How to salt river fish caviar at home. How to distinguish artificial caviar from natural one, its benefits and harms, and how to cook it yourself

I have known for a long time how to prepare red caviar at home. Our friend caught trout in a small river and made caviar himself, which we ate with pleasure. I'm sharing his secrets!

  • Red fish caviar 250 grams
  • Salt 1\2 Cups
  • Water 2 Cups
  • Oil 1 tbsp. spoon

Separate the eggs from the membrane.

Rinse the caviar with hot water.

The eggs may temporarily lose their color.

Rinse the caviar well so that all the eggs are clean.

Dissolve salt with water.

Fill the eggs with saline solution.

Drain the water after a minute.

Place the caviar in a jar and add oil.

Similar video recipe “Red caviar at home”

Home-salted red caviar

Recipe for salting red caviar yourself at home

If, when purchasing ungutted salmon, you received a caviar female, then this is a great opportunity to prepare red caviar yourself. In this case, you can get, in addition to the fish itself, a tasty, delicacy product.

To salt salmon caviar in small quantities, no special equipment is needed.

Home-salted red caviar will differ from the factory product only in the preparation procedure. At fish processing plants, salmon caviar is first punched directly in the eggs through special screens and then placed in brine. In addition, homemade red caviar contains only salt. It does not contain any preservatives, which are necessarily present in factory-salted caviar.

To salt salmon caviar yourself, you need:

  • 2-3 spawned female salmon, such as pink salmon or chum salmon
  • 500 ml water
  • 80 g salt
  • 1 tbsp. refined vegetable oil

How to prepare red caviar at home

If the fish was purchased frozen, then it must be given time to thaw. There is no need to wait for complete thawing; it is enough for the fish to melt by half.

Using a sharp knife, cut the belly of the fish. Carefully remove the eggs with caviar.

Yastyki- These are transparent film bags containing salmon caviar.

Heat water to boiling point. Put salt in it. It should completely dissolve in boiling water.

Pour this boiling solution over the caviar without removing the ovaries. Leave the caviar in the brine for 5 minutes. Gently mix the contents and leave for another 3 - 4 minutes.

Carefully place the eggs on a wooden cutting board, and use a teaspoon to remove the eggs from the film.

Place the finished caviar in a suitable bowl. Add a spoonful of oil. The oil should be refined and odorless. Gently stir the caviar.

Red caviar is already ready to eat. It can be used in the same way as factory-produced granular caviar.

Important! If the caviar turns out to be runny, then before adding oil you need to put it in a sieve and leave it in the air for 30 - 60 minutes.

Proper salting and storage of red pink salmon caviar at home

Hello, dear readers! Red caviar, salted at home in your own kitchen, is in no way inferior in taste to the product from the store. Quite the contrary - it will be tastier, more tender and you won’t have to doubt the quality and naturalness of the product. Most often, red caviar, which we purchase at food markets and then eat, is, so to speak, the property of the sea inhabitant pink salmon. It is grainy, large and tender. But there are other fish whose caviar has a red tint: coho salmon, sockeye salmon, salmon, trout, and so on.

Self-salting caviar

Without a doubt, this delicious delicacy will be even more useful if you know how to properly and tasty pickle red caviar at home without various additives. This is done much easier than it might seem initially.

  • red caviar;
  • coarse salt – 60 g;
  • filtered water – 255 ml;
  • sugar – 20 g;
  • refined oil (sunflower or olive) – 10 ml;

Cooking time: 30 – 40 minutes.

What kind of fish is needed for pickling red caviar?

Successful salting begins with selecting the right fish in a store or market. For red caviar, you need fish from the salmon family, for example, trout, salmon or pink salmon. You will need a whole female carcass, which should contain eggs. There will certainly be a desired delicacy in the fish, since it is usually caught when it goes to spawn.

How to salt and separate the film?

The most troublesome part of harvesting caviar will be the process of removing it from the film, the so-called yastyka. This film is designed to protect caviar from various types of damage, maintaining its integrity.

