Caviar

“ The first, which extends from March till May, that is from the breaking up of the ice to the time of flood, is called the caviar season; it is the most important and most productive of the caviar and isinglass. The second occurs in July when the waters have sunk within their ordinary bed, and the fish having spawned, are returning to the sea. The third, from September to November, is the season when the beluga, sturgeon, and sevriuga [34] return to the deepest parts of the river. These fish are also taken in winter by nets of a peculiar form. ”

“ Another way of serving caviar is to spread it on thin bread and butter, which is then rolled up like tiny cigars. Russians declare, however, that the less done to caviar the better it will be, and to send it to the tea-table in its original jar, with an accompaniment of fresh dry toast and quartered lemon, is the fashion preferred by connoisseurs.
It takes a grand dame, so to speak, to give a tea. The vulgarian almost always overdoes it. She gets things to eat, while the woman who knows gets people, and doesn't care what they have to eat. ”

“ In 1750, one was caught in Italy which weighed 550 lbs. There are some in Norway, the head alone of which yields a tun of oil, [XXI_40] and whose immense proportions would formerly have astonished the most intrepid gastrophilists of Athens, Syracuse, and Rome.
An alimentary substance, called caviar, furnished almost exclusively by Russia to the rest of Europe, is prepared from the spawn of several kinds of sturgeons.
The spawn of the large sturgeon produces caviar of an inferior quality ”

“ Even in winter fishing is kept up. The fish bury their heads in the mud, their bodies rising upwards in the water. Holes are cut in the ice and the fish are speared, a catch averaging from 6 to 12 fish per spear. The caviar, of which there is the red and black variety, also comes chiefly from this region. ”

“ We at length, when we had captured as many fish as we could possibly utilize, set about cleaning and preparing their flesh. Some we salted, some we dried like the herrings, some we treated like the tunny of the Mediterranean—we prepared them in oil. Of the roe of the sturgeon I decided to form caviare, the great Russian dish. I removed from it all the membranes by which it is surrounded, washed it in vinegar, salted it, pressed out all the moisture caused by the wet-absorbing properties of the salt, packed it in small barrels, and stowed it away in our storehouse. ”

“ Spread some fresh caviar on four pieces of toast, lay a poached egg on top of each, lay four fillets of anchovies crosswise over the eggs, and garnish with two lemons cut in half, and parsley in branches.
Calf's liver, Spanish style. Cut six slices of calf's liver three-quarters of an inch thick, season with salt and pepper, roll in flour, and fry in melted butter. When nearly done place on a platter and keep hot. Pour one pint of very highly seasoned Créole sauce over the liver, and put in oven for two minutes. Sprinkle with chopped parsley, and serve. ”

“ Our tastes for curious foreign foods are nearly all deliberately acquired. Not one in ten ordinary Americans likes olives or caviar when first tasted. Nearly every curious article of food is "caviar to the general" at first trial. ”

“ It is a big, sluggish creature, that stirs up the mud with its long flat beak, and consumes it, getting sustenance from the minute organisms it contains. They make caviar from its eggs. As for the sturgeons, we have five species in the United States, and one [Pg 152] abounds in the Black Sea and the rivers that drain into it, from whose eggs the Russian caviar is made. One or two species are exclusively fresh-water, but most sturgeons are migratory fishes, living in the sea, but ascending rivers for spawning. Their food consists of worms, mollusks, the smaller fishes and aquatic plants ”

“ Carp are much esteemed as food, but a principal part of their excellence depends on the mode in which they are cooked. They are best in season during the autumnal and winter months. The usual mode of catching them is with nets, and the most proper time at daybreak. These fish, if kept in a cellar, in wet hay or moss, and fed with bread and milk, will live many days out of the water, and will even become fat.
With the roes of carp, in the eastern parts of Europe, a kind of caviar is made, which is sold in considerable quantity to the Jews, who hold that of the sturgeon in abhorrence. ”

“ The best caviare, which can only be made in winter and is difficult to preserve, is the loosely granulated, almost liquid, kind, known in Russia as ikra. It is prepared by beating the ovaries and straining through a sieve to clear the eggs of the membranes, fibres and fatty matter ”

