Product Description

In the tradition of Cod and Olives: a fascinating journey into the hidden history, culture, and commerce of caviar.

Once merely a substitute for meat during religious fasts, today caviar is an icon of luxury and wealth. In Caviar, Inga Saffron tells, for the first time, the story of how the virgin eggs of the prehistoric-looking, bottom-feeding sturgeon were transformed from a humble peasant food into a czar’s delicacy–and ultimately a coveted status symbol for a rising middle class. She explores how the glistening black eggs became the epitome of culinary extravagance, while taking us on a revealing excursion into the murky world of caviar on the banks of the Volga River and Caspian Sea in Russia, the Elbe in Europe, and the Hudson and Delaware Rivers in the United States. At the same time, Saffron describes the complex industry caviar has spawned, illustrating the unfortunate consequences of mass marketing such a rare commodity.

The story of caviar has long been one of conflict, crisis, extravagant claims, and colorful characters, such as the Greek sea captain who first discovered the secret method of transporting the perishable delicacy to Europe, the canny German businessmen who encountered a wealth of untapped sturgeon in American waters, the Russian Communists who created a sophisticated cartel to market caviar to an affluent Western clientele, the dirt-poor poachers who eked out a living from sturgeon in the aftermath of the Soviet collapse and the “caviar Mafia” that has risen in their wake, and the committed scientists who sacrificed their careers to keep caviar on our tables.
Filled with lore and intrigue, Caviar is a captivating work of culinary, natural, and cultural history.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #557513 in Books
• Published on: 2002-10-08
• Released on: 2002-10-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
As the Moscow correspondent for the Philadelphia Inquirer from 1994-1998 (she's now the paper's architecture critic), Saffron traveled throughout the former Soviet Union, reporting on those heady, hectic days. She also acquired a taste for caviar: "Those glistening black globules," she writes, "are a culinary Rorschach that unleashes our deeply held notions about wealth, luxury, and life." From the ghost town of Caviar, New Jersey to the illegal markets of Moscow, Saffron takes her readers on an absorbing journey as she details the bizarre and fascinating history of one of the world's most coveted delicacies. Caviar, long associated with wealthy Russian aristocracy (though originally considered a peasant food) and thought to possess both medicinal and aphrodisiacal properties, has been a source of great international controversy. Once considered the "black gold" of Russia, in the 1990's caviar became the symbol of American middle-class affluence: "When caviar prices were tumbling...Americans were making record salaries," Saffron writes, and their new wealth made them "crave the exotic." The continued demand for caviar and the sturgeon's placement on the list of endangered species has led to increasingly intricate smuggling rings. Saffron has taken an off-beat but intriguing topic, and, through her elegant and detailed prose, created a book worthy of gourmands and amateur historians alike.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
If you liked Cod, you'll love Caviar: a thoroughgoing account from a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Caviar, along with champagne, marks the height of gastronomic elegance. Unlike the ubiquitous champagne, caviar has grown increasingly rare and ever more expensive. Centuries ago, Russian rivers so teemed with enormous sturgeon that fishermen were overwhelmed with roe, which they tossed to their lucky pigs. First peasants learned to appreciate the toothsome sturgeon eggs; then their overlords discovered caviar's virtues for themselves. It also took development of salting and chilling techniques to make caviar transportable. As with other natural products, demand quickly outstripped supply, and sturgeon populations went into irreversible decline. Political and economic turmoil in present-day Russia, source of much of the world's caviar, has raised the specter of sturgeon's extinction as poachers undo government planning. Meanwhile, the U.S and other countries are attempting to develop their own sturgeon-raising industries. To give the caviar trade a human face, Saffron offers portraits of both historical and contemporary Russian, Greek, and German personalities who have dedicated their lives to expanding the market for this regal roe. Mark Knoblauch
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