America once had a substantial caviar trade of its own

When abundance made sturgeon eggs expendable

Caviar’s reputation as a luxury can make its earlier treatment seem puzzling. But value is not an ingredient’s permanent property: it depends on whether buyers want it and how much of it is available. When fishermen had more sturgeon eggs than they could sell or use, the eggs could become surplus rather than a prized food.

The caption describes that surplus as salty leftovers fed to farm animals. Salting helped preserve the eggs, but preservation alone could not make an abundant product valuable. If there was little demand for it, or more of it than people would buy, using it as feed was a practical way to put the excess to use.

Scarcity changes the calculation

Caviar is salted fish roe—eggs prepared as food. Its later status rested on a different balance between supply and demand: once it was sought after and less readily available, the same eggs could command a very different price. The transformation was not in the eggs, but in what people were willing to compete for.

That contrast is a reminder that “luxury” is an economic status, not a natural quality. In a time or place where sturgeon eggs were plentiful, they could lose out to more useful or desirable foods; when access tightened and demand rose, they became something worth reserving for the table.