How Russian Sturgeon Caviar Is Farmed and Processed — How To Make It

- Today we will learn how

caviar

is made. Sturgeon! Oh. Russian

sturgeon

produces some of the most expensive and sought after

caviar

, and is almost always imported from Russia and Europe. It is not typically raised in the US, but Marshallberg Farms is producing high-quality caviar in North Carolina, using sustainable aquaculture to raise the species, decreasing demand from wild populations for this more profitable delicacy and of greatest demand. - Hello! - Hello Sabine, nice to meet you! - Hello, nice to meet you, welcome to Marshallberg Farm! - Thank you! - This is the product of four different females, so you can see how different.

This is the same species for all Russian

sturgeon

, that is a higher grade that we have. - So this is the top, top grade? - Yes. - I mean, for people who haven't eaten caviar, it's pretty much what you'd expect when you see it. They are these little eggs that burst in your mouth and are so fresh, delicate, firm and with a kind of pop. It's so delicious. - Here we raise Russian sturgeon. The Russian sturgeon is one of 27 species of sturgeon. - Beluga is top notch and this is Ossetra, right? - Ossetra, correct. - Which is still up there, much appreciated. - So those are fry from here.

This is where we add the fish first. It is better to put them in a smaller tank, because then you will have better control over them. - How long does the process take from start to finish? - About seven years, it is a very long process. - So that essentially means that every seven years you start over? - Well, from a full tank of females at seven years old, we can harvest 10 or 20 percent that have the quality and standard we want, the rest we will let go to another cycle, and then we will see them the following year. -Do they start here and once they are big enough, transfer to the tanks in the other room? - Yes, and when they are ready, around seven years old, we can take out some females, prepare them and harvest them.

And we try to harvest only what we believe is of the best quality that can be compared to wild-caught product. That's essentially what we're trying to do: we want to counter wild-caught sturgeon. Marshallberg Farms believes that farming sturgeon can help wild populations survive. So you can't see from the outside what a sturgeon is, whether it's male or female, you know. - Interesting. - It's just a mystery, so you have to look inside the sturgeon, you have to examine it with ultrasound. - Are you picking out fish by hand, one by one, and ultrasonicating them? - Yeah? - They are huge, they are like mini sharks.

And I have to put my hands in there. (laughs) - Walk like a farmer. (laughs) - I like it. - Yes, there you go. (laughs) This is James Harwick from Metallica. (laughs) -He decided to dedicate himself to fish farming. (laughs) - So we just turned our nose up, very easy. - It's that simple. - I'm afraid I'll drop one. - You got it. Pick it up, pick it up. - Let's go, Let's go, Let's go, Let's go! Do not give up. - Hold on, hold on. - I don't want to drop it! Five hours later. - Quick, quick, quick, quick, quick! - Now hold him tight, hold him tight! - Wow! (applause) - We use an electric current to calm the fish, it's a little tickle. - Yes, it's very slight. - You take them out and they are awake, that's why we don't like to use sedatives or CO2, this is really the best method. - There you have it, good job.

We're looking at the muscle, right here, that's the muscle. Below it is the gonad, right there, which shows me that the white, furry thing is that that female is not ready yet. That one could have something, maybe. You stick a little, do you see the eggs there? That one's not ready yet, but she's close. -She already has eggs, they are starting to get some coloration, so we will probably see this one again in two or three months. - Big fish. -Here you see the eggs, she looks at how this is completely full, in the other one it seemed like it ended here and you saw all the guts at the bottom.

Here this fish is completely full of eggs. Now we will also do a biopsy here. You see, this is more of an amber color here. - So the color is different. - Oh, it's always different. It's nothing we can really influence, the color is what it is. And you can see the size of the eggs is good, we want them to be over two and a half years old. They are good. They are ready to start! This is our staging facility, which means purging the fish of any adverse flavors that may be present in the eggs. - So they are putting them in cleaner water or? - Yes.

There is always a concern for animal welfare in fish farming; You won't achieve your goal of a high-quality product without keeping your fish happy. They are practically ready to go, we

make

sure that during the entire staging process they have not reabsorbed their eggs and that the quality remains good. If so, no big deal, we put them back in the drive tank, feed them again and we just have to wait another year or two. - So you're saying that if they are stressed in any way, they will reabsorb their eggs? - Exactly. - So, how is euthanasia performed on them? - So we use stunning, we take them out of the tank, we use a hammer and we hit them right away.

Then it's a matter of five seconds and the fish is killed, so if you think about it, in wild fisheries, how do they do it? They are thrown into a boat and suffocate. And we're going to transfer this to a bowl of ice. That's the line. - So what do you do with the fish? - We try to use everything. - That's really important. - First thing is the swim bladder here, you can use it for the isinglass. It is very popular in beer filtering and also in painting restoration. And then we use all kinds of parts, you know, the whole fish, the meat. - You also sell the fish meat. - Yes. - How many will you harvest in a day? - Until 14. - Oh, wow.

It's firmer than I thought. What is the grading system? - We only have two main grades and that is the superior one, which is our highest grade and the classic one. The upper one has the largest egg, typically lighter in color and a very firm texture after salting. Now, the classic remains, they have a slightly softer texture and tend to have a slightly darker egg tone. - How much do you sell your premium for? - So, at the full retail price we sell it for $1300 per kilo, and then at retail it will be much more. And then the classic costs $950 per kilo.

Some distributors, some restaurants and then we have a retail store for customers. Now let's rinse this off. Lisa, over here, is going to calculate the salt. 80 and I want to verify that. 80, verified. - And what kind of salt is this? It's super fine. - It's a salt mine. And now is the time when she decides the initial qualification. - It's so, so good. It is firm and like little pops. Amber, 2.5. So it has a touch of brown and firm, that's just because of the texture, because it bursts in your mouth, you don't like it to turn into mush easily. - You mentioned that some people like to age their caviar. - Mhm, yes, so the aging process

make

s a big difference in the taste of the product.

It is very typical that caviar normally ages for about three months. - How much does that sell for? - It will cost between $950 and $1300, so it is a kilogram. You don't want absolutely any air in this can. If that happens, what will happen a month later is that it will literally start to taste very fishy. - This is like a caviar snow cone. - Es. (laughs) - Thank you very much for taking me to your facilities today, it was a truly rewarding special day. This has simply changed, in some ways, my view on

farmed

fish. - I think you did very well today. - Oh thanks. - You did a very good job, you handled the fish. - It took a little while to get those fish out of there. - You didn't drop a single fish. - For more information on how to do this, click here.