Explore the vast range of titles available.

  In Russia, caviar rose in stature from pig feed to peasant grub to the delicacy of the czars. Ironically, the Soviet regime, with its abysmal environmental record, was good for sturgeon. Harvesting and replenishing were strictly controlled by a government that recognized caviar as a valuable source of hard currency. The collapse of the Soviet Union and its caviar cartel spelled disaster for sturgeon, which now faces the triple threat of poachers, pollution and an inability of the five countries bordering the Caspian to agree on fishing limitations.

That wasn't always so. [Inga Saffron] illustrates the vicissitudes of taste, pointing out that before the 1860s, European fishermen threw their caviar to the pigs. Even in Russia, caviar was considered a food of denial: It was what one ate on meatless Fridays. In fact, over the centuries caviar ricocheted from trash food to delicacy. As Saffron sums it up, \"Myths are one of the key ingredients of caviar. Stripped of its shroud of legend and tradition, caviar would just be fish eggs.\" Meet Magomed, \"a dark, wiry man, [who] always arrived at my door wearing a tracksuit and looking a little sweaty and unshaven, as if he had spent the night on the train with a traveling soccer team.\" Magomed was Saffron's caviar supplier in the 1990s, a wild moment in sturgeon history when in Moscow the roe was sold everywhere, even by sidewalk peddlers. Magomed brought her caviar in tins the size of cookie jars. He was the one who provided Saffron her first taste of \"the good stuff.\" And encountering her description, the reader might wish to have sprung for that spoonful of beluga after all: \"The salty-buttery richness filled my mouth, nuclear in its intensity. . . . But it was the physical sensation, the way the firm casings of the eggs gave way as they popped against my tongue and cheek that dominated the experience.\"

When people think of Russian food, they generally think either of the opulent luxury of the tsarist aristocracy or of post-Soviet elites, signified above all by caviar, or on the other hand of poverty and hunger—of cabbage and potatoes and porridge. Both of these visions have a basis in reality, but both are incomplete. The history of food and drink in Russia includes fasts and feasts, scarcity and, for some, at least, abundance. It includes dishes that came out of the northern, forested regions and ones that incorporate foods from the wider Russian Empire and later from the Soviet Union. Cabbage and Caviar places Russian food and drink in the context of Russian history and shows off the incredible (and largely unknown) variety of Russian food.

In her new book, \"Caviar,\" Inga Saffron explores the colorful history surrounding this unlikely delicacy of salted sturgeon roe. Saffron charts the sturgeon's course from river-bulging abundance to near extinction, along with the mystique and legend that enabled Russian, German, and French barons to cash in on its black gold. With their pointy, armor-like plates, the massive sturgeon were harder to net than most fish, and thus caviar was always a precious commodity. While connoisseurs have savored the succulent eggs for millenniums, the Industrial Revolution brought a turning point. Technological advances made it possible to catch the fish and transport its freshly salted roe over long distances. And more important, a new middle class grew hungry for symbols of its newfound wealth. Caviar fit the bill. The biggest market is now composed of Americans, whose '90s wealth generated record demand for luxuries. Saffron also explores the slimy underbelly of the caviar black market. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and its tight controls, it's been open season along the banks of the Volga, where cash-desperate poachers harvest many times the legal catch each year. Their work feeds a strong black-market trade, and odds are good that off-the-shelf caviar was made in one of their illicit fishing shacks.

Springing up alongside the sturgeon-rich Delaware River, a little boomtown appropriately known as Caviar, Saffron tells us, \"supplied more of the world's caviar during the 1880s than any place on earth.\" But before long, the sturgeon of the Delaware River met a fate similar to their German cousins in the Elbe. Although industrialization and pollution were an additional threat to sturgeon, it would seem from Saffron's account that in most cases it was overfishing that decimated the sturgeon even before pollution had a chance to do its damage. Although, as Saffron describes, there are unscrupulous people who've turned the sale and distribution of caviar into a fishy version of the illicit drug trade, the problem goes beyond that. One of the people Saffron portrays is an honest and likable Russian caviar producer who understands the problem and supports efforts to restock the waters and restrict the catch. Still, he wants to make a living and thus is inclined to take an overly optimistic view of the problem. Saffron also explains very lucidly the difficulties that have plagued international regulatory efforts. While many of the former Soviet republics have failed to address the problem, she notes, Iran has been doing an admirable job of regulating and restocking its part of the Caspian Sea.

