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Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Caviar has always had a hold on me. It is a mysterious ingredient, almost otherworldy; the individual eggs look like jewels from an alien planet. Caviar tastes briny and vaguely floral, and the textural surprise of the pop in your mouth has led more than one writer to liken it to Pop Rocks for adults.
I’ve eaten all sorts of caviar, from spendy Osetra sturgeon caviar to our own California white sturgeon eggs, to Paddlefish roe (also known as “lumpfish”) to the wonderful little eggs from flying fish (tobiko), capelin and whitefish, which is a golden yellow. I’ve also eaten caviar from trout and salmon.
So when I caught a nice hen steelhead last weekend and saw it was full of eggs, I knew I needed to make caviar. The eggs were just so pretty!
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
I’d read about a general method of making caviar in a book called The Philosopher Fish, which involves gently removing the eggs from the skein — the membrane holding them together — rinsing them, salting them and drying them. It seemed pretty easy, which alarmed me: How could something so mysterious be so easy to create? It didn’t seem fair.
I delved into some more research, and it is indeed that easy. The art comes in the details: How do you get the eggs out of the skein? How much salt? How long to brine or rub the eggs? What temperature do you store them at?
So I used an amalgam of the methods I’d read about. I brined the eggs for a half hour in the fridge. Then I ran the skein under hot tap water, which shrunk the membrane and let the eggs drop into a colander. I then returned the eggs to the brine for another 30 minutes. I rinsed them off and let them drain in the colander for 15 minutes. Then I packaged them into a clean glass jar in the fridge. Done!
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Aren’t they the coolest things ever? I have a hard time not taking them out of the fridge just to look at them. The steelhead caviar is supposed to hold for 2-3 weeks in the fridge, but I doubt it’ll make it that long — we’ll eat it long before then.
I prefer my caviar straight, served in a special spoon, so you can linger over the qualities of this caviar versus that one; this is what the Russians do when they serve the three classic sturgeon caviars: Beluga, Sevruga and Osetra. In case anyone cares, I am particularly fond of Osetra, which is pretty close to our caviar made from California white sturgeon. (You can buy California caviar here.)
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
Remove from your mind the notion that the only good caviar comes from sturgeon. The tobiko and masago you see in sushi restaurants is caviar from the flying fish and the capelin, a kind of herring. It really is like pop rocks. Whitefish caviar is even better, and is a beautiful canary color. Lumpfish is like a larger sturgeon caviar, but trout and salmon caviar is its own thing: large, luxurious, and slightly fatty — I saw thousands of minute fat droplets floating on the top of the brine when I made it.
When combined with a larger dish, caviar can become an accent that makes a good dish great.
I made a pasta dish with flaked steelhead meat last night, mixed with toasted pine nuts, parsley, shallots, olive oil, Meyer lemon juice — and a spoonful of steelhead caviar. The caviar’s color and pop really made the dish.
It also served well as a garnish for a simple Japanese dish I made two days ago, where I wrapped the steelhead in buttered foil with some rehydrated matsutake mushrooms, sake and lemon slices, then baked it for 20 minutes.
Photo by Holly A. Heyser
(Click for the full Japanese baked steelhead recipe.)
Will this method work for other fish roes? I don’t see why not. I imagine the salting times and care you will need to dislodge the eggs will change, but the basic technique shouldn’t change. I’ll have to try this with other eggs in the future. Do any of you make your own caviar? How do you do it? And how do you eat it?
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How to make trout caviar
Making caviar at home is not nearly so hard as you might think. It is a miraculous product, beautiful as jewels with a briny pop that adds color and texture to all sorts of dishes. And freshly made caviar will last 2-3 weeks in the fridge, too.
This recipe is designed for large-egged roes, such as trout, salmon or steelhead. The picture above is of steelhead caviar. There is no reason it would not work with smaller eggs, but I’ve not yet tried it. Once I do, I will add to this post.
Makes about 1 pint.
Prep Time: 60 minutes
- 1 full skein of steelhead, large trout roe or silver salmon roe, about 1 pound
- 1/3 cup kosher salt or pickling salt
- 4 cups cold water
- Mix the salt and water until the salt is all dissolved. Get a large bowl of ice water ready.
- Soak the roe sacs for 20 minutes in the salt water in the fridge.
- Get the faucet running with water just about as hot as you can take it, roughly 100-120 degrees. Lay a fine-meshed sieve in the sink.
- Lift one of the egg sacs out and run it under the hot water, gently shifting it back and forth between your hands. The membrane will contract and the eggs will fall out into the colander. Take your time and be gentle here. Repeat with the other skein.
- When all the eggs are in the colander, dunk the eggs in the bowl of ice water for 5 minutes, then return the eggs to the salt water brine. Rest in the fridge for another 15-20 minutes. Any longer and they will be very salty.
- Gently pour out the water and let the eggs drain in the sieve for 15 minutes.
- Pour into a clean glass jar and refrigerate for up to 3 weeks, but they will lose quality over time.
Thanks for the tips, I’m gonna make some sturgeon Caviar tonight. Again, Thanks
[...] any of you have access to fresh steelhead roe, you might want to try making your own caviar with this recipe. It certainly looks easy enough, and the results are [...]
great article – wondering if same process holds true for freshwater – out of tributaries as well as from Lake Michigan. The brown trout roe looks wonderful, but I have yet to prepare it…
I caught a trout today and when I opened it up there were orange eggs but not like in the pic above, all bunched together held in the membrane, just a few…maybe a small spoon full but they were “floating” loose inside. Whats up with that? I was fishing the lake not a river. Could it be she had gone up stream laid most of the eggs and some how got back down in the lake? Im still gonna try to cure the eggs