Perhaps for many people a jar of red caviar is associated with the holiday.
But in fact, before reaching your table, there is no holiday around caviar... on the contrary, it is not easy work.
I'll try to briefly show you a few photos along with the attachment.
The bulk of all red caviar is obtained in Kamchatka and Sakhalin (Pacific Ocean, Okhotsk and Bering Seas). When the fishing season begins, the fleet rushes to the fishing grounds. In my specific case, the process is shown on the receiving and processing vessel BATM (a large autonomous refrigerated trawler), which received fish from fixed seines on the western coast of Kamchatka.
From fixed seines, catch fishermen deliver their catch to the receiving and processing vessel.
Cutting line. Here the fish are fished - the caviar is placed in blue traps on top, the intestines in one hole, the fish in another. Gutted fish flow through trays into the plant onto the deck below, the guts overboard. At the factory, gutted fish are washed, sorted by size, frozen and packed into containers. Ready for freezer hold.
After salting, the caviar is packaged in small baskets, which are placed in a centrifuge, where 10-15 minutes of “squeezing” makes the caviar almost dry and it goes to the master’s table to add vegetable oil and preservatives. Here is the final control of cleanliness and quality on the table illuminated from below.
A packaging table with bottom lighting so that the thickness of the caviar can be seen through and “foreign bodies” (pieces of blood, film, etc.) are clearly visible. On this table, the master adds and mixes vegetable oil and antiseptics to the already salted and centrifuged caviar. Previously (before 2010) they used methenamine and sorbic acid, now some more “healthy” rubbish. Before packing into containers, the master spreads the “product” thinly with a white spatula and makes sure that everything is clean. In the photo, he just noticed something and selects it.
“A person who eats black caviar feels his inner strength. He feels so much that he even asserts himself psychologically and feels that he deserves it.” This is the opinion of the manager of a new Belarusian producer of black caviar.
Today we will learn how the delicacy is made in Belarus for 1000 euros per kilogram, why it cannot be eaten with a metal spoon, what is common between the love of caviar and the love of art.
At the end of June, the fashionable metropolitan establishment Bistro de Luxe began serving the most expensive breakfast in the country - pancakes with creme fraiche and 30 grams of caviar accompanied by a glass of ice-cold champagne. The dish costs 100 rubles (a million in old ones). This is the price for the opportunity to assert yourself and feel your inner strength.
We have two lines of caviar - Original and Premium. The taste of the Original line is distinguished by some tartness and a spicy tint, which, however, does not stick to the mouth. To me, Original seems to be the most classic product, right for gentlemen and connoisseurs. The Premium line has a velvety and crystallized pure taste. It is preferable for ladies or for those who have never tried black caviar.
The manager of Admiral Husso, Vladimir Dovgyallo, discusses the nuances of the taste of caviar with the same inspiration with which perfumers talk about their fragrances, and artists talk about their canvases. Ordinary people, listening to them, usually scratch their heads in bewilderment.
But these arguments are clear to experts. For example, Michelin-starred chef Fabrizio Girasoli loved Belarusian caviar so much that he wrote a letter of recommendation in which he advised his colleagues to use it in their dishes and promised to do it himself.
Sturgeon sanatorium
Black caviar is synonymous with luxury. Even in the workshop where it is produced, you look for marble fountains and gilding. But this is an ordinary technological premises on the outskirts of Fanipol. The main place in it is occupied by baths with sturgeon. Now the fish live in “sanatorium” conditions: ozonated water, three meals a day and twilight (sturgeon do not like direct sunlight) - and in a few months they will be turned into caviar, balyk, hot smoked steaks and a soup set.
The production floor is as noisy as a waterfall. These are baths filled with giant (the largest specimen weighs 17 kg!) sturgeons
The sturgeon age is approximately equal to that of a human, and sexual maturity in females occurs between the ages of 8 and 21 years. The production raises its herds in the European Union, and brings them to Fanipol for foster care. Here the fish stay for 3-6 months until they reach the desired stage of maturity.
The sturgeon beats its tail aggressively when taken out of the water. A girl of average build would hardly be able to hold him
The fish are brought in a special live-fishing machine. The sturgeon will spend the first month in “quarantine” under the supervision of fish farmers. Afterwards they will be transplanted into ordinary baths and set up in “sanatorium-resort” conditions.
