K. DOMESTIC AND HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY. 445 



a watering-can. The milk thus returns in separate threads 

 to the boiler, and in its passage the watery part is evapo- 

 rated. This method is said to give concentrated milk quite 

 as good as that by the ordinary processes, and with much less 

 trouble and expense. 18 A, November 21, 1873, 237. 



PREPARATION OF CAVIARE IN RUSSIA. 



All of our readers have heard of caviare as a delicacy of 

 Russian origin, only to be enjoyed by the rich ; but many of 

 them may not be aware that it is simply the roe of one or 

 more species of sturgeon (sometimes indeed of other fish) 

 prepared in a particular manner. All the rivers and lakes 

 of America abound with sturgeon, consisting of several dif- 

 ferent species, some of them of enormous dimensions; and 

 although in some sections these are marketed and consumed 

 in considerable numbers, by far the greater proportion of 

 those captured are either returned to the water or wasted, 

 no special efforts being made to make use of them. Quite 

 recently, however, some firms on Lake Erie have undertaken 

 the utilization of the sturgeon, receiving immense numbers 

 from various places on the lakes. They smoke the flesh, 

 which is cut up into strips, and prepare the roe. 



There are many peculiarities connected with the treatment 

 of the sturgeon roes, and their conversion into caviare; and 

 it may be of some service to those interested in the trade to 

 know how this is prepared in the White Sea and the Caspian, 

 the head-quarters of the business. According to Mr. Alex- 

 ander Schultz, two kinds are made : one fresh or grained, and 

 the other the hard or pressed. In both cases, the roes are 

 placed upon a web or net- work, with narrow meshes, forming 

 a kind of sieve, stretched over a wooden hoop. (Possibly a 

 fine wire gauze would answer a still better purpose.) The 

 fish eggs are then forced through the meshes by pressing the 

 whole mass lightly, until nothing is left on the upper surface 

 but the cellular tissue, the fat, and tendons. The eggs fall 

 into a wooden receptacle placed beneath, and are next sprink- 

 led with very fine salt of the best quality, the mass being 

 stirred with a large wooden fork having eight or ten teeth. 

 The quantity of salt necessarily varies, according to the sea- 

 son, from 5 to If ; that is to say, in the month of August, 

 three to five pounds of salt are used to the poud (36 pounds) 



