Caviar -- Storage and Recommendations

I have a few questions about caviar.

First, how long will it last in the frig if it is unopened?

Second, I am using it over eggs (a New Year's Day tradition of eggs with cayenne, whipped cream, and a few other things). What is a good type of caviar for that purpose?

Petrossian says that their unopened caviar will keep for four weeks. I would guess that others may not keep so long.

Just about any kind of caviar would work for the dish you describe, with the possible exception of some of the flavored tobikos. However, if you're using a lot of cayenne, it would be a pity to use a really costly caviar, since when you buy those, what you want to taste is the fish eggs.

Any of the Collins American caviars should do very well, or even (perhaps especially) salmon roe, widely available at Japanese markets.

Any farm raised american paddlefish malossol which should run 18 an oz should satisfy you in terms of quality.

hi.

there are a few good choices, all sustainable and domestic.

Bowfin runs about 20$ an ounce. very good, slightly muddy flavor.

Paddlefish or hackleback sturgeon run about 40 an ounce. more like a caspian caviar, very good value.

white sturgeon runs from 50-80 an ounce. all of them are very good, some are quite a bit better than any imports.

Sealed caviars will last a month or two, opened caviars will last a week.

Erik.

Thanks. I appreciate everyone's assistance. I always ended up standing in line on New Year's Eve, for fear that if I bought it earlier it would go bad.

If you need a large amount of caviar, you might consider justcaviar.com, which also sells on ebay. I have ordered from them 3 times. Their American paddlefish caviar is not the finest quality I have ever had, but it is good, and at about 10/oz, it is much less than others that sell for 20-40/oz. I have paid anywhere from 140-175 for a pound, which they ship as two 8 oz tins. Again, it is not the finest quality, but it is good enough for me, and I would rather have a lot of decent stuff than a little great stuff. -Will

Last year people helped me out with the selection of caviar for my annual New Year's Day dish. This year I thought I would provide the full recipe.

The following was originally a Jean-George Vongerichten production, which has been mildly tweaked, at best. He gets 100% of the credit for this one:

(Serves two)
Ingredients:
1/2 cup heavy cream (as cold as possible without freezing)
2 tablespoons lemon juice (fresh squeezed is of course better)
2 tablespoons vodka
Salt
Cayenne pepper
4 eggs
2 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons caviar

The process:

Whip the cream until it holds stiff peaks. Beat in the lemon juice, vodka, salt and cayenne (to taste -- you should notice the cayenne but it cannot overwhelm the rest of the dish).

Beat the eggs. Add butter. Cook in a small saucepan until it has an oatmeal like consistency.

Serve the eggs with the whip cream mixture on top of the eggs, and the caviar on top of the whip cream.

Serve with champagne (I tend to open a great bottle at midnight, and then serve the remainder with this at breakfast).

It is a great way to start a year.

A New Year's reminder --
I consulted the above once again this year for my New Year's Day tradition. Thanks again to those who provided assistance.
The receipe above is a great way to start a year and is a dish to pair with any leftover champagne from the night before.

Funny, we have never had a letover Champagne problem!

MikeLM wrote:Funny, we have never had a letover Champagne problem!

Two people, one great bottle of Champagne!
There was always a bit left.

I've purchased a bottle of Krug for this year. Not sure if my wife and I will share it with anyone.