Riofrío Sturgeon Confit

TAST­ING NOTES FROM THE CURATOR

The stur­geon, as prized for its smooth-tex­tured meat as it is for its caviar, is more fla­vor­ful than bel­u­ga. It is a lean white­fish with firm and meaty flesh that is pink when raw and white when cooked, sim­i­lar in tex­ture to chick­en breast or veal. Riofrío con­serves it to main­tain fresh­ness, using only the high­est qual­i­ty organ­ic La Chi­na­ta EVOO from Extremadu­ra, a land famed for its jamón iberico. 

PREPA­RA­TION OR PAIRINGS

Riofrío’s stur­geon con­fit is best as a light repast accom­pa­nied by fresh sal­ad with bal­sam­ic dress­ing or light­ly sautéed veg­eta­bles. The meat chunks go well with a spoon­ful of Kaviari Osci­etra Pres­tige Caviar, also from stur­geon, to enhance the del­i­cate fla­vors. Place a lit­tle on bit on toast­ed bread for a light but deca­dent snack.

For this del­i­ca­cy, we rec­om­mend a glass or three of Sancerre, Sauvi­gnon Blanc, or the fuller-bod­ied Pouil­ly-Fumé to com­ple­ment the smoky notes in the fish. Red wine lovers, fear not aban­don­ment. A Pinot Noir also pairs well with this whitefish.

A MAR­RIAGE OF TWO BRANDS

Riofrío is one of the main stur­geon breed­ers in Europe and the first to acquire organ­ic cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for its caviar. Based in Spain, where the waters remain at a con­stant 14 – 15ºC, they are per­fect­ly locat­ed to source pre­mi­um fish and fish prod­ucts adher­ing to Euro­pean Union Organ­ic Aqua­cul­ture stan­dards. It’s only nat­ur­al that they part­ner with Organ­ic Agri­cul­ture EVOO brand La Chi­na­ta, pur­vey­or of some of the most sus­tain­ably farmed and envi­ron­men­tal­ly con­scious olive oils in Spain.

Storage Instructions

Either in a tin or glass jar, this prod­uct is best stored in a cool, dry pantry. Unopened, it will last up to 2 years. If you pop open the glass or tin, con­sume your fish with­in one or two days and keep left­overs — with the oil — in a sealed con­tain­er in the fridge.