You can separate it in two ways:

  1. Carefully and patiently separate each egg separately.
  2. The second method will require some skill. Take a sieve or sieve with holes larger than the eggs themselves, tear the film and squeeze them out, pressing the film against the mesh.

Thus, the most painstaking stage of preparation is completed, and you can proceed directly to the salting process itself.

  1. To do this you need to boil water.
  2. Dissolve non-iodized salt and granulated sugar in it.
  3. This mixture must be cooled and poured over the prepared caviar.
  4. After 7 - 10 minutes, you can drain the caviar onto a finer sieve and leave for several hours.

And only then should you transfer the treat into a jar, add a little olive or vegetable oil and mix everything. The delicacy is ready, you can start tasting! And tireless cooks can also try salting pink salmon.

By the way, you can store red caviar prepared in this way in the upper chamber of the refrigerator for 3 days, no more. If necessary, transfer it to the freezer, this will keep it for a longer time. You can store caviar there for a very long time without harming its taste, but after defrosting it should be eaten within a few hours.

And in order to thoroughly understand everything, we additionally suggest watching this video. It shows a very interesting and simple way to separate the film from the eggs.


Only people living in coastal cities and specialists involved in fish processing know how to salt red caviar at home correctly and not spoil anything. This product costs good money, and not everyone can afford to buy a jar of the delicacy in a store. Very often, when buying a fish, there are oysters in it, such inconspicuous bags that contain caviar. If this product comes into the house unprepared, you need to prepare it correctly and not spoil it. Such delicacies require special attention. Which one exactly? Described in this article, it describes the processes and features of salting red caviar at home.

Selection of red fish with caviar for salting

It is best to choose fresh fish. The rules for choosing fish with caviar are the same as for regular fish - the eyes should not be cloudy, the fish should not be wrinkled, and so on. If you buy frozen, you should pay even more attention to quality.

How to clean red caviar from film

A lot depends on whether the film has been removed from the eggs. This film, getting on sandwiches, snacks or salads, will greatly spoil the appearance of the finished dish. In addition, it can get stuck in the teeth. Moreover, if the film remains with the caviar, then the eggs do not become crumbly. The product becomes much more difficult to work with.

Ultimately, you should get a product that is completely free of films, but at the same time with intact eggs. It is very important that during the process of removing the films, the eggs remain intact.

Step-by-step instructions for removing films:

  • The product must be rinsed under cold water; for this it is better to use running water.
  • The film should be cut in several places; this should be done so as not to damage the eggs.
  • Next, you need to take a colander with large holes. Their diameter should be larger than the diameter of the eggs. It is necessary that they pass easily through these holes.
  • Next, use your hands to rub the product through a sieve. However, these should be very soft and non-pressing movements. The eggs should not burst, but at the same time they should all fall into the holes. In the end, only a film will remain on the colander.

Ask the chef!

Didn't manage to cook the dish? Don't be shy, ask me personally.

This is the main method of film removal. There are several more, for example, the method of jamming the film, removing the rind using a grater, cleaning with gauze and boiling water, the method of removing the film with salt water, and so on. However, the simplest, fastest and safest method is the one described above.

Of course, each option has its pros and cons, however, for processing caviar in small quantities at home, the method of removing the film through a sieve or colander is quite suitable. To use other methods, additional skill, speed, experience, or the hands of an assistant are often needed. It is better to work with a small amount of caviar using proven and safe methods.

Below are 6 pickling recipes. Each of them has its own characteristics.

How to salt red caviar at home, recipe for long-term storage:

To salt caviar for long-term storage, you will need a very concentrated salt solution. The amount of solution depends on the amount of caviar that needs to be salted. The eggs should be completely covered with the saline solution.

What ingredients are needed to prepare this snack:

  • caviar - as much as you can eat;
  • water for saline solution;
  • salt for saline solution (extra or iodized salt is not suitable, you need to take regular salt);
  • sunflower oil (necessarily refined).

What else will you need to prepare the snack:

  • one peeled potato tuber;
  • jars or jars (their volume depends on the number of products);
  • lids for jars;
  • utensils for sterilizing jars.

