Serving caviar requires an understanding of proper presentation. Below are key details on serving sizes, storage, presentation, beverage pairings, and garnishes to help you serve this delicacy with confidence and ensure everyone enjoys it.
Serving caviar requires certain knowledge of caviar and the different details regarding its appropriate presentation. Below, you’ll find relevant details about the process of preparing caviar for serving. This includes the recommended serving sizes, storage practices, presentation details, beverage pairings, and garnishes that ensure you’re prepared to serve this delicacy to your friends and family and make sure that everyone enjoys it.
Although caviar is best served by itself, common accompaniments and accouterments include creme fraiche, lemon wedges, hard-cooked eggs (yolks and whites chopped separately), mini potatoes, minced onions, blinis, and toast points lightly coated with unsalted butter. Higher quality caviar is best eaten alone or simply with toast, blinis, or unsalted crackers.
When serving different types of caviar, they should be served in the order of the intensity of their tastes, beginning with the least intense and more mild-flavored, such as White Sturgeon, and moving on to those that are intense and more strong in flavor, such as Sevruga.
Allow at least 14 g (½ oz) to 28 g (½ oz) of caviar per person. Refer to the caviar serving chart below:
| TSP | OZ / G | GUEST |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | 1/28 | 1 |
| 8 | 1.75/50 | 2 |
| 9 | 2/56 | 2 |
| 16 | 3.5/100 | 4 |
| 25 | 55/156 | 6 |
| 45 | 55/156 | 6 |
| 80 | 17.6 / 500 | 24 |
| 160 | 35.2/1000 | 50 |
If you are looking to enjoy non-sturgeon roe, specifically, salmon roe, we recommend allowing for at least 28 g (½ oz) of caviar per person. Refer to the roe serving chart below:
| TSP | OZ / G | GUEST |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | 2/56 | 2 |
| 18 | 4/13 | 4 |
| 25 | 5.5/156 | 6 |
| 36 | 17.6 / 500 | 20 |
| 160 | 35.2 /1000 | 40 |
Caviar should be kept refrigerated between 26-35 F. Sturgeon caviar will last for up to 6 weeks in the refrigerator when the container is unopened.
Air is caviar’s greatest enemy. Ideally, it is best to purchase caviar in smaller containers, in size increments that will be consumed in a single seating or caviar service. But, if you have purchased more than you are serving, the remaining caviar should be softly spread flat with a mother-of-pearl spoon, taking care not to break any of the eggs, and then covered with plastic wrap, pressing down ever so gently on the top so no air remains trapped between the eggs and the cover. The remaining caviar should be consumed within the next 3 days.
