70 SEPTEMBER 2019 | TOWNANDCOUNTRYMAG.COM
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The Incredible,
EDIBLE EGG
Is there something fishy about pressed caviar?
Our expert weighs in.
BY RUTH REICHL
“ S
top!” cried my mother the
first time I tried caviar. She
pried the tiny mother-of-
pearl spoon from my greedy hand.
“Leave some for the rest of us,” she
said reproachfully. “Do you have
any idea what caviar costs?”
I didn’t. I was only 12, and to
my enormous dismay it would
be many years before caviar and
I would meet again.
Fast-forward two decades. I had
become the restaurant critic for
the Los Angeles Times, a job that
allowed me to eat anything, any-
where, anytime. In L.A., caviar
graced almost every menu, and
I joyfully renewed our acquain-
tance. Nothing had changed; I
was still crazy about the glisten-
ing black pearls.
But in real life I was just a
reporter with a modest salary.
Caviar at home was out of the
question. One day, as I stared at
the caviar glittering in a Beverly
Hills shop, the proprietor looked
at my wistful expression and asked,
“Have you ever tried pressed cav-
iar?” I had never heard of the stuff.
“Many caviar lovers,” he said, opening a
tin to reveal an inky black jam, “prefer this
to ordinary caviar.” I took a tiny, tentative bite
and felt a thrill go through me. It was all
here: the briny tang, the sweet nuttiness, the
fruity, chocolate quality, only ramped up, andthe pop of eggs had been replaced by a taffy-
like quality. Before the purveyor whispered
the price—a fraction of the cost of the best
beluga—I was hooked.
Pressed caviar (payusnaya in Russian) is
traditionally made from the eggs that break
during processing. Unwilling to waste them,Russian fishermen mixed the bro-
ken eggs together, heedless of the
variety of sturgeon, turning them
into a jam. Very little of the stuff
ever made its way to market, and
those who discovered the elixir
tried to keep it to themselves. The
payusnaya club was not limited to
bargain hunters; Aristotle Onassis
preferred his caviar pressed. I can
easily imagine him telling people,
“You wouldn’t like it.”
I was happy with my newfound
treat. I spread it on bread, I ate it
splashed with lemon, I stirred it
into pasta. Then, in 2005, the supply
dried up. That was the year beluga
sturgeon were deemed endangered
and all imports containing beluga
caviar from the Caspian and Black
Sea basin were banned.
So imagine my delight when,
last year, the Italian caviar com-
pany Calvisius hired Russian
women to teach its artisans to
craft payusnaya from the eggs of
nonbanned sturgeon. Last year
they introduced the product to
Italy, and now they’re bringing it
to the U.S. They have also invented
a denser, more intense version, called lingotto.
It takes several pounds of roe make a single
pound of it, but thinly sliced it makes any
canapé look as if it’s topped with black lace,
and it’s fantastic grated over pasta or scram-
bled eggs. Either way, pressed caviar is every-
thing a caviar lover could want. CLASSIC V PRESSED
S- Is best swirled into hot pasta or
shaved on top of scrambled eggs. - Was first enjoyed by Russian
fisherman who were reluctant to
discard broken eggs. - Is available in the jammy
payusnaya style or as dense
lingotto (left), which can be
shaved or grated. - There’s no bad way to enjoy
caviar, but I like it best on blini. - The first record of a product
similar to today’s caviar dates
back to 1240 AD, in Russia. - Comes in a variety of styles. The
most expensive is beluga (which
is banned in the United States),
followed by ossetra.
Ruth Reichl’s
preferred caviar is
pressed, like this
lingotto variety.
$99 FOR 1.2 OZ.,
CALVISIUSUSA.COM