Gastronomic etiquette dictates certain rules for serving red and black caviar. They are different for these delicacies. There are different ways of how to serve salmon roe. Whichever of them you favor, it is important to know what goes well with salmon roe and how to serve it, adhering to the universal rules of gastronomic etiquette.

How do you make salmon roe taste good? To make salmon roe taste good, serve it on crackers, croutons, baguettes with butter. Decorate these sandwiches with olives, cucumber or lemon slices. Sandwiches can be multi-layered, and redfish can be used as an interlayer. You can also combine salmon roe with boiled eggs, pancakes, or foie gras.

These are just a few examples of how to serve salmon roe. Let’s dive right in. Here is a detailed guide on what goes well with sturgeon caviar and how to serve it.

Ultimate Guide on How to Serve Salmon Roe

How do you eat salmon eggs? Salmon roe is usually served on the table, both as an independent snack and with other products. When organizing banquets and buffets in European countries, you will need approximately 1 ounce of salmon roe (red caviar) for each guest — this is about 30 grams of salmon roe.

Salmon roe is traditionally served in glass, silver, wooden or porcelain bowls with a small spoon. Do not use metal cutlery with the salmon roe as this leads to the loss of the taste and useful qualities of the delicacy. Salmon roe should be served chill. Chilled red caviar has the best taste. For this reason, caviar is often placed in a container with crushed ice and is changed from time to time so that during the evening, the delicacy remains cool.

What to Eat with Salmon Roe?

1. Salmon roe + salted salmon slices + cream cheese + dill (roll)
2. Salmon roe + hard-boiled eggs (chicken or quail) + salted whipped cream + chives
3. Salmon roe + potato mini-pancakes + fat sour cream + very finely chopped shallots
4. Salmon roe + brioche slices fried in a dry pan + whipped butter + salt
5. Salmon roe + cucumber slices + curd cream (curd cheese, green adjika and some yogurt) + green onions

Red caviar can be served on crackers, croutons, baguettes after greasing them with butter. The appetizer looks attractive if the sandwiches have unusual shapes like squares, circles, triangles, hearts, etc. You can decorate the sandwiches with olives, cucumber or lemon slices. Sandwiches can be multi-layered; redfish can be used as an interlayer.

Salmon roe goes well with potato chips, halves of boiled eggs (chicken or quail). In Russia, caviar is usually served with pancakes, in France — with foie gras.

Butter helps to reveal the taste of red caviar, which is why sandwiches with bread, butter and red caviar are so popular. Salmon roe goes well with pancakes or crackers or tartlets. Modern cuisine also offers more original solutions: caviar with baked potatoes, cucumbers, chips, potato pancakes, and also as an ingredient in fish snacks.

In French restaurants, salmon roe is combined with foie gras, asparagus and artichokes. It is also served with baguettes or original caviar baskets. In Germany, caviar omelettes, stuffed eggs and classic white bread sandwiches with salmon roe have become popular.

One of Finland’s most popular dishes is Myati, which is made from red caviar, finely chopped onions and seasoned with thick high-fat sour cream. Meat is usually served with rye cakes or grain bread. This dish is spread on bread or eaten with a bite. For sandwiches, both butter and sour cream are used, sprinkled with onions, dill and black pepper on top.

What do you eat with salmon caviar? Butter and white unsweetened pastries are the ideal partners for salmon caviar. For example, bake savory profiteroles. Put a little softened butter or any cream cheese (Philadelphia, mascarpone) in them and fill with salmon caviar.

For a mini sandwich, you can also use white toast, which is cut into a fish, herringbone, or oval shape using a cookie cutter. If you put a few slices of olives on salmon caviar, the tartlet will easily turn into a “ladybug.” Round and square crackers, shortbread baskets, potato chips, whole grain bread are also the perfect base for your caviar snack. As a decoration, you can use a sprig of greens, green peas, slices of avocado or lemon.

