The New Year is just around the corner, and for the “millionth” time, a salad bowl with Olivier will be on the holiday tables of residents of the entire post-Soviet space. This tradition has been observed for many decades by everyone whose roots go back to the USSR.

But few people thought about why this particular salad became a New Year’s “brand”, and where it even came from in the Soviet Union. It's time to find out the history of the dish, so popular that its name has become a household name.

French “guest worker” in Russia

Nowadays, it would never even occur to anyone that once upon a time people went not from Russia to Europe to work, but vice versa. But in the 19th century the picture was completely different.

Thus, a certain cook of French origin named Lucien Olivier left his homeland and went to “conquer the stomachs” of the citizens of the Russian Empire. He was inspired to do this by the crazy popularity of French cuisine among Russians at that time. And so Monsieur Olivier found an investor in Moscow - the wealthy merchant Yakov Pegov, and opened a restaurant called “Hermitage” in the 60s of the 19th century.

The popularity of the establishment grew quickly, so that after some time the Hermitage was followed by another restaurant on Trubnaya Square. But the attendance of the first one was higher, since Olivier himself was its chef. And it was in this restaurant that for the first time a salad appeared on the tables of high society visitors, which has not lost popularity for the third century in a row.

This is interesting: in addition to the famous dish, Lucien Olivier is the “father” of the most famous mayonnaise “Provencal”, thanks to which, by the way, the Olivier salad was so tasty. It was prepared by a Frenchman from egg yolks, mustard and olive oil with the addition of spices, the secret of which he did not reveal.

Hazel grouse, crayfish tails and mystery sauce

So, Lucien Olivier’s business flourished, the Hermitage was visited entirely by representatives of the Russian elite, and the talented chef had to keep his mark: periodically surprise visitors with something unusual and interesting. Olivier improvised, invented new recipes, and once served an unusual salad in his restaurant. At that moment, the chef had no idea that some 10 years after his death, this snack would already be called by his name in print media.

It's nice to realize that this dish was invented specifically for Russian lovers of delicious food. But none of us can say that we have eaten a real Olivier salad. After all, the original recipe from the modern one contained only such ingredients as potatoes, cucumbers, Provencal mayonnaise and boiled eggs. Well, and poultry meat. True, it was not a chicken at all, but hazel grouse or partridge.

The French delicacy also included crayfish necks, veal tongue, lettuce, pressed caviar, lanspique, or lanspig (gelled broth in which hazel grouse were boiled), and soy-kabul. The cook laid out all this in small piles on a large plate and poured over it with his signature Provençal. And a little later, when I observed how restaurant visitors eat the appetizer, I began to knead it before serving.

Almost none of the ingredients raise any questions. Yes, all of them do not fit in with the Olivier salad in our minds, but the products are familiar. But what is Kabul soybean? To answer this question, you need to turn to the moment the Olivier recipe appeared in print.

On the pages of culinary publications

Lucien Olivier came up with his signature salad in the late 60s of the 19th century, but the recipe was first published only in 1894 in the magazine “Our Food”, and not among other recipes, but in the “Questions and Answers” ​​section, since many people were interested in “how is the Olivier appetizer prepared?”

Editor Ignatiev gave a detailed answer to this question. In addition to all of the above, he advised putting capers and olives in Olivier, seasoning it with cold Provencal sauce and adding Kabul soybeans. In winter, replace fresh cucumbers with pickled gherkins. This was in the sixth issue of the magazine for 1894.

Already in the tenth issue, the author of the column again returned to the topic of everyone’s favorite French salad. M.A. Ignatiev added a couple more tips to the publication. To ensure that the winter version of “Olivier” does not lose its original taste, he recommended putting borage plant instead of fresh cucumbers - the so-called “cucumber grass”, which tastes exactly like this vegetable. And you can grow borage in winter in a pot on the windowsill.

But restless readers did not lag behind. They still couldn’t get a salad that tasted exactly like the French chef’s delicacy. And the answer to the last question, published in No. 24 of the magazine “Our Food” of the same year, made them lose all hope for this.

This question concerned the mysterious “Kabul” sauce, or soy-Kabul. And Ignatiev replied that all versions of this sauce produced in Russia are only unsuccessful attempts to repeat the taste of the original dressing, which is manufactured by the Crosse & Blackwell company in London. And “the method of preparing real “kabul” is a company secret” - we quote Ignatiev’s answer verbatim.

