On food and cooking the science and lore of the kitchen ( PDFDrive ) 467

become increasingly rare as civilization has encroached on its wild source Happily, sturgeon farms are now producing good caviar, and a variety of other fish eggs are available as affordable and interesting alternatives The ovaries or “roes” of fish accumulate vast numbers of eggs in preparation for spawning: as many as 20,000 in a single salmon, and several million in a sturgeon, carp, or shad Because fish eggs contain all the nutrients that one cell will need to grow into a hatchling, they’re often a more concentrated form of nourishment than the fish itself, with more fat (between 10 and 20% in sturgeon and salmon caviars) and large quantities of savory building-block amino acids and nucleic acids They often contain attractive pigments, sometimes bright pink or yellow carotenoids, sometimes camouflaging brown-black melanins The best roes for both cooking and salting are neither very immature nor fully ripe: immature eggs are small and hard and have little flavor; eggs ready for spawning are soft, easily crushed, and quick to develop offflavors Roes consist of separate eggs barely held together in a dilute protein solution and enclosed in a thin, fragile membrane They can be easier to handle in the kitchen if they’re first briefly poached to coagulate the protein solution and give them a firmer consistency Male fish accumulate sperm to release into the water when the females release their eggs The sperm mass is called white roe, milt, or laitance, and is creamy rather than granular (the sperm cells suspended in the proteinaceous fluid are microscopic) Sea bream and cod milts are prized in Japan, where they’re cooked gently to a delicate custard-like consistency  ... held together in a dilute protein solution and enclosed in a thin, fragile membrane They can be easier to handle in the kitchen if they’re first briefly poached to coagulate the protein solution and give them a firmer...are neither very immature nor fully ripe: immature eggs are small and hard and have little flavor; eggs ready for spawning are soft, easily crushed, and quick to develop offflavors Roes consist of separate eggs barely... protein solution and give them a firmer consistency Male fish accumulate sperm to release into the water when the females release their eggs The sperm mass is called white roe, milt, or laitance, and is creamy rather than granular