Foods that go well with red caviar:

• black and white bread, crispy toasts, baguettes, biscuits;
• salted pastries (tartlets, crackers, biscuits, profiteroles);
• pancakes;
• foie gras (traditional French dish);
• butter (a small amount of product is enough);
• buttercreams (with the addition of herbs, cheese, olives, sour cream, salted canned fish, etc.);
• curd cheeses;
• boiled eggs (chicken and quail);
• olives, avocados, fresh and pickled cucumbers;
• salted or smoked redfish;
• baked small potatoes and potato chips;
• boiled rice.

When choosing additional components for red caviar, it is important to choose products that do not have a bright taste, otherwise, the delicacy will be lost in the dish, while it should dominate and give real pleasure. For example, caviar should not be combined with meat, hot spices, sweets and fruits.

Salmon Roe and Eggs

Red caviar cannot be combined with jellied meat, meat or mushrooms, but it makes a harmonious tandem with an egg. The snack is very simple to prepare. Boil hard-boiled eggs and cut them in half. Remove the yolk, mash it with a fork and add approximately equal proportions of heavy whipped cream and softened butter. Salt the resulting delicate yolk cream and squeeze half of the protein out of a pastry bag in the form of a beautiful rose. Top with red caviar and thin green chives.

Salmon Roe and Vegetables

You can stuff with caviar not only baked goods or eggs but also vegetables. Vegetables that are too juicy and bright in taste (tomatoes, bell peppers) are not suitable for this purpose. It is better to take a potato. It can be boiled and cut into round slices, fried until golden brown and served with a fish delicacy. Another option is to bake small peeled tubers in foil in the oven, then cut them in half, scoop out the core and fill it with cream cheese and caviar.

For those guests who limit themselves in the use of fats and carbohydrates, you can offer diet tartlets, in which, instead of bread, a slice of fresh cucumber or its half is used, greased with feta cheese.

Also, red caviar goes well with avocado. For a spectacular snack, cut the soft green fruit in half, remove the seed and extract the pulp. Then mash it in a puree, add a little lemon juice, whipped cream and finely chopped dill. Put the resulting mass back into the avocado halves and top with red caviar. The finished snack will need to be eaten with a spoon.

Japanese Way to Serve Salmon Roe

Your guests will surely appreciate it if you serve the red caviar in Japanese. The most important thing in such a snack is to properly cook rice: 1 kg of medium-sized white round rice. Pour 1.2 liters of cold water (the liquid should be higher than the grains by one phalanx of your finger), bring to a boil and cook without a lid until the liquid over a layer of rice will not evaporate. Then reduce heat, close the lid and hold for another 10-15 minutes.

Then add a special sushi sauce (for 1 kg – 150 ml), which can be bought in supermarkets in the Asian food departments, mix thoroughly, cool a little, take about 20 g of rice in your hands, roll a small lump, smear it with wasabi horseradish and put in red caviar. This will make simple nigiri sushi. If you tie them with a strip of nori, there will be complicated nigiri, and if you make a small bag of seaweed and fill it with rice and red caviar.

Fresh sea urchin should be stored in cool water at a temperature of 40°F (4-6°C). Fresh sea urchins should be stored no longer than 24 hours, or they will get a bitter taste and lose their nutritional value. Refrigerator storing can affect the sea urchin’s quality, so try to eat sea urchins right away without storing. 

The volume of water should exceed the volume of sea urchins by 2 times or more. Sea urchins must be protected from exposure to sunlight and precipitation. To increase the viability of sea urchins during storage in boxes, echinoderms should be irrigated with seawater. It is very unlikely that you will have seawater in your house, so you can use tap water instead.

How do you store a uni in the fridge? You should not store a uni in the fridge. Storing sea urchin roe in the fridge affects the quality of the seafood. Roe eggs can spread, darken and change their taste. Sea urchin eggs will lose their elasticity and lose their nutritional value. That is why sea urchins should be eaten fresh right after they were caught or bought.