So, unfortunately, the end is in the water. Because a request regarding Kabul sauce sent to The J.M. The Smucker Company, which still owns the thriving Crosse & Blackwell brand, remained unanswered.

It is only known that Kabul sauce is a thick, spicy gravy, which is prepared on the basis of flour sautéed in butter with the addition of meat broth and spices.

So we will never be able to try exactly the same salad that Lucien Olivier prepared.

This is interesting: For the coming year 2012, residents of Orenburg decided to prepare the largest Olivier salad in the history of its existence. The weight of the dish was 1841 kg. There were about 5,000 eggs alone!

Hard fate in an era of scarcity

As time passed, the country was subjected to severe trials - the Russians survived the revolution, the Civil and Great Patriotic Wars and a terrible hunger strike. Most of the USSR population could not even dream of such a luxury as the Olivier salad with hazel grouse, crayfish necks and veal tongue.

But everyone loved the salad so much that they didn’t want to give it up. They just simplified it and replaced the meat ingredients with boiled sausage. Plus we added boiled carrots and green peas due to the availability of these products. But the salad was still dressed with Provencal mayonnaise.

In the Soviet era, “Olivier” received a second name – “Winter”, because it contained ingredients that were freely available even in frosty weather.

Despite the simplicity and availability of most of the ingredients, “Olivier” was prepared only on holidays, because not every Soviet family could afford sausage more often than on special days. And since all religious dates were canceled in the USSR, the New Year became the brightest holiday. So “Olivier” became a New Year’s tradition.

The real Olivier salad recipe, invented by French chef Lucien Olivier

Cooking time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Number of servings: 50

Energy and nutritional value of the product

• proteins – 13.9 g;
• fats – 14.3 g;
• carbohydrates – 2 g;
• calorie content – ​​192.2 kcal.

Ingredients

• boiled hazel grouse meat – 600 g;
• boiled veal tongue – 1.5 kg;
• pressed black caviar – 100 g;
• fresh salad leaves – 200 g;
• boiled lobster – 1.1 kg;
• pickles – 200 g;
• canned soybeans – 200 g;
• soy sauce - to taste;
• fresh cucumbers – 200 g;
• capers – 100 g;
• boiled chicken eggs – 5 pcs.;
• Provencal mayonnaise – 500 g.

Step-by-step description of the cooking process

1. Cut the hazel grouse meat boiled in beef broth with the addition of seasonings, Madeira, champignons and olives and cooled into small, uniform pieces.
2. Peel the boiled veal tongue and chop it together with pressed black caviar, ready lobster meat removed from the shell, chicken eggs, washed and dried fresh cucumbers and pickles into small cubes.
3. Rinse the salad leaves thoroughly under a low pressure running stream, blot each leaf with a paper towel and tear it into small pieces with your hands - this will taste better than the cut product.
4. Carefully remove the capers from the jar and chop them as finely as possible.
5. Strain the amount of canned soybeans required according to the recipe from the liquid, grind into a homogeneous mass in a mortar and season with a small amount of soy sauce to taste, but most importantly do not overdo it.
6. Combine all the prepared ingredients listed above in a common bowl, season them with Provencal mayonnaise and serve in portioned bowls.

This is interesting: the popular salad in Russia is even an unofficial way to determine purchasing power parity. In 2009, the newspaper Trud published the “Olivier Index” - a figure by which one could see the level of inflation in consumer prices for food. And it reflects this better than Rosstat data. This indicator has become an analogue of the “Big Mac Index” in America.

This exquisite dish, presented to our great-great-ancestors more than a century and a half ago by Lucien Olivier, has traveled a long winding path and has come to us completely new, but no less tasty. And we live in a time when in the field of gastronomy you can get any product without having to come up with a replacement for it.

So if you really want to feel the taste of the classic “Olivier”, which was enjoyed by the cream of Russian society in the 19th century in the Hermitage restaurant, go for it! With a huge number of videos of cooking master classes from leading chefs, this will not be difficult at all.

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On a par with Tchaikovsky, ballet and Leo Tolstoy
Fate has given us a generous, rare gift - a dish that has a beautiful, sometimes detective, sometimes tragic story. But its value is not only historical: its taste is recognized and loved all over the world - at the same time delicate and fresh, simple and at the same time refined.