The most important thing is to achieve quality in each jar so that it can even be placed in the Louvre. Next to a work of artistic art, put a work of gastronomic art, Vladimir Dovgyallo fantasizes.
The water is so clean it cleans the fish
It is for the sake of product quality that the manufacturer has set up a complex water filtration system. Initially it comes from the city water supply, but before entering the fish baths it is saturated with ozone. This procedure cleans sturgeon from foreign tastes and odors.
There is residual ozone in the water in concentrations that fish can normally tolerate. It turns out that she lives in such clean water that she herself becomes clean,” explains chief fish farmer Sergei Sventorzhitsky.
The water leaving the baths is purified again. First, in the sump, where the largest particles of dirt remain. Then a drum with the finest metal mesh sifts out mechanical suspensions. At the end there is cleaning with bioelements. These are plastic wheels, on the edges of which special bacteria live. They decompose the nitrogen group of elements and phosphates - waste products of fish. Then the water goes into the second settling tank and, having been purified, is again ozonized and fills the baths. And so on in a circle.
Biofilter. Similar installations work at wastewater treatment plants, only there the “wheels” are much larger
The ozone generator is the heart of production. The only thing that matters is the pumps. They should never stop to keep the water circulating. If suddenly they become, our fish will live for an hour, because there will be no oxygen. Without ozone, it will last for several days, says Sergei Sventorzhitsky.
A container into which water comes from the water supply and from where pumps pump it out first to the ozone generator, and then to the baths
Now there are about 300 sturgeon swimming in the baths, each weighing about 8 kg. They have a full three meals a day. The inhabitants of the baths consume 50 kg of food per day. It is made from fishmeal and contains a lot of protein. This combination of nutrients accelerates metabolic processes in the fish’s body and forms caviar.
Each fish has a tag with a number. Fish farmers have a database in which all sturgeon are registered.
Downhole method of obtaining caviar
Once every 2-3 weeks, sturgeons undergo an ultrasound to determine their stage of maturity.
- The closer to spawning, the richer the eggs are in nutrients. We need to catch the moment so that it does not go into the spawning stage and become unsuitable for food, but so that it has maximum food maturity for humans,” Sergei Sventorzhitsky runs a scanner along the belly of the fish.
When a fish farmer needs to remove a fish from a bath, he puts on special pimply gloves. The fact is that sturgeons have no scales, their body is covered with mucus
If the eggs are large, their contours are clearly visible on the monitor and they are lined up in rows, then the sturgeon is “ripe”. Using a special probe - a long thick needle - a sample of caviar is taken from the fish. The fish farmer will examine it under a microscope and determine whether it is time to prepare the sturgeon for slaughter.
There are two methods for preparing sturgeon caviar. The first one is “milking”. It keeps the fish alive and allows you to get eggs from one individual up to 6 times. However, the sturgeon is given hormonal injections, which worsens the taste of the product and its nutritional properties. With the “downhole” method, hormones are not used. You can only get caviar once, but it will be tastier, healthier and more expensive.
To study the eggs, the fish farmer cuts them at the “pole” into two halves. Inside there is black caviar - white
It was, is and will be. There is a predator and there is a prey. If there is a bull, there is sausage. We do not take fish from the wild or exterminate the population. If we destroyed nature, that would be bad,” Vladimir Dovgyallo argues in favor of the slaughter method.
"Holy" soup set
There is a blue butterfly glued to the door of the killing room. Not for the sake of beauty - it drives away flies. It's only 8 degrees Celsius inside and completely sterile. Slaughter master Alexander Gurshchenkov is dressed in plastic shoe covers, a robe, gloves and a cap. The glasses sparkle on the cap.
The fish must be sent to slaughter alive. To do this, she is stunned in advance with a small sledgehammer. Alexander hangs the fish on a hook and cuts the artery to drain the blood. Then he opens the belly to take out the egg - a bubble with caviar. It weighs on average 700−800 grams.
Sledgehammer for stunning fish
Then the sturgeon carcass is sent to the freezer. Then it will be used to prepare balyk, hot smoked sturgeon, or form a soup set. By the way, in the near future the production workshop will be consecrated according to Orthodox custom, and delicacies from the brand will become “sacred.”