How long does uni last in the fridge? If you can’t eat a uni right away, put it in cool water in the fridge at a temperature of up to +5°C. The sea urchin will last around 48 hours in the fridge, so you should hurry up and eat it before it dies. Containers used for packing sea urchins must be clean, free of foreign smell, protect echinoderms from external factors, such as direct sunlight.

How long can a sea urchin live out of water? Sea urchins can live out of the water only for 3-5 days. That is why you need to keep them in cool 4-6°C water if you want to enjoy a fresh sea urchin roe.

Canning is the best way to preserve sea urchin roe. If you follow all the rules on sea urchin roe preservation, it will keep its vitamins and minerals and the taste and unique aroma.

Sea urchin roe storing in refrigerators will result in biochemical and physical changes, affecting its quality. Scientists have noticed the sand darkening of color, a change in taste of sea urchin roe, which was stored frozen and underwent a defrosting process. During storage of frozen sea urchin roe, substances with a pronounced bitter taste accumulate in them, determining the taste of frozen caviar. These substances are various acids that have no nutritional value for our health.

Can you freeze sea urchin? You can’t freeze sea urchin and sea urchin roe, as low temperatures will change the sea urchin eggs’ structure. These changes occur due to the recrystallization of moisture when smaller crystals of moisture melt and larger ones increase in size. This also leads to an increase in the loss of juice inside the sea urchin roe after defrosting.

The moisture redistribution process also affects the elasticity and appearance of the sea urchin roe—the color changes due to the different optical refraction of moisture crystals of different sizes. Evaporation of moisture from the surface layer and the accumulation of dyes also affect sea urchin roe color change.

That said, you should not try to store sea urchins because they can’t be put in the freezer or a fridge for a long time. The best way to enjoy sea urchin is to catch or buy it and eat right away. Sea urchins are extremely healthy. Here is a detailed guide of sea urchin health benefits.

Sea urchin roe is often used in the preparation of sushi, rolls, sashimi. Sea urchin roe has a rather specific taste, but if served in combination with other products, it acquires a softer and more familiar taste. It is even a national product in Mediterranean countries. In Italy, Croatia and other countries, sea urchin roe is included in the daily diet along with other seafood. Sea urchin roe is eaten fresh, salted, canned. Preserving roe allows you to improve its organoleptic properties and increase its shelf life up to several months.

Sea urchins should not be stored but eaten right away. Go to a local seafood restaurant and try these delicacies. You will only experience a true sea urchin taste if you eat a fresh sea urchin.  As we can see, you have to choose between long shelf life and the rich nutrient content of sea urchin roe.

There are more than 900 species of sea urchins, but only about 30 species are edible. Only two types of sea urchins are of commercial importance — the European edible sea urchin (Echinus esculentus) and Green Sea Urchin (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis).

What sea urchins can you eat? Only two types of sea urchins are commonly eaten — The European edible sea urchin (Echinus esculentus) and Green Sea Urchin (Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis). However, you can also eat red sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus), purple sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus), dark purple sea urchin (Sphaerechinus granularis). 

The first edible sea urchin (Echinus esculentus) is found along the coast of Europe, from the Barents Sea to Spain and Portugal. It is distinguished by a red tint of the shell, covered with reddish needles with purple tips, and is rather big (up to 30 cm). It has a large, up to 16 cm in diameter, spherical, slightly flattened at the bottom reddish shell, covered with short, thin reddish needles with purple tips.

The roe inside their shell is the dream of gourmets of popular culinary exoticism. Its roe is very nutritious and healthy. Sea urchin roe contains up to 35 percent fat and up to 20 percent protein. It is eaten raw, salted, fried, boiled and pickled.

What is the most common sea urchin? The most common sea urchin is Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis, widespread throughout the North Atlantic, along North Sea shores and in the Pacific Ocean. It is slightly inferior in size and has a more varied color: from grayish-green to gray, purple and coal-black.