Salad "Olivier". Symbol of the New Year. Tradition. Simply a very tasty dish.

But we suddenly felt ashamed of it, afraid to seem banal and not realizing that Olivier is the pride of Russian cuisine, one of the few dishes revered by the whole world along with Russian caviar and vodka.

Perhaps the story told below will make someone change their attitude towards Olivier, and in others it will strengthen their attachment. And on the New Year's table, in exciting anticipation of the holiday, the crystal filled with the King of Salads - “Olivier” will sparkle with blue fire.

History before Olivier and before the New Year:
"mass of food for Christmas"

It’s scary to say, but there was a time when our ancestors didn’t even know the word “Olivier.” And the New Year holiday itself, with which the fate of “Olivier” is connected, was unfamiliar to them in its unbridled scope of fun.

The first great revolutionary Peter I began to correct the situation. He moves the celebration of the New Year from September 1 to January 1, moreover, he changes, according to the European one, the entire system of reference, and instead of the 7208th year from the creation of the world, the 1700th year from the creation of the world begins in Russia Nativity of Christ.

The people were indignant, but not enough: the New Year fell on the traditional 2-week celebrations after Christmas. On the night of December 24-25, the Nativity fast ended and festivities began - with mummers, pies, songs, games and performances!

Ivan Shmelev spoke best about the joy of Christmas, including its culinary side, in his amazing book “The Summer of the Lord.” Before Christmas, clouds of convoys arrived in Moscow, and shopping rows were lined up in the squares. They went to these rows not with baskets and knapsacks, but with sleighs and sacks: they bought piglets in bags - “black” for all kinds of porridges, white for aspic; bags - turkeys, ducks, chickens, geese, for gourmet dishes - Siberian hazel grouse (junipers were especially valued for the special spicy aroma of meat), wood grouse. Sacks of bird change and whole carcasses were placed on sled sledges and delivered to the backyards of palaces and houses.

Christmas Eve. Carl Larson, watercolor, 1904-1905

In rich houses there was no dinner on Christmas Eve. In the hall, a festive, elegant tablecloth was laid out on a large table, and a small snack table was placed in a corner, often next to the stove (guests came in from the ardent cold!).

Tomorrow the hall will be full of guests, and the table will be filled with dishes generous in both taste and size: pigs stuffed with porridge, boar's heads with horseradish, roast and aspic of several varieties, clear and meat jelly with various additives, fried brisket with potatoes, homemade sausages , baked poultry, red fish and whatever happens, red borscht, mushroom and fish soups, socni, for dessert - kutia, rolls and gingerbread with honey and poppy seeds, apples, nuts, raisins, candied fruits, jelly and compotes, honey kvass, tiny pies , even cakes.

And in order to somehow cope with the entire magnitude of the treat, they served ice-cold vodka, expensive overseas wines and dozens of multi-colored carafes with homemade liqueurs - raspberry, cherry, blackcurrant and redcurrant, gooseberry, plum, cumin, mint, nut, apple, rowan, bird cherry. and... In terms of the abundance of types, aroma, lightness and beauty of liqueurs, the Russian table had no equal!

Gentlemen, Olivier! The holiday begins!

The appearance of a hero

Moscow. "Hermitage Olivier" in summer

New time - new... salads! The 70s of the 19th century broke the old way of life: the abolition of serfdom, a new “closer look” at Europe and, as a result, an even greater demand for everything foreign. Home-made roast pigs and liqueurs are moved to the far corner of the table, making room for dishes prepared by a chef invited on the occasion of the holiday.

This is how the talented French chef Olivier earned money to open his own “establishment” “Hermitage”: rich houses competed with each other for the opportunity to invite Olivier, because the salad he invented could not be prepared by anyone else - and without this salad “dinner is not lunch” ( V. A. Gilyarovsky “Moscow and Muscovites”).

Like all the most desirable things, the Olivier salad has become a legend: they said it - and they say it! - that the recipe is not known to anyone, that Olivier took the secret with him to the grave! By the way, Monsieur Olivier rests in the former German, now Vvedenskoye, Moscow cemetery, and his grave was recently restored and restored.