How to cook:

  1. First you need to clean the product from films. To do this, you can use the method described above, or use any other convenient one.
  2. The required volume of water must be boiled and cooled. Boiled water must be used. After this, you need to take one potato tuber, peel it and put it in this water.
  3. Dissolve salt in this water. The saturation of this salt solution is needed so that the potatoes float. Exactly how much salt goes into the solution depends on its saturation and the amount of water.
  4. When the potatoes float to the surface, you should take them out and pour this solution over the eggs so that they are completely covered with liquid. They need to be left for about three hours.
  5. Then you should prepare another portion of the same strong saline solution. When the caviar has been infused for 3 hours, it should be placed on cheesecloth and washed with a second portion of the prepared solution.
  6. While the product is being salted, the jars can be sterilized. Caviar must be placed in already cooled jars, so it is advisable to sterilize them a little in advance.
  7. 7. In addition, refined sunflower oil should be boiled. Its quantity depends on the volume of the jars in which the product will be laid out;
  8. 8. The washed caviar should be placed in sterilized jars and filled to the top with hot sunflower oil;
  9. 9. The jars need to be screwed on with lids and placed on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.

The best way to seal these jars is to use screw-on, reusable lids. They provide tightness, but at the same time are suitable for long-term storage of the product.

How to pickle trout caviar

First you should separate it from the joints and all films. When this is done, you can start salting.

What products are needed:

  • caviar - as much as you can eat;
  • water;
  • sea ​​salt (at the rate of 70 g per 1 liter of water);
  • sugar (at the rate of 30 grams per 1 liter of water).

It is also necessary to prepare jars for storage in advance.

How to cook:

  1. Cleaned and washed caviar must be filled with brine.
  2. To prepare the brine, you need to dissolve sea salt and sugar in boiled water. And their application rates per liter of water are indicated in the recipe.
  3. The number of liters of water depends on the volume of product that needs to be salted. Place the product in the prepared brine and keep it there for 10 to 20 minutes. The longer the caviar is in the brine, the saltier it will taste. Salting time depends on personal preference.
  4. Next, strain the product through cheesecloth or a fine sieve, place it in jars and put it in the refrigerator to cool.

In this case, be sure to close the jars with a lid.

Red caviar from frozen fish

If caviar has been removed from frozen fish and it has been decided to salt it, the most important thing is to defrost it correctly. Under no circumstances should you leave it to defrost in the microwave or even in the fresh air. Rapid defrosting can cause the eggs to go rancid and the taste to deteriorate.

How to defrost a product correctly:

  1. First you need to put it in a bowl or deep plate and place it in the refrigerator, it should lie in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours.
  2. After this time, you can place the product in the same bowl in the air and continue to defrost at room temperature. Defrosting time in air usually does not exceed 12-14 hours.
  3. After the caviar is thawed, you can begin the process of cleaning the eggs from the films; when this is done, you can begin salting.

What products are needed for salting (based on 2 kg of caviar):

  • 1 liter of water;
  • sea ​​salt;
  • one egg (an egg is needed to check the salt level in the water).

How to cook:

  1. The water needs to be boiled, cooled slightly (it should be warm, and its temperature is about 45 degrees).
  2. Then you need to dissolve sea salt in it. In this case, you can place a washed egg in the water, and this way it will be easier to determine when there is already enough salt in the solution.
  3. When the egg begins to float, this will be a signal that the solution is sufficiently concentrated.
  4. After this, the brine should be poured into the bowl with the eggs and left for 10 minutes.
  5. Next, strain the eggs through cheesecloth or a fine sieve until all the liquid is glass.
  6. After this, the product can be distributed into pre-sterilized jars.

It should be stored with the lids closed in the refrigerator. Before use, it is advisable to keep it in the refrigerator for at least 5-6 hours.

How to salt pink salmon caviar

When salting, it is necessary to properly prepare the brine. It can be prepared according to the recipe described above for preparing frozen fish caviar. This recipe is ideal for salting pink salmon eggs. You can slightly reduce the amount of sea salt, but you need to add at least 50 g per 1 liter of water. The maximum amount of salt per 1 liter of water is 70 g.

