How to Make Caviar

Name: How to Make Caviar
Prep time: 15 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 1 pint
Ingredients: 1 full skein of steelhead, trout or salmon roe; 1/2 cup kosher salt

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Prep Time
15 mins
Total Time
15 mins
Servings
1 pint
Course
Appetizer, Condiments, Snacks
Cuisine
American

How to Make Caviar

Elizabeth Hodge

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Making caviar at home is not nearly so hard as you might think. It is a miraculous product, beautiful as jewels with a briny pop that adds color and texture to all sorts of dishes. And freshly made caviar will last 10 days in the fridge, too -- if you keep it in a tightly sealed (preferably glass) container sunk into a larger container of ice. Keep replenishing the ice as it melts.

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Ingredients

Servings

1 full skein of steelhead, trout or salmon roe
1/2 cup kosher salt

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Instructions

Mix the salt and 1 quart ice-cold water until the salt is all dissolved.
Make sure the roe skeins are split, so you have an opening that the eggs can come out. Set up a cooling rack or something else with a wide mesh (chicken wire works, too) over a bowl. Take a roe skein and, with the membrane facing up work the eggs out through the rack. Perfectly ripe eggs will come off easily, unripe ones will require some force. Either way, you will pop some eggs in the process.
ALTERNATE METHOD: Get the faucet running with warm water roughly 105°F to 115°F, or heat cool tap water to this temperature -- some people fear that hot tap water can add harsh minerals to their food. Either way works. Fill a metal or glass bowl with the warm water. Dunk a few skeins of roe at a time in the warm water. Gently massage the eggs out of the skeins with your fingers under the surface of the warm water. They will float away and sink. Discard the skeins.
Have a fine-meshed sieve ready. Pour the strained eggs into the strainer to rinse them well with cold water. Pick out clumps or stray bits of membrane.
Dunk the eggs in the brine for 5 minutes. Taste them and if they are salty enough for you, drain them again. You can brine for up to 30 minutes, but they will be very salty. My preferred brine time is 10 minutes. Spoon carefully into a clean glass jar and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks, but try to eat them within a week or they will start to get fishy.