But Lucien Olivier could not hide the salad recipe simply physically. Having risen financially between 1861 and 1864 by cooking “by invitation,” the enterprising Frenchman opened one of the most famous and even later scandalous establishments - the Hermitage Olivier tavern. He becomes a co-owner and is in charge of general supervision of the tavern, and the kitchen is given “in possession” to the Parisian celebrity chef Duguay.

It is impossible to keep the recipe secret in this situation. The Olivier salad was prepared in unimaginable volumes, because the whole of Moscow poured into the Hermitage - both natives and guests from the capital. However, there are several recipes for the “first” salad - which is correct?

The only correct recipes

Anyone who is familiar with the peculiarities of French cuisine knows its main secret - inconstancy. This is what the French are all about: in cooking, as in love, they abhor monotony. Every famous chef in France is famous primarily for the fact that each time his dish will be almost elusive, but different from the previous execution!

Olivier salad for 1 person:

Potatoes - 2 pcs., hazel grouse - ½ pc., cucumbers - 1 pc., lettuce - 3-4 leaves, Provencal sauce with soy-kabul - 1½ tablespoons, crayfish tails - 3 pcs., lanspik - ¼ cup, kaporets - 1 teaspoon, olives - 3–5 pcs.

(From the book “Guide to the Study of the Fundamentals of Culinary Art” by P. P. Alexandrova.)

Therefore, to say that there is one single composition of the Olivier salad means to sin against the talent of its creator. But there is a “basis for variation,” first published in 1897 in P. P. Alexandrova’s “Guide to the Study of the Fundamentals of Culinary Art.”

There was a secret in the recipe itself for posterity - soy-kabul... The “exposure” is in Dahl’s dictionary: in the 19th century, any hot sauce was called soy! Already in Soviet Russia, “Soya-Kabul” sauce was sold in stores for a long time, but... Time is merciless not only with sauces.

"Olivie". Revolution. Salad for the people!

Soviet-era New Year's card

The revolution made the palaces, capital and culinary chic of the exploiters - "Olivier", of course, adapting it to the new reality - into the people's property.

Another legend of “Olivier” is this. In the 30s of the twentieth century, I. M. Ivanov, a former apprentice of Olivier and the current chef of the Moscow food plant (read - restaurant), restored the recipe, replacing bourgeois hazel grouse with workers' and peasants' chicken, and "all sorts of rubbish" - capers and pickles - completely thrown out of the composition.

The salad “went to the people.” Working Russia did not go out to restaurants, did not invite chefs to their homes, but did everything with its own hands - including Olivier. Who could use what - with poultry, meat, sausage, fish, seafood - well, these are completely new trends, after new revolutions. Crayfish necks became carrots, capers became green peas, soybeans became onions, lettuce became parsley, homemade Mayonnaise sauce became store-bought jars and tubes under the same name.

The Olivier recipe became the unofficial and most truthful history of the Soviet Union: its composition changed along with living conditions. But even in any version, the salad remained the most favorite and most festive dish; it was prepared for the most important holidays - New Year and November 7th.

Cucharitas de Ensaladilla Rusa. Receta. Olivier in South American style. Photo ilovetapas.com © de Gastromedia, S.L

But the past tense is inappropriate here. He is still the most beloved today. According to a survey by the Romir company, half of Russians consider Olivier to be the main dish of the New Year's table, a symbol of the New Year, and only 10% consider tangerines to be such. Moreover: “Olivier” conquered Europe, Australia, and both Americas. In South America it is Ensalada Rusa, in the USA and Europe it is Russian salad, that is, simply “Russian salad,” and foreigners prefer to order it where Russian chefs prepare it. No foreign chef can create something like this, despite the simplicity of the recipe, although they prepare Russian salad in any restaurant.

What do “Olivier” and Ovillier have in common?

Soviet champagne. New Year's card 1970. Photo olyachka flickr.com

Since we are talking about the symbol of the Russian New Year's table, it would be terribly unfair not to mention another legend - “Soviet champagne”. His story is another page of our glory! In 1693, a new wine was introduced at the Auvilliers monastery (what a play on words!). Diabolical in its power of temptation and character, the sparkling wine drove me crazy. They tried to produce champagne everywhere, but only Russian champagne, obtained from the estate of Prince Golitsyn “New World”, was recognized by the French themselves at the world exhibition in 1900, and the tasting took place blindly.

