Roe vs. Caviar: How to Tell the Difference Between Fish Eggs

Roe is the name for eggs left by nearly all female marine animals—from a sea urchin to a sterlet. For example, salmon eggs are also called salmon roe. These female-produced eggs are sometimes called hard roe to differentiate them from milt (or soft roe)—a type of food derived from the seminal fluids of male fish.

While different types of roe are popular from North America to Russia, roe features particularly prominently in the cuisine of Japan. Tobiko (flying fish roe), masago (capelin roe), or ikura (occasionally called red caviar as it’s a salmon caviar substitute) can be appetizers or ingredients in sushi rolls at Japanese restaurants. Cooks sometimes even infuse them with wasabi or yuzu.

Bottarga, paddlefish, bowfin, mullet, hackleback, lumpfish, whitefish, and cod roe are all typical types of roe you will find worldwide. Like full-grown fish, roe can be a nutritional source of vitamin B12 and omega-3 fatty acids.

Caviar is a type of salted roe, or fish eggs, derived exclusively from the Acipenseridae or wild sturgeon family. To extrapolate further, sturgeon roe is sturgeon caviar, but herring roe is not herring caviar—caviar only refers to the eggs derived from species of sturgeon fish.

Many different sturgeon fish species are producers of caviar. Beluga sturgeon can become beluga caviar, and the same goes for white sturgeon, kaluga, ossetra (sometimes spelled osetra), and Siberian sturgeon. Sevruga caviar is another popular type of sturgeon roe. Unfortunately, sturgeon are subject to overfishing, which is a large part of why expensive caviar prices are so common and why sturgeon have become an endangered species.

People often eat caviar alongside a blini (or Russian pancake) or as a side dish to any meal that benefits from a salty taste and buttery flavor. Sometimes Champagne and a dollop of crème fraîche (or sour cream) accompany caviar, accentuating its reputation as a delicacy.

Roe and caviar have a lot in common, but there are important distinctions. Here are three of the most significant areas in which they differ:

1. 1. Additional ingredients: If you want to appropriately market an item as caviar, the quality caviar must undergo the Malossol (or little salt) treatment, which also helps increase its shelf life. In contrast, roe can have many different types of seasoning.
2. 2. Region: The black caviar of female sturgeon almost always comes from the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions near Iran and Russia. Other types of fish roe come from a host of locations throughout the world in contrast to this rarer type.
3. 3. Type of fish eggs: While all caviar is roe, not all roe is caviar. Caviar always derives from sturgeon, while roe can refer to any type of fish or shellfish eggs. This can sometimes be confusing due to how readily some North American caviar companies will brand other types of fish roe as caviar.

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