Not everyone has the money to buy caviar and say that he is a tsar, a Russian tsar. Not everyone even has enough money to buy balyk or hot smoked steak, because it will cost money. To get closer, even psychologically, to the level of the elite, you can start with a soup set, says Vladimir Dovgyallo.
Containers for caviar in the sterilizer
1000 euros per kilogram - extremely cheap
The process of preparing caviar is quite simple. The yashtyk is rubbed through a sieve into a bowl. Then the caviar must be washed with sterile water, weighed and salt added.
- Our product is completely natural, without any additives or preservatives. Only salt and selected caviar,” says the manager.
Tool for preparing black caviar
The eggs will be salted for some time - and the delicacy is ready. Now its name is: IKRA, and the price is 1000 euros per kilogram.
This is extremely cheap, says Vladimir Dovgyallo.
There is a level of smuggling price - 1000 dollars. Our caviar cannot even be compared in quality to smuggled caviar, but our price is not far off, because psychologically people are afraid to overpay if they don’t understand it.
Vladimir sees the buyer as “a man who has a private jet.” This is a businessman who can afford business flights, who has a premium car and a country house. But income level is not the only distinguishing feature of the consumer of Belarusian caviar.
Vladimir Dovgyallo does not name the volume of investments, but says that the payback period of the project is at least 2 years
This is a person who strives for beauty. He may be interested in painting, he is probably interested in a healthy lifestyle. This is an educated, cultured person. He has family values. It is tradition that defines the elite class. Who do I consider the elite? The laws of redistribution of money by Karl Marx have not been repealed. Even if the money has been redistributed, there are people who love handmade things and treat relics with respect. They are the ones we see as our consumers.
The most expensive caviar in the world costs about 100 thousand dollars per kg. It is called “golden” because of its light golden, almost white color. Rare albino sturgeon lay such caviar
Simply put, the buyer of the product is a wealthy, educated esthete. The consumption of black caviar should also be aesthetic, the manager insists. It needs to be cooled and washed down with dry French champagne or ice-cold vodka, very high quality. Eating buckets of black caviar is a sign of bad taste, not luxury, assures Vladimir Dovgyallo. But he also does not recommend straining it one gram at a time.
We have an idea that 20 grams of caviar is enough for a good dinner. But there are norms of gastronomic etiquette that we did not invent. I will refer to the famous caviar house of Armen Petrosyan in Paris. 50 grams is suitable for one person per dose. You can taste these 50 grams, understand the taste of caviar and even have a snack. 50 grams for two or three people - just to tease. 125 grams is considered the norm for a meal for two.
Elite caviar, export
The design capacity of the enterprise is about 25-30 tons of sturgeon delicacies and 4 tons of black caviar per year. Already now, black and gold “powder compacts” from the Belarusian manufacturer can be found in duty free and some Minsk stores. But this is not a mass product, warns Vladimir Dovgyallo, and is export-oriented.
The Belarusian producer plans to supply its caviar all over the world. For starters, to Switzerland and Austria, “where people move between castles.” Negotiations on this issue have already taken place. There is interest in the product in Shanghai as well. In the East, gifts to business partners are part of business etiquette. A jar of caviar can be a worthy gift for a respectable person, so Admiral Husso has big plans for the Asian market.
As for Russia, people there don’t strive for quality, they want something cheaper. We have a very expensive production technology, our product is worth the money. But, of course, in Russia there are 0.5% of people who care about their health, understand works of art, go to the Philharmonic, and are pedantic about little things. “They are our audience,” says the manager.
The export price of Belarusian caviar will be twice as high as the domestic price - 2,000 euros per kilogram.
If you paid 50 euros for 50 grams of such caviar, here's some free advice from Vladimir Dovgyallo - buy the right spoon. It can be stone, wood or even plastic. You should not wrap black caviar with a regular metal utensil: metal oxidizes the caviar and spoils the taste. Bon appetit.
Where the caviar comes from is under the cut.
2. Caviar comes from salmon fish, but to get it, you must first catch the fish.
About 100 meters from the shore in the Anadyr estuary, cages and nets are placed, which are checked in the morning and evening, when there is the most fish.
3. In addition to salmon, all sorts of little things come across.
4. Slowly moving the net towards the cages, the fishermen sort out the defective fish - wounded or chewed by seals - along the way.
Yes, seals have the audacity to climb into the nets and gnaw on salmon, then half carcasses or heads are found.