After the revolution, the production of champagne was revived by A. Frolov-Bagreev, a royal champagne master who began his career at the Abbey of Auvilliers. Technology has changed before streaming release, champagne has undergone the same changes as Olivier - it has become popular.

“Soviet Champagne” and “Olivier” became a holiday within a holiday for many years: the appearance of one or the other made any table special. And sharing most often meant one thing - New Year! This is still the case for many today, even for those who don’t drink champagne and won’t even try Olivier for various reasons.

Russian Symphony

It’s difficult to write about love in words, but if it were music... It would be a strange, but grandiose work: first - a waltz, the blue clink of crystal, then - a volley of guns and “Bagels”, “Our mother is the Queen of Clubs...”, and then - marches , hymns fading into “I Love It That You...”

The symphony sounds. Against all odds and victoriously, inspired and inspiring. It has already spilled out into the world, reaching Australia and the Americas.

Symphony "Olivier". And I want to believe...

This dish, beloved by all Slavs, which received its name from the name of its creator, was originally completely different from how we are used to preparing it. There are a lot of stories online that highlight the history of the creation of the Olivier salad, but what ingredients did Lucien take into the recipe, how did he prepare it, and how did he serve it in an original way?

In this post, we will not only plunge into the history of this legendary New Year's treat, but we will study in detail the historical recipe and its recipe changes in Russia.

Who invented the Olivier salad: the story of Olivier Lucien

Having lived for a long time and firmly rooted in Moscow, a Frenchman by birth, but with a Russian soul, culinary specialist Lucien Olivier decided that the Russian capital lacked European chic and decided to open, together with the merchant Pegov, a completely new, unrivaled French restaurant, “Hermitage”.

In a fairly short time, this smart restaurant, lavishly decorated with crystal and bronze, with private booths, a luxurious interior and excellent overseas and Russian cuisine, became the favorite resting place of the bourgeois cell.

It was within the walls of this tavern, as it was called then, that Lucien, a chef by vocation, first introduced the satisfied public to the “mayon” sauce, unprecedented at that time - the ancestor of modern mayonnaise.

However, nothing lasts forever, and over time, the assortment of French dishes became boring to the rich, and interest in the newfangled gastronomic haven began to fade. And it was then that Lucien Olivier, in order to restore his former glory as a skilled chef, and the restaurant as the abode of the cream of society, came up with a completely new dish.

This real work of art not only more than justified its purpose, but also firmly entered the annals of history, remaining to this day indispensable for any festive feast.

The secret of the original recipe

Naturally, the original formula and technology for preparing Olivier salad was strictly classified, and one could taste the real dish according to the classic recipe only at the Hermitage. Many chefs have puzzled over unanswerable questions: how to properly prepare Olivier salad, what does it consist of, and how is the mayonnaise dressing for it made?

Today we can easily study various posts, photo and video recipes and analyze in detail how Olivier salad is prepared, but in those ancient years the answers were unavailable, and many culinary minds simply tried to experimentally comprehend the original of this legendary snack, but one by one suffered a complete collapse.

But, thanks to these gastronomic experiences, many new cold dishes and variations of Olivier-type salads appeared, which were quite decent and also in demand.

The real salad recipe invented by Lucien Olivier

Initially, Lucien did not set out to come up with a salad. His subtle French culinary soul demanded something sublime. This is how the newfangled dish “Game Mayonnaise” appeared.

Historical Olivier recipe

1. The original composition of this delicious treat included well-boiled, sliced ​​jellied meat of partridges and hazel grouse.
2. Crayfish necks boiled in a spicy broth and slices of boiled tongue were added as decoration.
3. This entire meat still life was lightly flavored with white Provencal sauce; diced boiled potatoes, gherkins and egg slices were placed in the center of the display.

However, the Frenchman noticed that his clients, out of simplicity of heart, spoiled all the beauty and originality of the presentation, mixing all the ingredients together, and ate the exotic dish with great appetite.

After this, Olivier did not bother with the lengthy decoration of the signature dish, but greatly simplified the cooking ritual. He crushed and mixed all the ingredients, and generously seasoned everything with sauce.

Ingredients for the original Olivier

This is exactly what the classic, real, only correct historical recipe for Olivier salad from the creator looked like.

