PKESEKVATION OF FISHERY PRODUCTS FOR FOOD. 
541 
PREPARATION OF FISH EGGS FOR FOOD. 
The roes or eggs of fish are among the most valuable of the miscellaneous food 
products of the lisheries. The most important are the roes of the sturgeon, mullet, 
herring, shad, whitefish, cod, and haddock. Some of these eggs are sold to the con- 
sumers while fresh, especially the eggs of shad, river herring, whitefish, and haddock. 
In pickling sea herring the roes are usually left in the fish and no special treatment 
is applied to them. The eggs of the sturgeon, mullet, and of a few other species are 
nearly always removed from the fish and separately pre])ared, and it is to the treat- 
ment of these that the present chapter more particularly relates. Sturgeoji eggs are 
salted in brine and sold under the name caviar, the domestic product approximating. 
300,000 pounds annually, worth $225,000. Mullet roes are dry-salted or pickled in 
brine all along the United States coast from North Carolina to Florida. The Indians 
of the Northwest coast dry considerable quantities of roe from various species of fish, 
the product being stored for winter use, when it is pounded between two stones, 
immersed in water, and beaten with wooden spoons into a creamy consistency, or it is 
boiled with sorrel and different dried berries and molded in wooden frames into cakes 
about 12 inches square and i inch thick. 
CAVIAR. 
Caviar is made from the eggs of sturgeon or similar species of fish, which are 
suitably salted and held in tight packages in brine. It is the most costly food product 
obtained in the United States fisheries, and while highly relished by many persons, a 
liking for it must usually be acquired. For many years the manufacture of caviar 
was monopolized by the Russians, most of it being prepared on the Volga River and 
Caspian Sea, where large quantities are even now an nually put up, the trade centering 
at Astrakhan. The product in Russia amounts to about 8,000,000 pounds annually, 
and it is in great demand in Europe, especially in those countries bordering the eastern 
half of the Mediterranean. 
The abundance of sturgeon in the United States led to the prei)aration of caviar 
on the Hudson River about 1850, and three years later on the Delaware River. It 
was prepared at Sandusky, Ohio, first iu 1855, and soon afterwards its manufacture 
was begun at other points on the Great Lakes and the various rivers on the Atlantic 
coast; in 1885 its preparation extended to the Columbia River on the Pacific coast, and 
subsequently to Lake of the Woods. An acquaintance with its peculiar process of 
manufaeture became of considerable value, sums ranging from $100 to $500 being 
frequently paid for instructions iu the secret method. At present, on account of the 
high iirice at which the article sells — from 50 to 90 cents per pound — every locality iu 
America iu which sturgeons abound is vigorously fished, and on the Delaware River 
female sturgeons with ovaries iu suitable condition sell ordinarily for $10 each, and 
as high as $00 worth of i)roducts has been made from one fish. 