In the absence of accurate scales, you can use the method of determining the amount of salt using an egg.

How to quickly pickle red caviar for five minutes in eggs

To quickly salt 2 pieces of caviar from one fish, take a glass of water, a stack of salt, prepare a brine solution (until the grains of salt are completely dissolved - this is a must!), salt the product with brine for 5 minutes, and then leave on gauze to drain excess liquid.

Caviar prepared in this way can be stored for 10 days in the refrigerator, but always in a closed container.

Is it possible to freeze salted red caviar in the freezer?

If there are no other ways to preserve the product until the required time, then it is possible, but generally not advisable. You should choose the right containers for freezing so that they are airtight and convenient, and rinse them with a very concentrated saline solution before placing the product in them. The product can only be thawed immediately before use, only in the required quantity. That is why you should choose the right container for freezing, taking into account the amount of caviar needed at one time.

As can be seen from the information described in this article, red caviar, as a delicious product, requires very delicate handling. In order not to spoil this delicacy, it should be handled correctly - properly frozen, defrosted and salted. How to do this is described in this article.

Look, how to salt red caviar at home recipe, video:

Due to the fact that I live in a region where in the summer the rivers boil with red fish coming to spawn, I decided to tell you how we prepare it after catching it. Maybe it will be useful for someone. :)

So, red caviar. It's not difficult to prepare. In this case, you can even cook the caviar eggs from a frozen fish carcass.

The only difference in preparing caviar at home from frozen compared to freshly caught is that you still need to defrost the caviar at home... Moreover, it is advisable to do this in the refrigerator - so that the process progresses gradually. That's it, there are no more differences.

1) The initial product is caviar in eggs.

So, we take the red caviar out of the fish. Place carefully in a bowl. The caviar is in the so-called yastikas - a protective film (of biological origin). First of all, you need to get rid of it. This is done using a special tool - a screen. But it's okay if you don't have it on hand. A regular tennis or badminton racket will do just fine.

And all because the screen is simply a lattice made of thick fishing line stretched over a frame. As in the photo below.


The process of rattling eggs is primitive. We take the yoke and, holding it with our fingers, move it along the surface of the screen. Until it all falls into the bowl in the form of caviar. Film to the side. We take the next yashtik - and the same thing. It's simple.

3) They rattled.

4) This is the amount of caviar obtained from one ketina. There will be less of pink salmon and more of coho salmon.

The next stage is salting. In order to pickle, you need brine. Brine is just a solution of sodium chloride. :) That is, a salt solution. To prepare it, you need to boil water and add salt to it. There should be a lot of salt so that the raw egg floats. An important point - to salt caviar, the brine must be cold. Under no circumstances should you pour hot water into the caviar. If you do this, it will be boiled caviar. It's good for baiting fish - but I wouldn't eat it.

So - take cold water with salt and pour in the grated caviar.
We note the time - 5 minutes. While the caviar is salting, you can stir it a couple of times.

5) Salt the caviar.

6) The salting process is in full swing

And yet - before pouring brine into the water - you need to prepare gauze. It is needed at the next stage of preparation.

As soon as five minutes have passed, cover the bowl with gauze and turn it over. As a result, the water drains and the caviar remains in the gauze. We take this gauze bag by the edges and begin to alternately lift one edge and then the other, forcing the caviar in the gauze to roll over the bag. By this we achieve one very important property of caviar - purity. The fact is that during the screening process, part of the film - in which the caviar in the fish is located - still leaks through the screen. And if you roll this thing on gauze, the caviar will be cleared.

You don't need to ride for long - about five minutes.

7) Caviar on gauze.

After rolling, you can hang the bag of caviar for another 10 minutes so that the water drains. If you want especially clean caviar, it is advisable to roll it again in a different, clean gauze rag. But in nature, we don’t really bother with this - we rolled once and that’s fine.

In the photo below you can see that the gauze contains all sorts of crushed eggs, a little film.

8) Caviar is poured into a bowl.

