You say Asetra, I say Oscietra………..

Looking around at various outlets, it can be rather confusing to identify real Oscietra Caviar. Now, that is the spelling that we use at Caspian Caviar, but various other spellings are also used. I have seen: Ossetra Caviar, Osetra Caviar as well as Asetra Caviar. What does it all mean?

It is thought that Oscietra/Ossetra/Osetra/Asetra is derived from the Russian word OCETP, which simply means “Sturgeon”. I guess that the name “Sturgeon Sturgeon” would be pretty unsatisfactory. Oscietra Sturgeon does sound rather better, but it is also known as the Russian Sturgeon.

I would say that Oscietra is the accepted spelling in the UK market to describe caviar from the Acipenser Gueldenstaedtii. However, that does not mean that Ossetra, Osetra or Asetra is necessarily wrong. It just seems that these spellings are more commonly in use in foreign lands. The only way to be really sure of what lies under the label, is to check what sturgeon the caviar does actually come from. The information should be provided in the description, or on the label as (Gue). If it is marked as (Bae) it is not really Oscietra Caviar, but comes from the Siberian Sturgeon. If the information is not provided, then who knows?