5. The “quality product” is manually transferred into a cage, which will be sent immediately to the factory.
6. We tow the cage by boat to the plant, which is located on the shore half a kilometer from the nets’ path.
7. The fish tank is moored and the unloading of fish begins - a huge net controlled by a winch.
8. The fish throw themselves into the boxes, chum salmon and pink salmon rush around, jump and some try to escape. Some even manage to escape.
9. The latter are thrown into the net manually.
11. The box is installed on a special platform, which will lift and dump the fish directly into the workshop.
12. 10 seconds and the fish is poured into the cutting room.
13. There is continuous “rain” along the entire route.
14. Cutting conveyor.
15. Primary processing includes opening the belly and removing the entrails.
16. To prevent the fish from struggling, because most are still alive, its mouth is fixed.
17. This is a male.
18. Milk (aka fish sperm) and intestines are sent into the pipe on the left.
19. They “float” through the pipe to a tray in which they are washed and sorted.
20. Fried milk - omnomnom!
21. And now the girl has matured.
22. Caviar that has just been removed from the fish is in a shell from which it has yet to be cleaned. This process is delicate, because the eggs are very delicate.
Fish eggs go into the pipe on the right and go to the closed caviar workshop for further processing. We will return to them later.
23. Two strips of caviar - each fish can contain up to 1/6 of its weight.
24. The next stage is deep cleaning of the insides and washing.
25. If on the previous conveyor belt only the caviar and milt were removed from the fish, here everything is cleaned clean.
26. Hearts lie in a separate pile.
27. Do you know where a fish’s heart is? I know.
28. People work here with humor.
29. Using a strong stream of water, chum salmon and pink salmon are washed again.
30. And after washing it is laid out on shelves.
31. Stacked gutted chum salmon.
32. Pink salmon surprised.
33. The filled container is sent to the freezer.
34. Here, at a temperature of -44 degrees, the fish freezes within 4 hours.
By the way, ALL chilled fish that reaches the consumer is done exactly this way - frozen and glazed.
The lower the temperature, the better the quality of the meat.
35. After freezing, it is sent to the packaging workshop.
36. Here the frozen ketins are thrown into water for a few seconds to form a glaze.
If anyone knows the process more precisely, please comment, I didn’t have time to ask everything on the spot.
37. And immediately packed into bags and boxes.
38. The box is weighed and signed.
39. 25-something kilograms, and inside there are 5-7 fish.
40. The boxes are then shipped to consumers. Chukotrybpromkhoz supplies the Chukotka region, and sells the surplus further across Russia.
41. Moving.
42. The process of separating the wheat from the chaff was closed, so we were immediately shown almost finished products.
25 kilograms of caviar are dumped onto the table where the final stage of processing will take place.
44. Olive oil and glycerin are added to caviar.
48. I asked if there were any company secrets here, they said no...
49. Then everything is carefully mixed.
50. The only thing I forgot to ask is when is salt added? Apparently this is also a closed process.
51. And in small portions, the caviar is checked through the light for the presence of sticky eggs and films.
53. Portion for the laboratory.
54. One such plastic container holds 45 kg. caviar. It is then sold in stores.
55. Enjoy eating!
56. This is so delicious.
Perhaps for many people a jar of red caviar is associated with the holiday.
But in fact, before reaching your table, there is no holiday around caviar... on the contrary, it is not easy work.
I'll try to briefly show you a few photos along with the attachment.
The bulk of all red caviar is obtained in Kamchatka and Sakhalin (Pacific Ocean, Okhotsk and Bering Seas). When the fishing season begins, the fleet rushes to the fishing grounds. In my specific case, the process is shown on the receiving and processing vessel BATM (a large autonomous refrigerated trawler), which received fish from fixed seines on the western coast of Kamchatka.
From fixed seines, catch fishermen deliver their catch to the receiving and processing vessel.
Cutting line. Here the fish are fished - the caviar is placed in blue traps on top, the intestines in one hole, the fish in another. Gutted fish flow through trays into the plant onto the deck below, the guts overboard. At the factory, gutted fish are washed, sorted by size, frozen and packed into containers. Ready for freezer hold.
Sorting eggs with caviar by type. Mixing caviar from different fish is an unacceptable crime.
This is where the pits are washed with sea water.
At this stage, the caviar is separated from the eggs by rattling. The machine is called butara. To make it cleaner, use two screens.