It is found at depths of up to 1200 m. The body of the sea urchin is spherical, slightly flattened from back to the abdomen. The size of the shell is smaller and rarely exceeds 9 cm in diameter. The color can be very different — from whitish-green to dark purple, almost black. The length of the needles may vary greatly from the specimen.

All edible sea urchins are extremely useful: medications are made from sea urchin roe to reduce stress and anti-aging creams and pills. But catching sea urchins is not easy as these are bottom animals. They do not go to the nets, so specially trained diving teams to take them from the bottom manually.

Are any sea urchins poisonous to eat? What sea urchins are poisonous? Flower sea urchin (Toxopneustes pileolus) and Asthenosoma varium sea urchins are extremely poisonous. Their venom can cause muscle paralysis due to the effect on the nervous system. They also cause difficulty breathing and slow down the activity of the heart muscle.

What Sea Urchins Can You Eat?

Here are a few more urchins that you can eat:

• The red sea urchin (Strongylocentrotus franciscanus) is found along the Pacific coast all the way to Alaska. These sea urchins are also harvested for the sake of tasty and healthy roe.
• Purple sea urchin (Paracentrotus lividus) lives in the east Atlantic, including the Mediterranean Sea. The diameter of the shell is up to 7 cm. The needles are long and sharp. Its gonads are considered a delicacy in France.
• The dark purple sea urchin (Sphaerechinus granularis) lives in the east of the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. They live in shallow waters (usually no deeper than 30 meters). Its roe is hidden in a shell up to 15 cm in diameter.

This is far from the entire list of edible sea urchins. Still, in huge quantities, as mentioned above, only the two species are harvested, with Japan being the leader of the “sea urchin” fishery. The Japanese highly value the sea urchin roe as it is believed that its useful properties are not inferior to the famous ginseng root.

In the Far East, sea urchins are caught mainly from April to August, when the eggs become sexually mature. Sea urchins are hunted by the hands of divers, who collect them in places of concentration. The work is quite laborious and dangerous, but it pays off a hundredfold since a pound of sea urchins costs more than $10. If you convert kilograms into tons (a small group of divers collects up to 5 tons of sea urchins per day) and then into money, you get a pretty good profit.

Sea urchins are widespread throughout the World Ocean — from cold waters off Antarctica’s coast to the warm seas of the equatorial belt. Some sea urchins species prefer to settle near the coast, while others can be found even at a depth of 7000 m. Edible sea urchins live in the Atlantic Ocean off the European continent from Spain to Svalbard at depths from 5 to 100 m, although sometimes it can be found at a depth of 1200 m.

People around the world appreciate the culinary dishes of sea urchins. In Mediterranean cuisine, in South America, in Japan, they are eaten raw with lemon. The roe of the sea urchin is very highly valued. The price of sea urchin roe can go up to $450 per 1 kg. It is used to prepare soups, sauces for fish and meat dishes, and sushi.

Particularly spectacular sea urchins, beautiful with long black spines, can often be found in domestic saltwater aquariums. Moreover, they are kept for their attractive appearance, but sea urchins also cope well with the uncontrolled growth of plants in the aquarium, acting as a natural cleaner. In this sense, they are similar to invertebrates like shrimp, crabs, etc.

Since ancient times, on various continents, the inhabitants of coastal settlements have used sea urchins for food, but this tradition has survived to this day only in a few countries. The main consumers of sea urchins are now the Japanese islands’ inhabitants, more precisely, the wealthy Japanese. Sea urchins are supplied to this country from 17 countries. In addition to their own producers, the main suppliers are the United States, Chile, Peru, China, Canada, South Korea, North Korea, and Russia. The world catch of 18 species of commercial sea urchins is about 117 thousand tons per year.

The very “organization” of sea urchins’ body does not imply that they have a significant amount of muscle mass or body fat. For food, only segments of the developed sex glands of males and females are used, which, by the way, visually, without breaking the shell, are almost impossible to distinguish. 