Fish roe products are extremely valuable and currently enjoy expanding international and domestic markets. Caviars represent the best-known form of fish roe products; however, several other product forms are also consumed, including whole skeins and formulations with oils and cheese bases. Caviars are made from fish roe after the eggs have been graded, sorted, singled-out, salted or brined, and cured. Most caviar is marketed as a refrigerated or frozen food. Several types of caviar from different fish species are marketed as shelf-stable products. Market preferences for lower salt content have raised food safety concerns. Descriptions of and processing technologies for many delightful fish roe and caviar food products are presented here. Referee: Dr. George Pigott, 4525 105th N.E., Kirkland, MA 98033

Management of declining fisheries of anadromous species sometimes relies heavily on supplementation of populations with captive breeding, despite evidence that captive breeding can have negative consequences and may not address the root cause of decline. The beluga sturgeon (Huso huso), a species threatened by the market for black caviar and reductions in habitat quality, is managed through harvest control and hatchery supplementation, with an emphasis on the latter. We used yield per recruit and elasticity analyses to evaluate the population status and current levels of fishing and to identify the life-history stages that are the best targets for conservation of beluga of the Ural River. Harvest rates in recent years were four to five times higher than rates that would sustain population abundance. Sustainable rates of fishing mortality are similar to those for other long-lived marine species such as sharks and mammals. Yield per recruit, which is maximized if fish are first harvested at age 31 years, would be greatly enhanced by raising minimum size limits or reducing illegal take of subadults. Improving the survival of subadult and adult females would increase population productivity by 10 times that achieved by improving fecundity and survival from egg to age 1 year (i. e., hatchery supplementation). These results suggest that reducing mortality of subadults and adult wild fish is a more effective conservation strategy than hatchery supplementation. Because genetics is not factored into hatchery management practices, supplementation may even reduce the viability of the beluga sturgeon. El manejo de pesquerías de peces anádromos en declinación a veces depende estrechamente de la suplementación de poblaciones mediante la reproducción en cautiverio, no obstante la evidencia de que la reproducción en cautiverio puede tener consecuencias negativas y no abordar la causa principal de la declinación. El esturión beluga (Huso huso), una especie amenazada por el mercado de caviar negro y por reducciones en la calidad del habitat, es manejado mediante el control de la cosecha y suplementación de poblaciones, con énfasis en esta. Utilizamos análisis de producción por recluta y de elasticidad para evaluar el estatus de la población y los niveles de pesca actuales y para identificar las etapas de la historia de vida que son los mejores blancos para la conservación del beluga en el Río Ural. Las tasas de cosecha en años recientes fueron cuatro a cinco veces mayores que las tasas que sustentarían la abundancia de la población. Las tasas sustentables de mortalidad por pesca son similares a las de otras especies marinas longevas como tiburones y mamíferos. La producción por recluta, que es maximizada si los peces son cosechados a la edad de 31 años, podría incrementar significativamente elevando los límites de talla mínima o reduciendo la captura ilegal de subadultos. La mejora de la supervivencia de hembras subadultas y adultas incrementaría la productividad de la población 10 veces más que la mejora obtenida incrementando la fecundidad y supervivencia de huevo a 1 año de edad (i. e., suplementación de poblaciones mediante reproducción en cautiverio). Estos resultados sugieren que la reducción de la mortalidad de peces silvestres subadultos y adultos es una mejor estrategia de conservación que la suplementación. Debido a que la genética no es considerada en las prácticas de manejo en los criaderos, la suplementación incluso puede reducir la viabilidad del esturión beluga.

A poem is presented.