On Food and Cooking

fish black, crunchy Japan: tobiko

Grey
mullet

Small;  often   salted; pressed and dried

for bottarga    Italy:  bottarga,   Greece:

tarama; Japan:  karasumi

Herring

Medium, yellow-gold,    sometimes

salt-cured; prized  in  Japan   when

attached    to  kelp    Japan:  kazunoko

Lumpfish

Small,  fish    common  in  North

Atlantic    and Baltic; greenish    eggs

often   dyed    red or  black,  heavily

salted, pasteurized,    bottled

Salmon

Large   (4–5    mm) red-orange  eggs

mainly  from    chum    salmon

(Oncorhynchus   keta),  usually lightly

brined  and sold    fresh   Japan:  whole

ovary   sujiko, separated   eggs    ikura

Shad Small, from herring relative

Sturgeon Medium-sized; lightly salted to
make caviar
Large yellow eggs from Great Lakes