There are five of these “reproductive” lobules in the sea urchin, very similar in shape to the lobules of a mandarin. By the beginning of spawning, the volume of the gonads reaches 6-20% of the total weight of the sea urchin. Roe color is highly variable and depends on sex, maturity, feeding conditions, species, catch season, storage methods and other factors. Depending on the color of the product, experts divide the sea urchin roe into many varieties. Bright yellow and orange color indicates a fresh and high-quality product. The raw product goes directly to the preparation of dishes such as sushi, and some roe is stored in alcohol for further processing.

Sea urchins are real long-livers and are considered the elixir of youth in many countries. Believe it or not, it is a controversial issue since there have been no authoritative studies on the relationship between life expectancy and the frequency of eating sea urchins. The composition of sea urchins’ roe is impressive: it contains almost all vitamins, a huge amount of micro-and macroelements — calcium, magnesium, potassium, iodine, phosphorus, omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, as well as amino acids.

To fully understand a sea urchin’s taste, you need to choose the food and drinks that go well with them.

What goes well with sea urchin? Sea urchin is eaten as is, without any food, though raw yolk can be added to sea urchin to emphasizes its taste. Citrus, mango and chili also go well with sea urchins, giving it a brighter flavor. As for the drinks, champagne and sake go well with sea urchins. The classic drink for sea urchins is white wine such as Muscadet or Chablis. 

Sea Urchin Serving Guide: What to Eat and Drink with Sea Urchins?

How do you eat sea urchins? Ideally, you need to eat sea urchin roe with a dessert spoon directly from its own shell, opened by a skilled chef. Ice white wine, preferably with a fruity tint, is an ideal sea urchin pairing.

When serving a sea urchin, you need to pay attention to its color, smell and appearance. The needles of a properly stored and opened sea urchin do not stick out in different directions, but on the contrary, they adhere to the body and, ideally, move slightly. Fresh sea urchin roe is pumpkin-orange, medium-grained (texture reminiscent of papaya), and its pure milky-water aroma is reminiscent of oysters but more iodine.

Sea urchin roe is a delicacy and is best eaten on its own and enjoyed. Its subtle taste reminds of oysters with meaty notes to some – a sweetish scallop with a taste of ripe papaya.

Sea urchins are most often eaten as is, but some chefs advise adding some sauces to brighten the taste. Chefs like adding ponzu sauce, which is a light Japanese sauce based on citrus fruits, soy sauce and rice wine. Citrus fruits generally go well with sea urchins. Sweet lemons, tangerines, orange, a couple of drops of yuzu juice will go great with sea urchins.

You can make sea urchin roe tartare with fresh cucumber. Raw egg yolk also goes well with the sea urchin as they have a certain similarity in taste, and the egg goes with the fresh, iodine taste of the sea urchin.

Sea urchin roe is often added to the pasta. For example, you can cook spaghetti del Mare, and before serving, add aromatic, sea-flavored orange sea urchin roe. You can also put sea urchin roe in a glass of sake and immediately drink it. Or serve canapes made from a wedge of fresh apple or cucumber with uni roe on top to a glass of champagne — simple and elegant.

Sea urchin roe is recognized as the most beneficial ingredient in the body of this seafood delicacy. It contains nutrients, amino acids, useful minerals. It has a beneficial effect on the digestive system and helps to normalize a person’s blood pressure.

Sea urchin row should be eaten raw. It can be sprinkled with lime juice before eating. In some situations, sea urchin has a pronounced iodine flavor that spoils the dish’s overall impression. To remove this smell from roe, add 2-3 teaspoons of liquor, then mix everything.

You will need 70-120 grams of sea urchin roe per person, depending on your appetite. Some Japanese restaurants serve sashimi-style sea urchin roe, which is raw but completely ready to eat, sometimes flavored with savory sauces. The only difference with the usual way of enjoying a delicacy is that you don’t have to extract the treat from the shell yourself.

