Making salmon roe caviar is surprisingly easy, once the hard work of catching the salmon, filleting her and removing the eggs from the skein is complete. In this Instructable, you'll have to catch your own female salmon, but we'll take you through the removal and brining necessary to make salmon roe caviar. Once made, this caviar pairs well with crackers for a snack or an omelette for a magazine cover-worthy breakfast dish.

Step 1: Go Out and Catch a Female Salmon

For this Instructable, we are using wild-caught Alaskan Kenai River sockeye salmon, but you can use any fresh-caught salmon or contact your local fish market to get a salmon egg skein. A female salmon is called a "hen." You can tell if a salmon is a female if it has a rounded snout.

Step 2: Clean and Fillet Salmon

For instructions on cleaning and filleting fish, while keeping the roe in good condition, please go look at our other Instructable on this page.You want to remove the egg sacks with their skeins intact.

https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Fillet-A-Fresh-Caught-Salmon/

Step 3: Rinse Egg Sacks

Once you have your egg sacks separated, rinse the egg sacks in clean running water.

Step 4: Gather Materials Needed

EQUIPMENT:

To separate the eggs from the skein, you will need:

Clean work station
Non-reactive bowl (at least 2 qt capacity)
Sieve
Non-reactive spoon
Salmon egg skeins

Step 5: Open Egg Sacks With Fingers

Once your work station is prepped, open up the egg sacks with your fingers to help separate the eggs.

Step 6: Lay Skein on Work Surface

Once you have opened the egg sack with your fingers, you will lay the skein on the work surface, skein up and eggs down.This is so you can remove the eggs in a more effective manner.

Step 7: Hold Skein Firmly and Scrape

This is where you remove the eggs. You need to hold the skein firmly on the work surface and place the spoon on top of the skein. Then you will scrape the spoon along the top of the skein to remove the eggs from the skein. Do this until all of the eggs are out of the skein. You should be left with a pile of eggs and the skein membrane. Take your time and go slow. Some eggs will invariably break, but you will have plenty left to use.

Step 8: Place Eggs in Sieve and Rinse

Now that you have removed the eggs from the egg skein, place the eggs into the sieve that has been placed inside of the bowl. Keeping the sieve in a bowl reduces the chances of losing eggs down the drain.

Rinse the eggs with cool water, making sure to go through and remove the pieces of skein and blood that could be left over from scraping the skein.

Step 9: Make the Salmon Roe Caviar

INGREDIENTS:

Salmon eggs
1/2 cup salt
2 cups water

EQUIPMENT:

Non-reactive bowl (2 qt capacity or larger)
Sieve
Non-reactive spoon

Step 10: Make Brine

Make a brine with the 1/2 cup salt and 2 cups water in your non-reactive bowl.

Step 11: Soak Eggs in Brine

Add the eggs to the brine. Stir gently to make sure all eggs are separated. Leave the eggs to soak for at least 10 minutes, but up to 30 minutes. The longer you soak the eggs, the saltier the final caviar will be.

Step 12: Rinse Eggs in Cool Running Water

Pour the eggs into the sieve. Rinse them with cool running water, again removing any bits of membrane that may be left. Spoon the caviar into jars, tightly cover and place in refrigerator, or spoon the caviar directly into a decorative bowl and serve immediately.

Step 13: Enjoy or Save for Later

Once your caviar is in a jar, it will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. You can also place it in the freezer where it will keep for up to two months.

This caviar is excellent to put on crackers by itself, or you can place a dollop on an omelette to create a gourmet breakfast good enough to Instagram.

Enjoy!

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