American Caviar

American caviars are a tasty, versatile alternative to endangered beluga caviar. Did You Know that American caviar now rivals Russia's in quality?

As of January 2006, the United Nations banned export of beluga sturgeon caviar from the Caspian Sea region, because the traditional source of the sought-after roe, reaches the brink of extinction.

With the new ban on Caspian Sea beluga caviar, American chefs are going domestic with our wonderful American caviars.

Caviar, of course, is the eggs of sturgeon which from the earliest times thrived in American waters.

Settlers of America discovered sturgeon to be the most prolific fish of the North American continent. Americans, at first, disdained the sturgeon on which the Indians thrived, and sturgeon was fed only to slaves.

The American caviar industry got started when Henry Schacht, a German immigrant, opened a business catching sturgeon on the Delaware River. He treated his caviar with German salt and exported a great deal of it to Europe. At around the same time, sturgeon was fished from the Columbia River on the west coast.

In the beginning of 19th century, the United States was the major producer of caviar in the world and produced 90% of the world's caviar. By the end of the nineteenth century, the United States was the largest producer of caviar in the world, processing more than 600 tons a year.

In the 1880's, a small town in New Jersey was sending 15 trains loads a day with caviar from the Delaware River sturgeon, headed first to New York and then to all the European capitals.

At one time, caviar was so common in America it was served in saloons to encourage thirsty drinkers. Hudson River sturgeon were so plentiful that the flesh was referred to as "Albany beef." A nickel could get you a serving of the best caviar available in New York, and many of the most lavish establishments, including the Waldorf Astoria, offered free-flowing caviar as an amuse-bouche opening to an elegant meal.

Caviar was also a common food in California during the gold rush days.

Recently, the United States has made a strong comeback in caviar production.

The Pain and Suffering Fois Gras

Foie gras, French for "fatty liver," is made from the grotesquely enlarged livers of male ducks and geese. The birds are kept in tiny wire cages or packed into sheds. Pipes are repeatedly shoved down the birds' throats, and up to 4 pounds of grain and fat are pumped into their stomachs two or three times every day. The pipes puncture many birds' throats, sometimes causing the animals to bleed to death. This cruel procedure causes the birds' livers to become diseased and swell to up to 10 times their normal size. Many birds become too sick to stand up. The birds who survive the force-feeding are killed, and their livers are sold for foie gras. Learn more about investigations of foie gras factory farms.

People around the world have spoken out against the cruelty of foie gras. In 2004, California passed a law banning the sale and production of foie gras effective in 2012, and Chicago banned the sale of this cruel product in 2006. His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI denounced force-feeding as being in violation of Biblical principles, and foie gras production has been outlawed in the U.K., Germany, the Czech Republic, Finland, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Denmark, and Israel.