“ He took off his cassock, stroked himself on the chest, and without haste undid the parcel. Yegorushka saw a little tin of caviare, a piece of dry sturgeon, and a French loaf.
“See; I passed a fish-shop and brought this,” said Father Christopher. “There is no need to indulge in luxuries on an ordinary weekday; but I thought, I’ve an invalid at home, so it is excusable. And the caviare is good, real sturgeon. . . .”
The man in the white shirt brought in the samovar and a tray with tea-things. ”

“ The fins are rather small, and, with the exception of the pectorals, are all placed far behind. The flesh in general is wholesome and agreeable; the roe, which is of considerable bulk, is made into a substance called caviare, held in high estimation in some parts of Europe; isinglass of the best quality, is made of the inner coats of the large and thickened air-bladder; and the skin is sometimes made into leather, or prepared as a substitute for window-glass. Hence these fishes are the subjects of important fisheries, especially in the east of Europe. ”

“ The delicate white caviare is the produce of the smaller sturgeon, and it is highly esteemed by gastronomists. It forms a great portion of the food taken by the Greeks during their long Lent.
We have heard of an American who tried to tame an oyster. The Romans were more successful with their sea-eels, which would come when called, and feed from the hands of men, who occasionally fattened them upon live slaves. Vedius Pollio would have grown sick and disgusted, if he had been asked to eat one of these slaves; but he was particularly fond of the fish that had been fed upon such fare ”

“ I had tea and bread and caviare at 9 a.m. and the same thing at 3 p.m. and again at 7. There is no restaurant car; we have brought our food with us in a hamper. There are other things to eat besides caviare, only I cannot eat them.{62} There is cheese, and some ham which is not like any ham that I have ever known, and there is a sort of schnitzel sausage and some apples.
The soldier who was with us yesterday and is still with us, and whose name is Marinashky, is a chauffeur. ”

“ Still, in spite of the enormous quantity killed, there is no danger of any falling off in the supply for the future, for every fish lays from two to three million eggs, each of which, as caviare eaters well know, is quite big enough to be distinctly seen with the naked eye in the finished product. The best caviare is simply bottled exactly as found, with the addition merely of a little salt. No man of taste can pretend to like the nasty sun-dried sort, in which the individual eggs are reduced to a kind of black pulp, and pressed hard with the feet into doubtful barrels. ”

“ A year of trial came at last for both the Lady Floretta and Sir Gladys Rhinestone. No fish were caught and that was a disaster which affected everything. The fish were the fortune of the country, for from the eggs of the great sturgeon was made the caviare, without which no true-born noble of the realm could make a tolerable meal. The caviare was shipped away to all parts of the civilized world as it is now, and it will be seen that to have the stream fail of fish was a calamity of first magnitude. ”

“ To each two tablespoonfuls of caviare add ten drops of onion juice and a few drops of lemon juice, [121] and mix together thoroughly. Remove the crust from a fresh, moist loaf of bread, cut in thin slices, spread each slice very delicately with butter and the caviare mixture, roll up in a roll and tie with ribbon one-fourth an inch wide, or pin with Chinese toothpicks. The bread should not be more than twelve hours old. If fear be lest the bread will not be sufficiently moist to roll, wrap the loaf, when taken from the oven, in a damp cloth and then in a dry one ”

“ The repast was rather military in fashion, and by no means a dinner à la Russe, all flower vases, bouquets, and kickshaws; but was composed of substantial edibles for hungry and soldierly stomachs.
We began with small glasses of kimmel, and then came caviare, made from the roe of the sturgeon of the Don, spread on thin slices of bread; then followed the fish—turbot and mackerel from the Black Sea; yellow-fleshed sterlets from the Volga, salted in oil; wild boar hams from the forest of Khutor-Mackenzie; mutton fed on the Tauridian steppes ”

