Caviar made from Trout!

[moltogordo]

Hi. My first real post. I'm an amateur chef (my Mom was a real one) and I'm working on a recipe book that features cuisine of the BC Central Plateau (I live in Prince George)

As I hunt and fish, I have a whack of experience in these areas, and I thought I'd start off by sharing some.

I make my own caviar. The procedure is quite simple:

Trout skeins (eggs)
kosher salt
250 ml pickling jars

Separate the eggs from the skeins in a non-reactive seive of some kind. Rinse thoroughly. Take your jars (sterilized, of course) and put in a layer of about 1/4" of eggs. Follow by sprinkling on about 1/2 tsp salt. Then more eggs, and more salt, until you fill the jar about 3/8" or so below the top.

Place the lid on loosely, and put the jar in the refridgerator. Open the top every day twice (don't leave it on airtight! The caviar might spoil!) and let it cure for about 10 days or so.

Trout caviar is delicious, I feel better than salmon, better than lumpfish and only a notch below utility grade beluga. But the source for eggs is spawning fish, which you are going to have to catch yourself in the Spring. The rest of the fish is not great at that time of year, but can be smoked and the carcass used for stock for chowder or dashi, quite successfully.

Here are a couple of pictures of presentation, with blinis, homemade pepper crackers and sour cream!

Thanks for looking in!

 

[taxlady]

That looks terrific. Unfortunately, I will probably never get a chance to make that - I really don't enjoy fishing.

Those dark brown crackers/bread, are they home made?

 

[4meandthem]

That looks great!

 

[Kathleen]

That looks fantastic! How long will the caviar keep? Is there a way to "can" it for long term storage?

 

[Kayelle]

Just gorgeous, and thanks for sharing. Welcome to DC by the way, hope you stick around.

 

[moltogordo]

Thanks for the replies!

The crackers on the right are Pepper Crackers, a recipe I've been using for many years. The "crackers" on the left, the dark brown ones, are actually buckwheat blinis, the traditional vehicle for caviar. Yes, they are all homemade. I make everything from scratch.

There is no way that I'm aware of to can caviar - it is a salt cured product and would become canned roe otherwise.

I understand caviar keeps in edible condition for about 4 or 5 weeks, but frankly I've never had it last that long!!!!

It is difficult to get enough eggs for more than a couple of 250 ml jars, because the only legal way of obtaining it is catching it yourself, and this can happen only when the trout are spawning in the spring.

 

[Mark Webster]

Trout Roe

I do enjoy trout eggs especially accompanying a smoked trout dish. The best thing about trout roe however is the cost factor especially in relationship to true caviar.

 

[CharlieD]

Looks awesome, i wish I could taste it.

 

[blissful]

awesome! I think it is really great that you do that, I wish I knew more about fish eggs. Thank you for sharing this with us.

 

[ChefJune]

moltogordo, I agree with you that trout roe is better than most other caviars. I really like top quality samon roe, as well, though.

For all of us who are not going trout fishing to make our own roe, it is available on line at Petrossian, and probably several other places as well.

Actually, this place is a US company where the trout and other domestic roes are available. I can attest to their great quality.

 

[Bigjim68]

Times (and prices) do change. When I was a youngster trout fishing in Colorado, we used salmon eggs as bait. A jar about the size a baby food jar sold for 19 cents.

 

[ChefJune]

Times (and prices) do change. When I was a youngster trout fishing in Colorado, we used salmon eggs as bait. A jar about the size a baby food jar sold for 19 cents.

Hohoho! not any more.

 

[mollyanne]

I'm sure glad you've decided to join us, moltogordo...your original post is fascinating and your photos are great! Good for you for making everything from scratch....and kudos to your mom for inspiring you

 

[ChefJune]

I'm sure glad you've decided to join us, moltogordo...your original post is fascinating and your photos are great! Good for you for making everything from scratch....and kudos to your mom for inspiring you

Ditto what Mollyanne said!

 

[moltogordo]

Glad to be here. I'll be more in evidence after the next month or so. I'm actually a professional violinist/conductor, and this is my busy season. I put myself through school ages ago as a professional photographer/darkroom rat, so I'll post some photos, too.

My interest in cooking was not only because of my Mother, but because I've been doing the hunter/gatherer thing since I was a boy. (I'm in my late 50's now).

I'll be passing on a few recipes I've developed for fish and game, especially. I don't keep secret anything I cook - hey, it's our hobby, eh? And don't worry - I'll be snaffling a few of yours, too!

Thanks for the replies.

 

[recipedirect]

Nice photos. I love caviar.

 

[CharlieD]

Those are some outrages prices. Have no information on real caviar, but salmon row you can get very inexpensive, for example

here


As far as so called red caviar goes, Peter Pan is by far the best one there is.
I get it here in the store for the same price, so I cannot guarantee above souse.

 

[CharlieD]

I meant to say "Source "