The separated caviar falls down an inclined gauze. Here, too, there are pieces of film and all sorts of rubbish left.
Screened caviar is salted in brine (saturated brine solution). Simultaneously with salting, the caviar is washed here. The caviar/brine ratio is 1/3. Salt until the caviar is saturated at about 4%. In time - about 10-20 minutes, depending on the “strength” of the brine.
By the way, the brine itself is cooked right here on deck in these “small saucepans.”
After salting, the caviar is packaged in small baskets, which are placed in a centrifuge, where 10-15 minutes of “squeezing” makes the caviar almost dry and it goes to the master’s table to add vegetable oil and preservatives. Here is the final control of cleanliness and quality on the table illuminated from below.
A packaging table with bottom lighting so that the thickness of the caviar can be seen through and “foreign bodies” (pieces of blood, film, etc.) are clearly visible. On this table, the master adds and mixes vegetable oil and antiseptics to the already salted and centrifuged caviar. Previously (before 2010) they used methenamine and sorbic acid, now some more “healthy” rubbish. Before packing into containers, the master spreads the “product” thinly with a white spatula and makes sure that everything is clean. In the photo, he just noticed something and selects it.
[:RU]They say about Sakhalin that everyone there eats red caviar with ladles from buckets. For breakfast, lunch and dinner. In fact, this is a myth and a story: red caviar is not included in the daily diet of the island’s inhabitants. They, just like us, people from the mainland, eat it on holidays and to suit their mood. The fact is that caviar here is not at all as accessible as we imagine. But everyone who flies from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk is sure to take several kilograms with them to family and friends. This is true.
I had the opportunity to visit a fish factory in the vicinity of the city of Poronaysk. After this report, you will either love caviar even more, or stop eating it once and for all.
1 There are many fishing enterprises on Sakhalin, several dozen. There are major players in this market who transport products to Russian regions and even sell abroad, and there are those who work for the region. There are also smugglers, of course.
2 I visited a medium-sized factory where about fifty people work. 
3 Work here is seasonal, the peak is in the summer, when the salmon fishing season is in progress. Then dozens of fishing schooners go to sea, and dozens of aunties in caps separate the wheat from the chaff, that is, the caviar from the fish. 
4 Can you imagine that somewhere fish eggs are thrown into the trash? But not in Russia, this is our national dish, which is known throughout the world. By the way, some fools, on the contrary, throw away the fish, leaving only the caviar. As a rule, these are poachers; the fish requires further processing and storage, but they have neither the time nor the desire. 
5 The first stage is just separation. The belly is cut open with a knife, the raw caviar is carefully removed and placed in buckets. 
6 After this, the fish goes to one workshop, the raw fish to another. 
7 Something like this. Sorry, it may not be a very appetizing process, but it's a fact of life. For some reason, vegetarians continue to eat fish, although they feel sorry for the animals. 
8 On some days, so much fish comes to the factory that they simply pile it on the floor. 
9 The raw material is collected and sifted in a colander. 
10 Then it is sifted several more times through a special sieve. 
11 I no longer remember the essence of the entire technological process, so I can shamelessly lie and make mistakes. I took these photos in the summer of 2012, during my first trip to. 
12 Almost ready caviar. Now she needs to defend herself. It seems that the caviar is also salted. 
13 And then they are packaged in jars. It is best to buy plastic ones; there are no preservatives, but such a product does not last very long. The freshest and best, of course, is in the Far East. Until it reaches central Russia...it’s not caviar in tin cans, but tin. 
14 In addition to caviar, this factory also produces everyone’s favorite dried fish snacks. Here the process is much simpler. They caught it and removed the insides. 
15 They hung it up to dry. 
16 Everything for you, lovers of beer with vobla. Knock on the table - don't knock! 
17 Perhaps this salmon will be used to make sushi. What rolls on Sakhalin are something! Nothing in common with what we have in Moscow. 
18 Or maybe they’ll make dried salmon slices. Tasty too. 
19 For some reason, the factory also makes dumplings. And made from beef. 
20 This is a non-core asset. 
21 Herring, flounder, salmon, mackerel. Pink salmon, whale, coho salmon, sockeye salmon, chinook salmon. Dried, fresh, any fish. 
22 But the girl can no longer look at the fish. 
23 Well, will you eat caviar after this story? 🙂 
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