Whereever you are in the world, if you eat caviar your are likely to eat Italian caviar.
Italy produces one of the best caviar quality in the world and also in large quantities.
Two years ago Italy produced 50 tons of caviar with price range for the sturgeon eggs from 400 euros to 2.000 euros per kilo.
This makes Italy the second producer of caviar in the World after China.
The largest farm in the world is in Italy
Italian caviar is considered the best in the world. Indeed, to be honest, in the last twenty years we have also been the main producers in the world. Before being overtaken, for some years now, in quantity produced – but not in quality – by Chinese competitors.
In Europe, however, with 51 tons produced in 2018, we are still number one, according to Eumofa, the European Observatory of the fishery and aquaculture products market.
The majority of Italian consumers don’t know this. Just as they do not know that the sturgeon is now a protected species, so it is no longer possible to fish it (the capture is regulated by a law of 1988) and therefore the caviar that is found on the market derives almost entirely from farmed sturgeons. Eumofa estimates Italian production in terms of value at over 25 million euros with original prices ranging from 400 to 500 euros per kilo.
Where to buy Italian caviar online
We have selected a few producers in the north of Italy that have a shop online and deliver internationally:
https://www.calvisius.it/caviali/
Which fish produces the best caviar?
Caviar is a product obtained from sturgeon eggs, a fish capable of living in both fresh and brackish water, widespread in different regions of the world, it is a creature with very ancient origins today at risk of extinction.
There are about 26 species of sturgeon in the world (including the most valuable Sevruga, Beluga and Osetra or Ossietra) and a female takes about 10 years to mature the eggs. For this reason, the most expensive eggs come from the older specimens, they are larger and of a brighter color.
How to taste the Caviar?
The simplest way to taste caviar is to place it in buttered croutons or blinis, the important thing is not to use salted butter or too elaborate bread that would alter the flavour.
The unmistakable and decisive flavour of sturgeon eggs combined with the creamy and delicate texture of the butter, create absolute harmony for the palate and full satisfaction for caviar lovers.
caviale.it
How to present the caviar on the table?
If you don’t know how to present caviar, you should know that it should be served without manipulation to avoid breaking the eggs and strictly fresh at a temperature ranging from 4 to 8 ° C.
Nothing more chic than serving it in the classic round revolving caviar holder with ice cup, silver or gold, a true symbol of the Iranian caviar tradition, elevates caviar to the undisputed protagonist.
The origin of the word “caviar”
Caviar has always been a delicious food and a symbol of the elite, mixed with legends about its origins and properties. Impossible to give it up. Greeks and Romans appreciated caviar, being the sturgeon a widespread fish throughout the Northern hemisphere, and which in Italy has found a particularly favorable habitat. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the term “caviar” also derives from the Italian caviar or guinea pig, in turn derived from the medieval Greek khaviari.
What is the most expensive caviar in the world?
The value of caviar depends on its color, flavor, consistency and age. The most expensive caviar in the world is the white caviar from albino sturgeon. The most expensive was produced by an Austrian producer, Walter Gruell, who in 2015 presented a product sold at record price of 40 thousand dollars a teaspoon, about 300 thousand dollars a kilo, where albino sturgeon eggs, dehydrated and then reduced to powder, are mixed with gold to 22 carat.
History of the best Italian caviar
The curiosity of the best Italian caviar is that the water to farm the sturgeon is heated by the a steel factory which uses the fresh water to cool the processors
In the 1970s, during the construction of the steel mill, the presence of an aquifer was discovered in the subsoil of the land chosen for the plant. Hence the idea of using the energy produced by the cooling of blast furnaces to raise fish. Professor Serge Doroshov, a marine biologist at Davis University in California, then suggested the idea of breeding the Pacific white sturgeon. From the breeding of the sturgeons for the meat they passed also to the extraction of the eggs. The finest varieties of sturgeon are now bred in 60 hectares of tanks dedicated to aquaculture, allowing the company to dispose of over 15% of the world production of farmed caviar.
The production: the addition of the salt
Salting caviar is a very difficult technique that has been handed down from generation to generation
Caviale.it
One of the essential elements that determines the perfection and quality of caviar is salting. Salting caviar is a very difficult technique that has been handed down from generation to generation. The salting process of sturgeon eggs is a process that, in order to be performed in a workmanlike manner, must be strictly carried out manually, in an artisanal way, never mechanically.
In the most prestigious and important manufacturing companies there is the figure of the “Master Salatore”, who has been performing this delicate art for decades and who scrupulously follows the entire production process. Depending on the quality and consistency of the eggs of each individual fish, he determines the amount of salt to add to the renowned eggs.
External resources
The best caviar in the world is Italian from Il sole 24 ore
Wikipedia origin of the caviar
Italy at the second place for caviar production, Il bollettino.