Actually, that's all. You can eat. In nature - just with bread and butter. At home I prefer it with pancakes (unsweetened).

Bon appetit! :)


Such a bowl of caviar was prepared on one of the rafting boats for tourists. In his hand is a liter jar. There are another 7 liters of caviar in the basin.

Helpful advice: to keep caviar in a jar for a long time, before closing, pour a thin layer of vegetable oil on it. After you fill the jar. Just fill the jar tightly so that the oil remains on the surface and does not flow down. Something like that.

Have you prepared red caviar yourself? Was it delicious? Do you generally eat red caviar?


Salmon or sturgeon caviar is a delicacy that costs a lot. Often what is found on the shelves is not a natural product, but a surrogate.

It differs in taste and has a lesser degree of usefulness for the human body.

Composition of artificial caviar

Today it is not difficult to purchase natural red or black caviar, but it is quite expensive. They began to counterfeit it during the existence of the Soviet Union.

At that time, it was available only to high-ranking officials, so technologists were tasked with creating a product that looked like red or black caviar.

During the Soviet era, the fake had little resemblance to the real thing, so it was not in demand.

Today, manufacturers counterfeit the product in such a way that it is difficult to distinguish natural caviar from artificial one.

It is worth noting that artificial red caviar does not have the same beneficial substances as natural caviar.

It cannot be called destructive and harmful to health, but it does not differ in useful components either.

Nutritional value of surrogate (per 100 g):

  • Proteins – 1.0 g.
  • Fats – 5.0 g.
  • Carbohydrates – 2.6 g.

To compare the amount of useful components, we offer you the nutritional value of a natural product per 100 g:

  • Proteins – 31.5 g.
  • Fats – 13.2 g.
  • Carbohydrates – 1 g.

Important! The calorie content of the simulated product per 100 g is 64 kcal.

Today, manufacturers use different manufacturing technologies, so the composition of the product often differs.

Manufacturers who pass off fakes as real salmon caviar rarely indicate the following components in the composition.

Components on the basis of which the artificial product is made:

  1. Gelatin (replaced with sodium alginate or agar).
  2. Chicken eggs.
  3. Milk.
  4. Soy protein supplement.
  5. Dyes (paprika, vegetable charcoal).
  6. Fish meat.
  7. Fish broth.
  8. Fish oil.
  9. Vegetable oil.
  10. Salt.
  11. Acids.

Today, stores have a large selection of artificial red and black caviar.

According to customer reviews, the best surrogate product is “Baltic Coast”, which in appearance and taste is very similar to the natural one.

Composition of the surrogate “Baltic Coast”:

  1. Drinking water.
  2. Fish oil.
  3. Thickener E-401.
  4. Dyes E-120, E-160 A, E – 160 C.
  5. Granulated sugar.
  6. Salt.

Today, artificially grown caviar of other fish is used for production.

Differences from natural caviar

Red caviar is obtained from pink salmon, trout, sockeye salmon, chum salmon and salmon. Black is obtained from stellate sturgeon, sturgeon or beluga. These types are expensive, so few people can afford to buy them.

It is extremely difficult to distinguish real caviar from a fake by appearance alone. Natural dyes are used in production.

So black is made by dyeing pike caviar with vegetable charcoal, so the product acquires a natural shade and looks like sturgeon or beluga eggs.

Signs of distinction:

  1. Real eggs have a round, symmetrical shape.
  2. When the eggs are crushed, a slight pop should be heard.
  3. Real caviar does not dissolve in boiling water, unlike imitation caviar.
  4. When the eggs are placed in boiling water, the natural product hardens.

When choosing, pay attention to the packaging. A quality product is always packaged in glass jars.

Caviar in metal containers can also be natural, but it quickly oxidizes in them. Pay attention to packaging times.

The real one is mined in July–August and packaged at the factory a maximum of 30 days after extraction.

Benefits and harms

A surrogate product cannot be called harmful to the human body and health.

Pay attention! It contains much less useful components.

Table: benefits and harms

Homemade recipes

You can prepare imitation red caviar at home. There are several technologies and methods for preparing this dish.

