Customer Reviews

Caviar: The Strange History and Uncertain Future of the World's Most Coveted Delicacy

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The mystique of the sturgeon roe drew me to this book initially. As a self-proclaimed gourmand but admitted novice when it comes to caviar, I had much to learn. Ms. Saffron provides a crash course in the history of caviar to the present, and the effect of mankind's taste for the delicacy on the worldwide sturgeon population. The story is told just as that, a story of the author's hard-won education in sturgeon fishing and the caviar business, highlighting several key figures in the history of caviar. She has done an incredible amount of footwork and research, presented succintly in this volume. In the end, this small book leaves one feeling the cultural, financial, and ecological impact of the dwindling sturgeon populations, and at once stimulates a strong hunger for the tiny fish eggs and an equally strong sentiment to avoid them altogether.

From the famous Petrossian company, you can get 1.75 ounces of caviar from the increasingly rare Russian Beluga sturgeon, for $170. If you are bargain hunting, you can get the caviar from the white sturgeon for $88. If you are poverty stricken, Petrossian has condescended to sell salmon roe for about a ninth the cost of the white sturgeon, but salmon roe (which the Petrossian catalogue insists is "sometimes referred to as red caviar") just isn't caviar, and caviar lovers know it. Inga Saffron is a caviar lover, and shows it in _Caviar: The Strange History and Uncertain Future of the World's Most Coveted Delicacy_ (Broadway Books). She is architecture critic for _The Philadelphia Inquirer_, and was its Moscow correspondent from 1994 to 1998, when she was able to do a bit of cloak-and-dagger research into the dark alleys of the caviar trade. Her love is tempered by worry; the surprising history of humans' involvement with sturgeon has not done the sturgeon much good at all, and soon the sturgeon may not be doing any good for connoisseurs, no matter how wealthy.

The sturgeon is one of those organisms that Darwin called "living fossils." Some species have remained the same over the past 250 million years, but the past two hundred years that have given sturgeon real problems. Before that, they were not valued as food, but with the industrial revolution came better preservation and also a wealthy class that liked luxuries. Sturgeon were fished clean from the German Elbe River and the American Delaware River by the early 1900s. The stock in the Caspian sea rebounded some during the years of revolution and war in the first part of the twentieth century, and the Communists were well aware of the potential of caviar to bring cash. They controlled almost all the caviar supply by 1927, and they really controlled it, making sure it stayed a luxury. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the caviar cartel was ended and poaching began. Capitalism has been deadly for the last sturgeon populations. Thousands of poachers who needed the money swarmed onto the Volga, prices tumbled, and so the poachers had to increase their take to keep going.

There is at least one researcher who is experimenting with "milking" the eggs from a live fish without killing it, so that she might bear again. That might be a hope for the sturgeon, as might be the plan to make caviar from the paddlefish, a Mississippi River relative of the sturgeon. White sturgeon are being raised in California, and Siberian sturgeon in France. Sturgeon farming is up against more problems than salmon farming; for one thing, sturgeons take ten years to mature sexually, so investors are looking at ten years of no profit and even no income. An attempt to farm sturgeon on the Volga means that huge quantities of sturgeon manure go downstream, and undoubtedly some of the farm-bred varieties will escape and breed with the wild fish, changing genes and spreading disease. Such attempts at environmental rescue have the potential to cause as many problems as poaching itself. Saffron writes, "In humanity's feeble attempts to protect and preserve the plodding sturgeon, we are reminded that we can't help altering the natural world even when we try our best to rescue it." This is a detailed, colorful history of a unique product, and a sadly less-than-unique report on human greed and ecological improvidence.

From the time that the TV series, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, hit the small screens viewers were invited to indulge themselves in the "caviar dreams" of the wealthy. I suppose it was due in part to this reference that I have always been intrigued by this delicacy of delicacies.

Caviar, the book, is an enjoyable read that leads the reader through the very interesting history of caviar, the food, from its surprisingly humble origins in Russia to its New World presence and industry.

The book also tells the sad plight of the sturgeon, the huge fish from which the finest caviar in the world is harvested, and how this "living fossil" is now in danger of becoming extinct and that in order to sate the lust that the super rich have, not only for the taste of caviar but for its prestige as well.

Interestingly, I found that the sturgeon story has some similarities to the tragedy of the near extinction of the American Bison. Whereas in all too many cases the buffalo was slaughtered only for its tongue, the sturgeon is taken not so much for its meat which is consumed for food, but for its primary and, comparatively, small contribution in its eggs.

