Pressed caviar ✦

Caviar pressé (payusnaya)

What it is

Payusnaya is built from the grains that burst on the sieve: salted, drained in muslin and compressed into a dark slab, with several kilos of roe going into each kilo of block. It was never the lesser product in Russia — it kept for months where loose grain kept for weeks, which made it the caviar that could travel.

In the kitchen

Slice it cold with a hot blade into sheets, or melt a spoonful into a warm butter sauce. It is the one caviar that takes heat without loss, because its grains are already broken.

Goes with

Butter Rye berries Egg Shallot Crème fraîche Black pepper

Same species

Caviar Baerii caviar White sturgeon caviar Adriatic sturgeon caviar Osetra caviar Schrenckii caviar

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