use a cheaper roe. Salmon roe brings big, glossy orange pearls and a bolder pop, while lumpfish and whitefish roe give the small black or golden eggs that read as caviar on a canapé.

Tobiko, the crunchy flying-fish roe from sushi counters, and masago, the smaller capelin roe, both deliver color and a clean briny snap for garnishing. Rinse dyed lumpfish roe gently if you are worried about its color bleeding into a pale dish.

None of these match true sturgeon caviar for its nutty, buttery depth. For a topping or a dip, though, the difference rarely shows, so save the expensive jar for eating plain.

Buying and Storing

Caviar is graded by the size and firmness of the eggs and by their color, with larger, paler, intact pearls fetching the highest prices. Look for "malossol" on the label, a Russian term meaning lightly salted, which signals a fresher, less heavily preserved product.

Keep it cold and unopened in the coldest part of the refrigerator, around 28 to 32°F (minus 2 to 0°C). That is colder than your butter shelf.

An unopened tin lasts to its printed date, often a few weeks, but it is at its best the day you open it.

Once opened, caviar goes downhill fast. Use it within two to three days, press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface to keep air off, and keep the tin on ice if it sits out while you serve.

Never freeze true caviar. Freezing ruptures the delicate eggs and leaves you with a watery, broken paste when it thaws. The sturdier salmon and lumpfish roes survive freezing better, but even those lose some of their signature pop.

Nutrition

Quick facts

Food group: Caviar is a member of the Finfish and Shellfish Products US Department of Agriculture nutritional food group.

In Chinese

鱼子酱

British (UK) term

Caviar

en français

caviar

en español

caviar

How much does caviar weigh?

Amount	Weight
1 tbsp	16 grams
1 ounce	28 grams

Related

Finfish and Shellfish Products

Recipes using caviar

There are 28 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 28 recipes