How do you open sea urchins? Sea urchins are opened with scissors, special forceps, knives, special nippers, tweezers. The flat part of the shell is cut off, with a mouth opening, from the middle to the edge. The eggs are in the lower part, represented by 5 orange or yellow gonads attached to the wall. The cup with caviar is washed, the intestines are removed. Carefully separate the caviar from the shell and put on a plate. Freshly caught sea urchin caviar can be eaten raw.

Can you cook sea urchins? You should not cook sea urchins and subject them to heat treatment, as it will destroy the delicate taste and elastic texture of the sea urchin’s roe. That is why sea urchins are most often served raw as an aperitif before serving hot dishes. In European countries, sea urchin’s roe is also used as a delicate sauce for fresh pasta or omelet-soufflé, in Asian — as an exquisite topping for rolls.

Are sea urchins alive when you eat them? Sea urchins can be served alive in restaurants. Since sea urchins are most often eaten raw, you might get a sea urchin that is still alive. But it is good since alive sea urchins are fresh and will taste better. Alive sea urchins have a very delicate texture and a bright flavor that reminds oysters. Sea urchins are perishable by definition: they are very sensitive to changes in salinity and water composition.

Sea Urchin Wine Pairing Guide

What drinks go well with sea urchins? White wine and champagne go best with sea urchins. Sea urchins are always eaten at the beginning of the evening—order champagne blanc de blanc from Champagne, Franciacorta or prosecco sparkling wine. You can also drink sake with sea urchins. 

The sea urchin contains a record amount of nutrients that have a beneficial effect on health. The most delicate roe of this rare delicacy is rightfully considered a real elixir of youth and has a pronounced sea (iodine) taste. A pair of sea urchins should be matched with light in texture, bright in taste and aroma, with high acidity wines with pronounced minerality. The white wine of the Loire Valley from grapes Folle blanc, chardonnay from Burgundy and, of course, champagne will go best with sea urchins.

You should not follow some strict rules for eating sea urchins with wine. In this case, a wide range of light white wines with good acidity are suitable: from the classic Chablis to the trendy German Rieslings. The only thing I would recommend avoiding is more complex wines with a long aftertaste. This is when the simpler, the better, since the rich iodine hue of sea urchins can overpower the true taste of the drink.

The sea urchin is an exotic product. It swims in the Pacific Ocean and is very popular in East Asia. Sea urchins are also very popular in Italy, in the Mediterranean Sea. Tourists highly appreciate the sea urchin dishes. The main distinguishing feature of this delicacy is the presence of sharp needles, which protect against external threats and obtain food. The needles also help you navigate the ocean floor.

Are sea urchins valuable? Sea urchins are extremely valuable for our health since they increase the adaptive capabilities of a person to increased physical activity, accelerates the body’s recovery in case of overwork, stimulates hematopoiesis, normalizes the level of leukocytes, increases the level of hemoglobin and erythrocytes in the blood.

But these are not the only reasons why sea urchins are so good and valuable for our health. Let’s dive into the reasons why sea urchins are so popular, valuable, and expensive.

Why Are Sea Urchins So Valuable?

Sea urchins are so valuable because they reduce stress, help to concentrate, strengthens the capillaries of the brain, protect from seasonal epidemics of respiratory infections in large cities, stabilizes the function of the endocrine system, removes the toxins from the body. All this makes sea urchins extremely valuable for our health. 

Nutritional value per 100 g: 13.8 g of proteins, 4.3 g of fat, 2.5 g of carbohydrates. The product is low-calorie, 100 g contains only 86 kcal. Sea urchin roe is slightly higher in calories — 104 kcal per 100 g. The product’s glycemic index is only 15 units, which makes it an acceptable product for those who have diabetes.

