enjoying caviar

What to Eat With Caviar

The best caviar (like Beluga caviar, or sturgeon caviars in general) should be served simply, enjoyed with crème fraîche over hand-made blini if you want to eat, not cook, you can just buy fresh hand-made blini at specialty gourmet markets that also sell caviar).

What to Drink With Caviar

The most traditional drinks to pair it with:

• Champagne (chilled) - any good champagne will usually do, but the absolute best is a fine traditional brut or extra-brut.
• Vodka (chilled).
• Dry white wine (cool).

And the non-so-traditional ones…

• Beer (need you ask? Ice-cold!)The tailgating party just got a first-class upgrade! The trick is to go for light beers (domestic or imported, your choice). Beers that are too dark will overwhelm the palate, and take away from the crisp and smooth flavor of the caviar. To best enjoy, keep it simple, and pair a tall glass of ice-cold beer with a scoopful of caviar.

How to Cook With Caviar

When cooking with caviar, it is important to use subtlety. Caviar has a delicate flavor, and it shouldn’t compete with another ingredient, which could overwhelm it (and make for a pretty expensive culinary mistake). Also, don’t cook caviar; it will make it tough and unpleasant. Add it at the very end of the preparation, or just delicately top a dish.

More inexpensive caviars (like capelin, tobiko, and whitefish) allow you to be creative without spending a fortune, so feel free to use as garnish (red tobico caviar, and tobico capelin sushi caviar make colorful accompaniments), or grill, bake, sprinkle, and experiment! Rinse all dyed caviars using a strainer, and softly and gently soak up excess moisture with a paper towel.

Learn more about how to store and serve caviar >>