Luxurious Caviar

The many types of fish roe.

**BELUGA ****Pale to dark gray in color, with a buttery flavor, beluga is the largest, most expensive, and scarcest of the basic caviar varieties. It takes about twenty years for this sturgeon to begin producing roe, much longer than for other varieties, but mature females can weigh 2,500 pounds, and up to 10 percent of that is roe.

**OSETRA **Osetra caviar can vary greatly in color and flavor, but in general it has a richer—some would say nuttier—flavor than beluga.