A truly fascinating story, read it with a big dish of beluga and crackers or, better yet, save the sturgeon and read it like I did with a coke and some pretzels. I couldn't have afforded even a small dish of beluga anyway.

From the time that the TV series, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, hit the small screens viewers were invited to indulge themselves in the "caviar dreams" of the wealthy. I suppose it was due in part to this reference that I have always been intrigued by this delicacy of delicacies.

Caviar, the book, is an enjoyable read that leads the reader through the very interesting history of caviar, the food, from its surprisingly humble origins in Russia to its New World presence and industry.

The book also tells the sad plight of the sturgeon, the huge fish from which the finest caviar in the world is harvested, and how this "living fossil" is now in danger of becoming extinct and that in order to sate the lust that the super rich have, not only for the taste of caviar but for its prestige as well.

Interestingly, I found that the sturgeon story has some similarities to the tragedy of the near extinction of the American Bison. Whereas in all too many cases the buffalo was slaughtered only for its tongue, the sturgeon is taken not so much for its meat which is consumed for food, but for its primary and, comparatively, small contribution in its eggs.

A truly fascinating story, read it with a big dish of beluga and crackers or, better yet, save the sturgeon and read it like I did with a coke and some pretzels. I couldn't have afforded even a small dish of beluga anyway.

THE HORSEMAN

I have been served red, black and gray caviar at "Slava", possibly the best restaurant in Moscow...and I STILL didn't like it. (Our Russian friends gladly accepted our serving like it was gold.)

This is a great, little story about caviar and the history of this delicacy and the great fish that supplies it. The sturgeon, of which there are several varieties, is an ancient animal, predating the dinosaurs. It has remained essentially unchanged because there was no reason for evolutionary modifications. It can grow to incredible sizes and the eggs sacs are astounding.

In Russia, though, the sturgeon nears extinction as the race to capture as much caviar as possible continues. In that country, it is an art - the capture, gutting, creating, selling of this product. THe author gives us first-hand experiences as we fish with the natives, suffer their increasingly declining catches and commiserate in their gloom. Then there are history lessons on both biological and cultural paths. The ending is not upbeat.. For the fish to regenerate we must rethink our ideas about what constitutes a delicacy. One problem is the low price of caviar - so low it no longer constitutes a "delicacy". A good and timely book.

Very fascinating and extensive history of caviar. It is beautifully written. A real pleasure to read. I highly recommend it.

Fish roe comes from any fish and varies wildly in taste and texture. Caviar however is the lightly salted roe of sturgeon prepared from a freshly caught female. And it is fast disappearing.

Saffron (what a name for an epicurean!) starts off with a description of how sturgeon are caught today and how caviar is prepared. Because makers can pack it in vacuum sealed tin cans, the roe doesn't need to be salted as heavily as it did two hundred years ago to be turned into caviar. What began as a dish Russian peasants would eat with bread soon became a delicacy. Cossacks, free men who recognized the Tzar but refused to remain serfs, were given exclusive rights to produce and sell caviar in Astrakhan and the surroundings of the Volga delta where the river throws itself into the Caspian sea.

When the communists took over, caviar became a source of hard currency so they promptly took over the industry, guarding it as jealously as De Beers did the diamond trade. It worked up to a point, and poaching could never threaten the sturgeon under communist rule. However authoritarian regimes do not foster debates and when Stalin decided to dam the Volga he destroyed the sturgeon's spawning areas. The canals built to help the sturgeon swim around the dams didn't work and the population began declining.

When the communist system fell apart, free wheeling capitalism was in and caviar was big money. Poaching was rampant involving private homes and shady Russian mafia type characters. (Saffron's description of the illicit international caviar trade was particularly interesting to me because of the last book I reviewed, "Illicit" by Moses Naim, which is all about how world trade is being almost hijacked by crooks and thugs.)

Caviar prices fell, catches increased, but the population was not renewing itself and the Caspian population decline turned into a collapse. The best caviar no longer comes from Russia, but from Iran.

The sturgeon as a group of species is safe, but the species living in the Caspian, such as the Beluga, are fast disappearing. They cannot survive without help. Caviar is a luxury and we can certainly live without it, but luxuries give our life meaning and purpose. Losing caviar would be losing one of those little things that makes life worthwhile.

Vincent Poirier, Tokyo

I know nothing about caviar or sturgeon, but subject matter aside, this is one of the most well-written boutique histories I've ever read (and I've read many of them). Saffron's writing is fantastically engaging. This is no dry academic text; I felt as though I were reading a book of fiction in terms of its readability and sense of adventure. I was constantly laughing or smiling or worrying along with the author. Let's hope Saffron continues to write boutique histories!