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
Yastychnaya has a long record. Nineteenth-century Russian dictionaries and sturgeon-trade texts describe roe salted whole in its sac; Soviet grades of 1957 list it packed in wooden barrels; a 2004 UN FAO fisheries report names it among the recognised caviar products; and since 2014 it has had its own Russian food standard, GOST 32003-2012, for “ovary caviar of sturgeons”.
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.
Everything in caviar extract, and more. Our extracts contain the egg proteins that caviar extracts are made from, at a similar share to caviar, plus the yastyk’s sphingolipids and the follicle-wall and matrix proteins that sieved caviar leaves behind.
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.
MEASURED, NOT ASSUMED
WHAT THE YASTYK ADDS
3×
SPHINGOMYELIN
The barrier lipid of skin, at three times the level found in the eggs alone.
8×
PHYTOSPHINGOSINES
The sphingolipid family that builds ceramides, eight times richer in the whole roe.
25–50×
STRUCTURAL PROTEINS
Follicle-wall and collagen-type proteins that granular caviar leaves behind.
Lipidomic and proteomic profiling of yastyk tissue against granular roe. Methods and references on our Science page.
WHY CAVIAR CLINIC
WHAT MAKES US UNIQUE
01
THE WHOLE OF THE CAVIAR
Classic caviar keeps only the eggs. We use the whole yastyk: the eggs and the tissue around them.
02
ONE INGREDIENT
Caviar, with nothing added but vitamin E to keep it fresh.
03
PATENTED
Our caviar-oil process is patented in Europe, the US and Japan.
04
EU-FARMED STURGEON
No wild fish and nothing from Russia. Made in the Netherlands.
05
NOTHING FARMED FOR US
We use the yastyk that remains once the caviar has been made.
06
TESTED LOT BY LOT
Every lot is tested by an accredited laboratory and linked back to its farm.
QUALITY
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; microbiology for the extracts; 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.