YASTYCHNAYA
CAVIAR, KEPT WHOLE
THE YASTYK
Yastyk (YAHS-tik) is the Russian word for the delicate sac in which a sturgeon’s roe grows. It holds the eggs, the fine tissue around them and their layers of fat.
YASTYCHNAYA
Yastychnaya (YAHS-tich-nuh-yuh) caviar is caviar kept whole in its yastyk. Classic caviar is made by rubbing the roe through a sieve, which separates the eggs and leaves the yastyk behind. Along the Volga, caviar makers also kept roe whole and salted it as it was. It was the everyday caviar of the river, and it never went to waste.
THE RECORD
19th century: dictionaries of the Russian language and the sturgeon trade describe roe salted whole in its sac, without sieving.
1957: Soviet commercial grades describe yastychnaya caviar packed in wooden barrels, sometimes with its fatty layers.
2004: a United Nations FAO fisheries report lists yastychnaya caviar among the recognised caviar products.
2014: Russia’s food standard for “ovary caviar of sturgeons” (GOST 32003-2012) comes into force.
WHAT WE DO WITH IT
We take the same yastyk, from sturgeon farmed in the European Union, after the caviar has been made. In the Netherlands, our patented process recovers two things the old caviar makers always kept: the yastyk’s fat, as a pure caviar oil, and its proteins, from both the eggs and the tissue around them, as caviar extracts.
Old idea, modern standard. Every lot is traceable to its farms and tested by an accredited laboratory. The tradition is from the Volga. Our sturgeon are not. They are farmed in the EU, and nothing we make comes from Russia or from wild fish.
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WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE
The whole of the caviar. Classic caviar keeps only the eggs. We use the whole yastyk: the eggs and the tissue around them, the signature of yastychnaya caviar.
One ingredient. Nothing added but vitamin E to keep it fresh.
Patented. Our caviar-oil process is patented in Europe, the US and Japan.
EU-farmed sturgeon. No wild fish, nothing from Russia. Made in the Netherlands.
Nothing farmed for us. We use the yastyk that remains once the caviar has been made.
Tested lot by lot. Every lot is tested by an accredited laboratory and linked back to the farm.
Measured, not assumed. Our yastyk extracts carry about three times the sphingomyelin of caviar and 25 to 50 times its collagen-matrix proteins. The figures and references are on our Science page.
TESTED LOT BY LOT
Every lot is released only after an accredited laboratory has tested it: fatty-acid profile and freshness (peroxide value) for the oil and pearls; microbiology for the extracts and pearls; heavy metals and arsenic for all products.
Each certificate is linked to the farm and processing lot numbers.
What’s inside, measured. Our oil is naturally rich in oleic acid (about 40%), with omega-3 EPA and DHA and omega-6 linoleic acid. Protein analysis of our extracts finds caviar-egg proteins together with proteins from the ovarian tissue around the eggs: the fingerprint of yastyk caviar.