A similar product prepared by yourself can be used on sandwiches and added to salads. The main advantage of a surrogate is its low cost.

Recipes for royal caviar from seaweed:

  1. For cooking You will need dry kelp (5 g), 1 carrot, half a beet, drinking water (130 ml). You will also need vegetable oil, 0.5 tsp. agar-agar and 1 tsp. salt.
  2. Vegetable The oil is placed in the freezer for 4 hours.
  3. Vegetables cleaned, rubbed on a fine grater. Then the mass is laid out on a piece of gauze, folded 2-3 times. Using gauze, squeeze out the juice, which will serve as a dye.
  4. Agar Fill with cold water (40 ml) for 15 minutes.
  5. Then Place the seaweed in a saucepan, add water and boil for 5 minutes. The liquid is passed through a sieve.
  6. Added agar and juice. After this, the mixture is put on fire and boiled for another 2-3 minutes.
  7. Vegetable Remove the butter from the freezer. Use a syringe to take the boiled liquid and drop it drop by drop onto the frozen oil.

The surrogate product is often made from palia.

Palia is one of the few fish that are bred and undergo artificial insemination.

Palia caviar is similar in structure to salmon, but it is orange instead of red.

At home, you can use special equipment to prepare caviar. This machine produces up to 1.5 kilograms of product per hour.

Useful video

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How to make red caviar tot_tod wrote in December 23rd, 2013


Perhaps for many people a jar of red caviar is associated with the holiday.

But in fact, before reaching your table, there is no holiday around caviar... on the contrary, it is not easy work.

I'll try to briefly show you a few photos along with the attachment.

The bulk of all red caviar is obtained in Kamchatka and Sakhalin (Pacific Ocean, Okhotsk and Bering Seas). When the fishing season begins, the fleet rushes to the fishing grounds. In my particular case, the process is shown on the receiving and processing vessel BATM (a large autonomous refrigerated trawler), which received fish from fixed seines on the western coast of Kamchatka.

From fixed seines, catch fishermen deliver their catch to the receiving and processing vessel.



Cutting line. Here the fish are fished - the caviar is placed in blue traps on top, the intestines in one hole, the fish in another. Gutted fish flow through trays into the plant onto the deck below, the guts overboard. At the factory, gutted fish are washed, sorted by size, frozen and packed into containers. Ready for freezer hold.


Sorting eggs with caviar by type. Mixing caviar from different fish is an unacceptable crime.

This is where the pits are washed with sea water.

At this stage, the caviar is separated from the eggs by rattling. The machine is called butara. To make it cleaner, use two screens.

The separated caviar falls down an inclined gauze. Here, too, there are pieces of film and all sorts of rubbish left.

Screened caviar is salted in brine (saturated brine solution). Simultaneously with salting, the caviar is washed here. The caviar/brine ratio is 1/3. Salt until the caviar is saturated at about 4%. In time - about 10-20 minutes, depending on the “strength” of the brine.

By the way, the brine itself is cooked right here on deck in these “small saucepans.”


After salting, the caviar is packaged in small baskets, which are placed in a centrifuge, where 10-15 minutes of “squeezing” makes the caviar almost dry and it goes to the master’s table to add vegetable oil and preservatives. Here is the final control of cleanliness and quality on the table illuminated from below.

A filling table with bottom lighting so that the thickness of the caviar is visible and “foreign bodies” (pieces of blood, film, etc.) are clearly visible. On this table, the master adds and mixes vegetable oil and antiseptics to the already salted and centrifuged caviar. Previously (before 2010) they used methenamine and sorbic acid, now some more “healthy” rubbish. Before packing into containers, the master spreads the “product” thinly with a white spatula and makes sure that everything is clean. In the photo, he just noticed something and selects it.


Each container has a label indicating the manufacturer, type of caviar, date of manufacture, etc.

Installation of lead seals on each container.


Well, this is exactly what happens...

Bon appetit!!!

And those salmon that are not caught carry their eggs into the rivers - spawn to continue their offspring... and die, covering the bergs and spits with their bodies...



I. Shatilo