Sturgeon

Everything you always wanted to know about sturgeon

Sturgeon

Everything you always wanted to know about sturgeon

SPECIES: Acipenseridae

BEST FISHING TIMES: Sturgeon is now mainly offered in aquaculture and can therefore be enjoyed all year round.

PREPARATION: Baked, fried

RELATED TO: European house, Oscietra sturgeon

TASTE:

The tender, white meat of the sturgeon is considered to be low in fat and is known for its strong flavor. However, the sturgeon is not so popular mainly because of its unique meat, but because of its eggs, the so-called roe. The caviar obtained from them has very different flavors and consistencies, depending on the type of sturgeon, and is particularly popular with gourmets.

The sturgeon belongs to the genus of bony fish, or more precisely, it is a primitive bony fish. This means that the sturgeon has been swimming around our seas for over 200 million years. It lives in Europe, North and Central Asia and North America, but is now also bred in many aquacultures. The fish mainly move along the bottom of the water and feed on invertebrates and other fish. To spawn, however, the sturgeon moves to flowing freshwater near the coast with a gravel or stone bottom.

The sturgeon's appearance is unmistakable. While its skin color is rather unspectacular, ranging from all possible shades of brown to gray and black, it attracts attention with its distinctive bony plates that line up from its head to its fin. Its long snout and tail fin, reminiscent of a shark, also make the sturgeon easy to recognize. Depending on the species, sturgeon can reach sizes of 30 centimeters to seven meters. Most grow to between one and three meters in length and weigh several hundred kilograms.

The sturgeon family includes three genera with more than 20 species of bony fish, all of which are on the verge of extinction due to overfishing. Since wild fishing is now prohibited, sturgeon is only bred in aquaculture. The most famous sturgeons are the European sturgeon (Huso huso), the Oscietra sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii) and the Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baeri). But the Sevruga sturgeon (Acipenser stellatus), the Amur sturgeon (Acipenser schrenckii) and the Kaluga sturgeon (Huso dauricus) have also made a name for themselves.

These species are also the most popular because of their caviar. The varieties, which are named after the respective species of sturgeon, differ in shape, color, taste and consistency. They are called, for example, Beluga caviar, Oscietra caviar, Siberian caviar or Sevruga caviar.
Although sturgeon is better known for its caviar, it is still considered as an edible fish. It is particularly suitable for smoking or baked whole.