“ When the stock is prepared its consistence should be tested, and rectified, if necessary, by means of gelatine. The quantity of this substance should on no account exceed eight leaves per quart of aspic, and, at the risk of repeating myself, I remind the reader that the less gelatine is used the better the aspic will be.
The clarification should be made with fresh caviare if possible, but pressed caviare is also admirably suited to this purpose. The quantities are the same as for the clarification of fish consommé, No. 4. ”

“ L'usagé est de les faire asseoir sur les bancs. Celui qui veut les acheter ne voit d'eux que le visage et les mains, et un peu le bras des femmes. A Damas j'avois vu vendre une fille noire, de quinze à seize ans; on la menoit au long des rues toute nue, "fors que le ventre et le derrière, et ung pou au-desoubs."
C'est à Burse que, pour la première fois, je mangeai du caviare [Footnote: Caviaire, caviar, cavial, caviat, sorte de ragoût ou de mets compose d'oeufs d'esturgeons qu'on a saupoudrés de sel et séchés au soleil. Les Grecs en font une grande consommation dans leurs différens carêmes.] ”

“ I am sure the pawpaw has a great future. To many it may be an acquired taste, but so are olives, and the most appetizing of all table delicacies, Russian caviare. I thank my stars that I always took naturally to such things; it has added much to the pleasures of life. So far as pawpaws are concerned, it will be easier to persuade skeptics to try to learn to like them if they are told that their juice is considered by medical men a great aid to digestion. ”

“ Professor Mercer, the old Californian entomologist, had received a jar of caviare in a hamper of goods from San Francisco, arriving a day or two before the outbreak. In the general pooling and distribution of provisions this one dainty and three bottles of Lachryma Christi from the same hamper had been excepted and set aside. By common consent they were to be reserved for the final joyous meal when the end of their peril should be in sight. ”

“ In Russia there were two kinds of caviare, the kind for the zakouski and that of the newspapers.
The first is delicious. The zakouski is an assortment of hors-d’œuvres arranged like a buffet on a table in a corner of the room in which{153} the lunch or dinner is served. It is partaken of standing up, off a small plate, and amounts, in fact, to a real meal as a preparation to give one an appetite instead of satisfying it.
There is generally fresh caviare and also preserved caviare, and delicious pickled herrings with quantities of other good little dishes, which the men wash down with vodka. ”

“ Athenaeus has transmitted to posterity some very important precepts upon their ingenuity in seasoning with salt, oil, and aromatics.
At the present day the food of the Greeks, through the combined influence of poverty and the long fasts which their religion imposes upon them, is, to a large extent, composed of fish, accompanied with vegetables and fruit. Caviare, prepared from the roes of sturgeons, is the national ragout, which, like all other fish dishes, they season with aromatic herbs. Snails dressed in garlic are also a favourite dish. ”

“ Rabbits are the most popular of these pets, while cavies come next. There is just now a great demand for cavies. They are odd little creatures, neither intelligent nor affectionate. Neither are they very hardy; in the North they have to be kept indoors in cold weather.
Cavies are easy enough to feed, for they eat everything that is set before them, and keep at it all the time. All sorts of vegetables, bread and milk, and corn are the "chief of their diet." ”

“ Cavies or Guinea Pigs.—In starting these little chats, suppose we commence with cavies. Some who ought to know better have said that cavies are very dull, stupid little animals, but I entirely disagree with this, as will also the lad who has kept them for ever so short a time; they are bright, intelligent little fellows, and most pleasant to make pets of, and although they belong to the rodent or rat family are not the least vicious. Cavies are extremely clean in their habits, very handsome in colour, and if their little houses are kept clean there is no disagreeable smell from them. ”

“ True cavies, or couies (Cavia) , are best known by the guinea-pig, a domesticated and parti-coloured race derived from one of the wild species, all of which are uniformly coloured. They are comparatively small and stoutly built animals, with short, rounded ears and no tail. In habits they are partly diurnal; and live either in burrows among the crevices of rocks, beneath the leaves of aquatic plants in marshy districts, or underneath the floors of outbuildings. Their cries are faint squeaks and grunts. They feed upon nearly all vegetable substances, but drink little. ”