With spawning season in full swing, the salmon are packed to the gills with roe. If you’re able to find a skein of salmon roe at your fishmonger (or you happen to know someone that’s going salmon fishing), 5 minutes and a handful of ingredients is all it takes to turn that ugly sac of roe into a decadent bowl of ikura (salmon caviar)
Unlike the limp salty goop that that comes out of jars, homemade ikura is truly sublime. The plump silken pearls of caviar glow like precious gemstones. Stick a spoonful in your mouth and each orb bursts with a satisfying pop, sending their rich, savory contents flooding over your sweet, salt and umami taste receptors in a wave of culinary bliss.
I’ve put together a little video to show you how to separate the roe from the skein and this technique should work with almost any salmon or trout roe. Just be sure to select a skein of roe with large mature pearls. Immature roe have weaker sacs which will break as you try and separate them from the skein.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon sake
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt
- 2 large skeins fresh salmon roe
Steps
- Make the brine by adding the dashi, soy sauce, sake, sugar and salt to a bowl and stirring until the salt and sugar are completely dissolved.
- Watch the video for instructions on separating the pearls of caviar from the skein.
- Rinse the caviar with cold water and then put it in a container with enough brine to cover it.
- Save any remaining brine to use as an all-purpose seasoning or for another batch of ikura.
- The ikura will be ready to eat in 1 day.
Recipe Video
Hey Marc! your video is set to private. Let me know when it is up (:
Hi Grey, thanks for the heads up and sorry about that. It’s fixed now.
Best,
Marc
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Sent from Mailbox
I absolutely love ikura or tarako with a nice big bowl of steaming gohan. All that I would need to complete that meal would be a side bowl of miso soup.
Mark – I live in NYC. Where do you recommend getting skein of salmon roe?
Hi Ann, unfortunately if you don’t live in an area where salmon is caught it’s unlikely you’ll see it in markets as the roe doesn’t keep very long. I think I’ve seen it at Mitsuwa (in Edgewater, NJ) before, but I’d call them before making a trip out.
Oh man, I’ve been seeing sacks of roe lately and had no idea how to prepare them… now I’m excited to try this out! Thanks!
Edit: Do these keep well? If so, for how long, and would draining the roe after the one-day soak be a good idea?
Good news – I found the salmon skein at Mitsuwa. It was the last one (maybe the only one) left! Followed your directions and it turned out fantastic! Thanks much!
This should be consumed within a few days after making. If you don’t think you can eat it all you can drain and freeze it.
Hi Marc. Greetings from Brazil.
Is it possible to do the same with flying fish eggs? We can’t find salmon roe here but have plenty of tobiko. Or do you happen to have a recipe for that? Congratulations for your awesome site!
Hi Eduardo, first I have to tell you I’m a little jealous. I’ve never seen uncured flying fish eggs around here. That’s also why I’ve never cured them before and am not sure what the process is for separating the eggs (I don’t think the technique for separating salmon roe will work). As for the curing, you should be able to use the same brine to cure the flying fish roe through you may have a difficult time straining the small eggs from the brine once it’s done. If you try it, let us know how it goes.
We get them frozen but unseasoned. They look like very bright, translucent pale yellow globules. It does not need to be strained as they come without the sac. I will use your recipe to cure and season it and I’ll post it later. Thanks a lot again.
Marc,
That is how it came out. The first pic shows unseasoned (left) and seasoned tobiko (right). I used it to test a tobiko jelly sushi made with kanten. Thanks again for your awesome site!
awesome blog, but can you sub mirin for sugar? so far this was the most concise step-by-step and the video was great. Some excellent roe is up in Canada for $6/lb!
Thanks Andrew! You could, but you’ll want to use real mirin (not the kind with corn syrup and flavorings in it) and you may want to cut back on the sake otherwise your ikura may end up a bit alcoholic.
How do I make whitefish or sheefish caviar. And how do I preserve them like the ones which come in a jar from the store. I don’t have reliable refrigeration as we use solar power.
Is it possible to use something other than sake? I don’t have any one hand and don’t think I need an entire bottle! Thanks.
Hi Jenny, the purpose of the sake is to provide umami without introducing other tastes. Using other wines and spirits will alter the flavor, so I’d recommend using water if you don’t want to get a bottle of sake.
Do you strain the ikura after it’s been cured? I generally use the Russian 5 min recipe and then drain it through a cheese cloth for a couple hours, that way it’s not watery and mushy. Very curious to try out your recipe 😉
Hi Tais, the ikura continues to get plump for about 2 days after soaking. It’s best to keep it soaked until it reaches its maximum plumpness, which gives each pearl a firm texture that pops when bite into it. At this point it’s best to strain in as soaking it longer will cause the skins to get tough.
Thank you. I just made a batch and can’t wait to taste it. I wonder how much of the brine it will soak up. I’m so used to making it the way we always do: clean it, prepare a pot of boiling water with as much salt that will make an egg sized potatoe float. Chill it to room temperature and add ikura. Let it brine for 5-7 minutes. Then dump in the cheese cloth and let dry for a couple of hours depending on the amount. Comes out plump and delicious. We refrigerate a portion to be eaten within… Read more »
This is probably going to be a lot less salty than you’re used to. Hope you enjoy it! Interesting about the Russian word. It’s actually possible that the Japanese Ikura comes from the Russian word as the word is written in katakana (usually used for foreign words), and it’s a specialty of Hokkaido (the northernmost part of Japan).
Interesting!
