Have you ever tried pairing black caviar with cheese? Bester's Caviar Guide

Choosing a perfect pairing for caviar can be challenging: you should find a product that won’t mask the flavors of fish eggs, but emphasize and supplement it. Of course, you should have heard about classical combinations like caviar with mini-pancakes and crème fraîche you can find in any caviar store. But what if you want to expand your horizons and taste something not so common, but still marvelous, try combining cheese with caviar.

At first, the pairing of gourmet cheese and caviar might seem odd to you, but these products actually make a really elegant and rich food combo. In this article, we prepared the main info you should know in order to enjoy these two items together.

Why are caviar and cheese a wonderful pairing?

So, fish roe and cheese? Not something very appealing to put on your dinner table. However, we would ask you to discard this thought: caviar stands out among other fish snacks you imagine. Due to its specific flavor characteristics, it would become a great match for fatty, creamy cheese. And to reinforce this statement, we have described three main reasons why you should give a chance to caviar with cheese. 

One Taste Balances the Other One

Let’s start with the most obvious reason: taste. Caviar is salty and earthy, and tastes like ocean water, while cheese is creamy, buttery, and sometimes sharp or smoky. This contrast makes it work: for the same reasons, the aforementioned crème fraîche, another dairy product, has become one of the most popular caviar toppings. 

Matching Textures

This point is also about contrast, but the one regarding the textures. Caviar consists of small pearls with a rich nutty flavor that burst into your mouth. Cheese, on the other hand, is smooth and silky. When combined, it will create a unique feeling in your mouth you will be impressed with.

Product Variety 

Although only fish roe spawned by sturgeons is considered one true caviar, there is still a variety of caviar types you can choose from, and all of them would taste differently. With cheese, the range is even wider, with light and cream sorts, or heavier and richer examples like blue cheese. All in all, with caviar and cheese, connoisseurs have a lot of space to break patterns, research, and try out.

What cheese goes with caviar?

So, what cheese to choose? There are no strict rules that will forbid you to combine a certain type of cheese with caviar, so you are free in your experiments: maybe you will discover a combo no one has been really expecting, but it would be a blast for your dinner party.

However, if you are not sure about your culinary intuition, and you don’t feel lucky, you can base your cheese selection on this simple rule: give a preference to soft sorts of cheese over hard ones, as you want to taste caviar as a stand-alone component and avoid excessive chewing which would hide the caviar flavor tones. At the same time, caviar with cream cheese would be a safe option for any occasion you might think of.

And don’t forget about the beverages: classical combinations like caviar and wine or champagne would be a great choice for the classy caviar-cheese party or an intimate date with your significant other.

Bester’s Caviar Pairing Guide: gourmet cheese and caviar

If you want to start with proven combinations, our team has gathered the best examples you can serve to your table.

Caviar Osietra Classic and Camembert

One of the most popular cow’s milk cheeses would be a great addition to our osietra caviar from a top Italian aqua farm. Creamy, watery, with crisp surface Camembert, will give an interesting earthy aftertaste to your caviar canape.

Royal Beluga Hybrid and Gouda

This cheese of Dutch origin will be one of the hard cheeses we would mention here. Gouda is also made from cow milk, and the more this cheese ages, the more pungent becomes its taste. Hence, if you want to keep the flavor unobtrusive and focus on beluga caviar, we suggest choosing young Gouda against matured. 

Osetra Karat Black and Fortina

Fortina is an exquisite cow's milk semi-soft cheese. It is loved due to its buttery, nutty flavor. Does it remind you of something?... Right, this description sounds much like caviar, so it would be really an intriguing experience to mix it with the rich aftertaste of osetra caviar from Caspian-native sturgeons.

Osetra Karat Amber and Asiago

This unique example of cow's milk cheese born in the Asiago plateau in Italy will become another impressive appetizer on your table. Asiago is a hard cheese, but with a milky, sharp flavor, and will create a vivid contrast with golden, nutty roes of osetra karat amber caviar.

Siberian Sturgeon and Comte

Comte, traditional cow's milk French cheese, will be an exciting pick, as you can experience around eighty different flavors while trying it out. However, Comte is considered mildly sweet and salty, which are good qualities for caviar pairing. Comte can be easily melted, so why not use it for some original recipe with our Siberian sturgeon caviar?

Caviar and Cream Cheese Recipes

Caviar and cream cheese recipes regard the majority of all caviar-related dishes. And it is no wonder: the light, delicate palate of cream cheese complements the saltiness and richness of fish roes and brings a lot of exquisite, refined courses to the diet of caviar connoisseurs. 

Сaviar and Cream Cheese Bagel

The charm of cream cheese and caviar dishes is that the majority of them are extremely simple and won’t take only a few minutes to be prepared. And really, why would you need to spend much time cooking when you have such wholesome ingredients?

This bagel recipe is a vivid example: you just need to get toast a bagel of your choice and spread cream cheese and caviar. Voila, and a perfect breakfast or snack is ready!

Caviar Dip

Any dip would be a nice appetizer, but caviar will give it a sense of luxury and sophistication. For this dish, you might stir together eggs, sour cream, cream cheese, and onion, then top the mixture with a few spoons of caviar, and serve it with simple crackers.

Cherry Tomato Canapes with Goat Cheese 

This fast, but delicious recipe will make great finger food. Basically, you need to stuff cherry tomatoes with a mixture of goat, cream, and cottage cheese and top each tomato with a spoon of caviar.

Potato Chips with Caviar and Cream Cheese

This dish is built around preparing home potato chips. So, you need to cut potatoes into thick slices, back them in the oven, and when they are ready, cover them with our favorite combination. Nutritiously, delicious and simple!

Pancakes with Caviar and Salmon

Caviar is not the only product that matches greatly with cream cheese. The other one would be smoked salmon, and this recipe suggests combining three of the ingredients together on top of traditional mini-pancakes.

Crackers with Caviar

Minimalistic, easy, but classy. The attention would be focused on the crisp flavor of caviar, and you still can add a different aftertaste by choosing different types of crackers (e.g., herb ones instead of plain).

Endive filled with Caviar and Cream Cheese

When preparing appetizers with caviar and cream cheese, you can replace the base with something more extravagant as an endive, a bitter leaf vegetable. It will definitely provide you with some surprising reviews from your guests.

Conclusion