Cajun caviar was recently brought to New Orleans by Baton Rouge businessman, John Burke, who for about three years has been selling it to restaurateurs and caterers in Baton Rouge, Texas and New York. Burke said he got the idea from members of an Acadian family along Bayou Teche who for years had been catching choupique and processing their roe according to a traditional Russian recipe. According to Burke a 6-pound choupique produces 10 to 16 ounces of roe during a season that extends roughly from late December to February. Burke said the roe's salt content can be adjusted, from 3 per cent to maximum of 5. And. he added, unlike many commercially canned roes, this one contains no artificial coloring or preservatives.
Processing is minimal.
Anthropologists say the choupique, whose scientific name is Amia calva, swam the waters of North America many millions of years before man arrived on the continent, a fact that would make its extinction tragic and deplorable. We were told that by catching the larger ones.