Dom Petroff Amursky Caviar (Schrencki)

TAST­ING NOTES FROM THE CURATOR

This glis­ten­ing, large-grained caviar has a strik­ing­ly smooth but mild taste and excep­tion­al creamy tex­ture that cre­ates a sat­is­fy­ing ​“pop” in the mouth. It bal­ances between but­ter-nut­ty and fruity, with min­i­mal salt con­tent between 3 and 3.5 per­cent. The indi­vid­ual pearls are large and range from dark olive to warm gold­en brown in col­or. It shares many sim­i­lar­i­ties to the sought-after Russ­ian Osse­tra caviar.

PREPA­RA­TION OR PAIRINGS

Although caviar is best served by itself, it is gen­er­al­ly accom­pa­nied by crème fraîche, lemon wedges, crum­bled hard-boiled egg, mini pota­toes, minced onions, toast points, or the inim­itable Russ­ian bli­ni. You can have your caviar with shots of vod­ka, coups of Cham­pagne, or glass­es of dry or mild­ly sweet white wine like Ries­ling or Chenin Blanc. We rec­om­mend try­ing it with a sake, too, like our Kitaya Kansan­sui Jun­mai Dai-Gin­jo Sake.

A VARI­ETY OF NAMES

The Amur stur­geon (Acipenser schrenckii) is some­times called the Japan­ese stur­geon, though it has not been con­firmed whether this ancient species was ever found in the Sea of Japan. This stur­geon was over­fished in its native envi­ron­ment between Rus­sia and north­east­ern Chi­na, all the way to the Strait of Tratary and from there to the Pacif­ic. Only sus­tain­able aqua­cul­ture farms in Chi­na at the start of the 21^st cen­tu­ry saved this fish from extinc­tion — and it is now one of that country’s lead­ing exports.

Storage Instructions

Keep your unopened tin of caviar refrig­er­at­ed at a chilly ‑1 to 4°C for up to 4 weeks. Take it out of the fridge 10 to 15 min­utes before serv­ing. If you’re set­ting it out for a long cock­tail par­ty or din­ner ser­vice, leave it in the orig­i­nal tin, nes­tled in a bowl of crushed ice to keep it cool. An open tin of caviar must be con­sumed with­in 2 to 3 days.