Sea urchins contain many elements and vitamins that make them very valuable, namely:

• Fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and water-soluble vitamins C, B6, P – niacin, B2 – riboflavin, B1 – thiamine, folacin, etc.
• Biologically active substances: carnitine, dopamine and norepinephrine, sterols, peptides, fatty acids, terpenoids, aromatic compounds, and saponins.
• Protein mixtures with a sufficiently high specific activity of thymidine and thymidylate kinase enzymes.
• Bioactive suspension with the presence of two types of endodeoxyribonucleases, which are designated respectively as Ca, Mg-dependent, and acidic metal-independent DNases.
• Carotenoids, naphthoquinones, and melanin.
• Additionally, depending on the season, lipofuscin is present.

Is Sea Urchin Good for Your Health?

What are sea urchins good for? Sea urchins give powerful support for the nervous system during periods of stress overload, moments that require an increased concentration of attention, and long periods without the possibility of sleep. Sea urchin consumption significantly activates the work of the human reproductive and circulatory systems, strengthening the brain’s capillaries, serving as powerful prevention of stroke and sclerosis. Sea urchins protect us from seasonal epidemics of respiratory infections in large cities and stabilize the endocrine system’s function.

What are the benefits of eating sea urchin? The benefits of eating sea urchins are the rejuvenation of the body, the growth of physical, mental, and reproductive abilities. Sea urchin’s useful and medicinal properties are because echinoderms daily eat algae, which nourish meat and caviar with an exceptional composition of minerals, vitamins, and other substances.

Sea urchins roe improves blood formation, promotes tissue regeneration, prevents cancer, removes toxins and radionuclides from the human body. It reduces the unwanted effects of radiation therapy, normalizes the state of the gastrointestinal tract, improves the body’s adaptation to adverse conditions, helps with fatigue, and reduces the impact of stressful situations on health.

Literally half an hour after taking sea urchin roe, a person feels a surge of strength, efficiency increases, attention, and memory improves. In Japan, sea urchin is primarily valued for its anti-ageing properties, the ability to increase the body’s defences.

Why Are Sea Urchins So Expensive?

Why are sea urchins expensive? Sea urchins are expensive because intense fishing leads to their shortage even in the sea urchin-dense areas. The demand is a lot bigger than the supply. Sea urchins must be eaten fresh, but they die quickly, so lack of time and shortage of the sea urchin supply make sea urchins costly. 

How expensive is sea urchin? According to Citarella supermarket, 1 pound of a fresh wild sea urchin in 2021 will cost $13. 1 pound of sea urchin (uni) roe Grade A will cost $315, and 1 pound of sea urchin (uni) roe Grade B will cost $198.

Sea urchin roe is a delicacy and is best eaten on its own and enjoyed. Its subtle taste reminds of oysters with meaty notes to some – a sweetish scallop with a taste of ripe papaya.

It’s nice to add some sauce to the sea urchin roe, but not to hammer the whole delicate taste, but to make the taste brighter. You can cook ponzu, a light Japanese sauce based on citrus fruits, soy sauce, and rice wine. Citrus fruits generally go well with sea urchins. But you shouldn’t take lime as it’s too acidic. Sweet lemons, tangerines, orange, a couple of drops of yuzu juice will go great.

You can make sea urchin roe tartare with fresh cucumber. Raw egg yolk goes well with sea urchins and has a certain similarity in taste, and the egg well compliments the fresh, iodine taste of this sea creature.

Sea urchins are often used for cooking pasta. For example, you can cook spaghetti del Mare, and before serving, add aromatic, sea-flavored orange sea urchin roe. The main thing here is not to overexpose the roe on the fire, let it remain raw.

You can also put a teaspoon of sea urchin roe in a glass of sake and immediately drink it. Or serve canapes made from a slice of fresh apple or cucumber with caviar on top of a glass of champagne.

What to drink with sea urchin row? The same combinations work here as with oysters. Of course, it’s a good idea to serve champagne, and sake will go well, too. But the best match for sea urchin is white wine. Something too fruity, perfumery, with a sharp acidity will not work here. The bouquet should be very light, unobtrusive. In general, the sea urchin is not food but decoration. It is important not to gorge yourself, but to taste, to get aesthetic pleasure from the process.