The Caviar of Kladovo () was a type of caviar produced in eastern Serbia. It was named after the town of Kladovo, in central Serbia, part of the Danube's Iron Gates Gorge between Serbia and Romania. Made from various fishes' roe, the caviar was granted the protected geographic designation and was considered an expensive delicacy, which was even served on the RMS Titanic. With the construction of large dams in 1972 (Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station) and 1984 (Iron Gate II Hydroelectric Power Station), jointly by the two states, the fish migrating from the Black Sea upstream the Danube were prevented from reaching their old spawning areas, and production of caviar was discontinued in the 21st century.
Due to its black color, glassy and pearly shine, separate and toned roe without the membrane, surrounded by its own natural oil, it was called the "Black Pearl of Kladovo".
History
Origin
The fishes lived in the Black Sea, in the salt water, until reaching sexual maturity. They would then embark on the journey upstream the Danube, to lay eggs in the fresh water. The spawning required specific conditions: water temperature from , depth from , and rock and gravel riverbed. These conditions were met in the Iron Gates gorge, and the main spawning area spread between the modern small towns of Golubac and Radujevac.
Catch of the sturgeons in the Danube's Iron Gates Gorge area was recorded 2,000 years ago, during the Roman rule in the area. As for the caviar itself, historical records show that the black caviar was produced in the lower Danube valley at least since the 15th century. German-Austrian official visited the region in 1776-1777 and noted that the fishermen eat beluga's fresh meat and eggs, a "well known ajvar", while the salted eggs they sell to the outsiders but they don't know to salt them properly. He considered that if they would know how to preserve them right, with all the bounty of fish, they would push from the Austrian market English and Dutch fish. Lack of proper preservative actually made the caviar an everyday food of poor fishermen, with only small amount being shipped via Danube to Belgrade, and further to Vienna and Pest. Though the locals ate raw eggs, without salt, they used other spices.
As sturgeons could grow up to at the time, they couldn't be fished like other species. Construction called garda (plural garde) was used for catching them. It was a trap made of logs, trunks and planks. They were placed during the low water level in the form of two parallel fences on the rapids, in front of the gravel barrier islands where the sturgeons would come to spawn. Operator of the garda was called gardadžija. The openings at the starting, upstream sections were wide, while at the downstream end, the opening was . Behind it were the nets, so thick that they more resembled bags. Sturgeons were pushed by the water over the rapids into these artificial corridors, pushing them into the nets in the end. Best catch was on the rapids at the, now flooded, village of Sip, as only the largest and strongest fish could pass through them.
The owners of the garde were the Ottoman merchants from the, now also submerged, island of Ada Kaleh. This didn't change even after the 1815 Second Serbian Uprising, when Serbia achieved autonomy within the Ottoman Empire. In the 1830s, Serbian ruling prince Miloš Obrenović bought off all the garde and began to rent them to the local fishermen. The fishermen were also leasing parts of the river where to fish. The concessions were awarded by the local parishes, for an annual fee (Donji Milanovac, Kladovo, Korbovo, Brza Palanka, Radujevac).
There were two additional methods of fishing sturgeons. Nets, called setke, were also used. They were specially adapted nets which closed on their own when full. The setke were placed under the bottoms of the special fishing boats (pram) and were used for fishing in major whirlpools. Third method included the "sturgeon pole" called pampurača or takum during the Ottoman period. Considered the most brutal, it became the major method used by the mid-20th century. The pole was dotted with hooks and was placed along the underwater rocks where the sturgeons would scratch to lose parasites. The pole was kept under water by the large stones attached to it on one side, while on the other it had floating corks ("pampur", hence the name), pieces of polystyrene, or gourds, attached on the ropes. Sometimes anchors, up to heavy, were used instead, or as additions to the stones, which kept the pole underwater. These ballasts were attached at both endings of the pole, and at its middle, while the floating ropes with hooks were up to long.