With the Russian recipe it doesn’t come out as salty because you only brine it for 5 minutes 😉 try it some times. They’re pearly and bursting as always.
I’ll let you know how mine turned out soon 😉
The dashi brine when you added it to the roe looks a lot lighter than what you prepared on camera. Did you dilute it?
Nice catch, the correct color is the darker color. The video was done over a couple takes as I didn’t have the right type of soy sauce when I made the first brine, so I ended up using white soy sauce. You should use regular dark colored soy sauce for this as it has more flavor.
One could use less salt and low sodium soy sauce [it’s basically salt with add. salt!] will help it become less salty in taste. Don’t really need the salt itself since soy sauce has salt in it.
Not everyone can handle the salt esp. those on a relatively restricted diet and those with relatively high blood pressure.
Also, it doesn’t need to be cured that long either, so every little thing to reduce the sodium content is good as not everyone can stand the relatively high sodium taste.
Thanks!
As far as ikura goes, this is a relatively low sodium recipe (most recipes call far more salt). The salt is in there because the soy sauce is diluted with dashi stock (it’s not pure soy sauce). Also the whole point of curing roe is to preserve it using salt, so if it does not have enough salt it will not last. Lastly if someone has high blood pressure they should not be eating ikura.
Hi Marc, I try your Ikura recipe and the taste is wonderful but I keep the soaking for 22 hours and turn out it’s already plump ?. Do you have any suggestion what to do now? it’s getting tired to bite since the egg is running around in my mouth ?
Hi Ivonne, they will continue to get more plump until 2 days, which usually makes them easier to eat. But if you want to remove the liquid now, just dump them in a strainer set over a bowl and leave it in the refrigerator for an hour to drain.
amazing ,delicious ,thank you for sharing your knowledge ,I’m in florida , u.s.a where can i find some skein
How long will the ikura keep? Does our have to be refrigerated or is the brine liquid sufficient?
Hi Elizabeth, ikura definitely needs to be refrigerated and this should be eaten within a few days as the brine is relatively low in salt. If you make a more concentrated brine the ikura will keep a bit longer (maybe a week or so), but it’s be to either eat this right away or freeze it.
Do you know of any online sources for ordering a skein of salmon roe?
Hi Terri, sorry I don’t know of any places online, you may have a tough time finding it online because it’s easily perishable before it is cured, so it needs to be used almost as soon as it comes out of the salmon.
How long can you keep Ikura. I’m fishing in Alaska and want to make this recipe and share with my friends back home.
Hi Kathleen, because there’s a relatively low salt content (compared to other methods of curing), it will only last about 5 days max, and towards the tail end of that the texture starts to go off a bit. I’d recommend draining and freezing the ikura after letting it soak in the brine for about 12 hours. It won’t have quite the same texture as unfrozen, but it will be better than letting it sit in the fridge for a few days before delivering it to your friends.
I have salmon roe frozen immediately after cleaning the fish. How do I work with that?
Hi Cheryl, my experience with previously frozen roe is that the individual egg sacs tend to break much more easily so I lose a lot while trying to separate them from the skein. That being said, if the other option is to toss them, it might be worth doing anyway. In the future you may want to separate the eggs from the skein when they’re fresh, and then you can freeze the roe after it’s been cured.
Hi, can you send the video link again? Thanks.
Hi Ada, sorry about that, the video embed seems to have disappeared in one of our moves. I’ve added it back in or you can check it out here: https://youtu.be/YM8mMB_JI8Q
Hi Marc,
I live in Alaska and I have access to a lot of salmon eggs but I need help finding a proper screen strainer like you have in your video that fits in a bowl. I ended up using some chicken wire and it didn’t work very well.
Where should I look online and what’s the proper name for it?
Thanks,
Allen
Hi Allen, it doesn’t need to fit in a bowl, but it needs to be stiff and the holes should be no larger than 1/3-inch. What I used is a cheap disposable BBQ grill that’s used in Japan (https://amzn.to/2LsEAL7), but anything with similarly sized holes should work.
You’re talking dirty to me on this. Thank you for the GREAT video! How do you recommend storing the ikura. Are you okay w/ freezing individual half pint canning jars? I’ve got about 10 pounds of to process from a local fisherman.
Thanks Maggie! Wow that’s a lot of Ikura! This has a relatively low level of sodium so it won’t keep in the fridge for more than 4-5 days. If you want to store it longer term, I’d recommend draining the brine after a day or two and then packing it into sealed containers and freezing it. You can then defrost it in the fridge.
Hello Marc,
I used your recipe to cure Salmon roe and the result does not look right and I’m wondering if you can help me figure out what may have gone wrong. The eggs did not soak up the brine and remain very small. The roe is from Sockeye salmon and had been frozen since the end of July.
Any suggestions will be appreciated.
Best,
Elizabeth
Hi Elizabeth, I’m sorry to hear it didn’t turn out as expected. A couple of possibilities here. The first is that sockeye salmon has smaller roe than king salmon so the roe could have been small to begin with. The second possibility is that the roe was not fully matured. In Japan, roe that is not fully matured is usually salted and cured without removing it from its skein and only the fully matured roe is sold for turning into ikura. I’m not sure where you bought yours from, but if the store didn’t make this distinction it’s possible that… Read more »
Thanks, Marc. I let it cure for another day and they got a little bigger. They also turned out to be delicious. The roe is from Sockeye which I got from a friend who went fishing in Alaska last summer.
I’m glad to hear it!