In “Southern caviar is wild, nutty, and...sustainable?” Gravy reporter Irina Zhorov takes us to the Tombigbee River, where valuable paddlefish swim, and makes a case for caviar as an ingredient with a Southern pedigree.

Every mature female fish makes roe—that’s the term for their clusters of unfertilized eggs. But caviar, for purists, comes from an ancient fish called sturgeon. There are more than two dozen species of sturgeon, but the best-known caviars come from a handful of species native to Russia and Central Asia: Beluga, Sevruga, Kaluga and Osetra. These fish are diadromous, which means they can live in both rivers and seas. And historically they were caught in the wild, their roe processed into caviar, and eventually sent around the world. Though fish roe started out as poor people’s food in Russia, it evolved to be synonymous with luxury, royalty.

However, sturgeon were so overfished that it is now illegal in most places to import their wild-harvested caviar.

In the U.S., too, several species of sturgeon were once dense along the eastern coast, in the Great Lakes, in California, and elsewhere. Indigenous tribes and white settlers alike consumed Atlantic sturgeon before a caviar rush in the 1800s diminished their numbers. It’s illegal to fish for most domestic sturgeon.

Today, more than 99 percent of caviar globally comes from farms, mostly in China.

There are a few exceptions to this rule in the U.S. Small shovelnose sturgeon can still be harvested in some areas for caviar.  And paddlefish—which is not a sturgeon, but its close cousin—is fair game in some states, too. The fish live in the Mississippi River and its tributaries.

While the U.S. has an available supply of wild-caught, high-quality caviar, it lacks a clear cultural context for how to enjoy this decadent treat. In this episode, Zhorov speaks to Mike Kelley of Kelley’s Katch, a Tennessee caviar producer, and biologist Steve Rider, who studies paddlefish populations in Alabama, to learn about a food that’s from the South but, paradoxically, not at all associated with Southern cuisine.

Some people and companies are trying to educate American consumers about caviar and to modernize the way domestic consumers eat the food. That can include parties with caviar tutorials and introducing new, American ways to indulge, like with a dollop of caviar on Doritos. Christine Lemieux, one-half of the company Caviar Dream, explains how this delicacy can be for everyone.

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