Over time, Lucien himself made some changes to the recipe, so that eventually the following ingredients became part of the snack:

• Hazel grouse – 2 birds;
• Tongue of a young heifer – ½ piece;
• Pressed sturgeon caviar – 100 g;
• Lettuce leaves – 180 g;
• Crayfish – 20-25 pcs.;
• Gherkins – 200 g;
• Kabul sauce - 60 g;
• Fresh cucumber – 2 pcs.;
• Capers – 0.1 kg;
• Boiled chicken eggs – 5 pcs.;

For the Provencal sauce:

• Olive oil – 0.4 l;
• Raw egg yolks – 2 pcs.;
• French vinegar - to taste;
• Mustard -2-3 tbsp;

The main secret of that same Olivier salad was its spicy composition, which sank into oblivion along with its legendary creator.

Preparation of the author's salad "Olivier"

Making the appetizer was quite exciting.

How hazel grouse were prepared

1. The hazel grouse carcasses should be fried over high heat in a frying pan filled 2 cm with vegetable oil for 10 minutes.
2. After this, the fried meat had to be dipped into boiling broth (0.85 l) with the addition of 150 ml of fortified Madeira wine, 15 pitted olives, 15 medium-sized champignons and cooked for about half an hour under a closed lid over low heat.
3. As soon as the meat begins to separate from the bones, the broth should be salted to taste and after a couple of minutes turn off the brew. It is prohibited to remove hazel grouse from the broth until it has completely cooled to a temperature of 30 o C, so that the separated fillet does not lose tenderness and juiciness.

Once separated from the bones, the fillets should be wrapped in foil and refrigerated.

Since today it is almost impossible to find grouse, you can replace this ingredient with chicken, but you need to cook it a little longer, about 40-50 minutes.

Preparing the tongue

Veal tongue also has its own cooking rules. This meat element must be free of fat, lymph nodes, mucus and muscle parts.

1. After rinsing thoroughly under running water, place the tongue in a saucepan, fill it with cold water and let it cook for 2-3 hours under the lid.
2. 30 minutes before the end of cooking, add chopped carrots, parsley rhizomes, onions, 1 bay leaf to the water, and after 20 minutes add salt to taste.
3. Once the tongue is cooked, cool it slightly in ice water for 30 seconds and then remove the skin.

After cleaning, dip the tongue into the broth again and bring to a boil, then turn off the flame and leave the pan with the tongue to cool to room temperature. After this, wrap the tongue in foil and put it in the refrigerator.

How to cook crayfish

Dip the still living crayfish, thoroughly washed in cool water, into the boiling broth upside down.

• To prepare the broth, you need to take 20 g of parsley, onions and carrots, 40 g of dill, 1 bay leaf, 10 g of tarragon, allspice and 1.5 tbsp. salt.

Cook the crayfish for 10 minutes, then turn off the brew and let the arthropods steep in the aromatic liquid and cool to room temperature.

Making Kabul sauce

Preparing the remaining ingredients

1. Eggs should never be overcooked. The entire boiled (after boiling) procedure should take no more than 8 minutes. Then cool them, peel and cut into cubes.
2. Remove the skin from fresh cucumbers and cut them into strips along with the capers.
3. Chilled hazel grouse meat and tongue should be cut into small pieces.
4. Cut pressed (pressed) black caviar and gherkins into neat small cubes, and lettuce leaves (washed and dried) into medium pieces right before mixing all the ingredients.

Now we send all the ingredients into a common container, where we also add the crushed Kabul sauce and mayonnaise. The salad should be mixed very carefully and slowly from bottom to top. Before serving, do not forget to garnish the dish with boiled crayfish tails.

Features of Provencal sauce

When preparing Provencal sauce, Lucien Olivier varied the amount of mustard depending on the amount of alcohol consumed by visitors. The drunker the crowd, the spicier the mayonnaise.

For non-drinking guests, the Olivier salad was served with the most delicate dressing so that they could appreciate the beauty of this dish.

Few people realized that in pre-revolutionary Russia the recipe for Olivier salad was closest to the current composition, although there were some expensive products in the list of ingredients.

And if in those days black caviar was not yet such an inaccessible delicacy, today, in order to master this ancient recipe with photos and learn how to properly make Olivier from the times of the Russian Empire, you need to shell out a tidy sum. But, as those who have already tried this historical delicacy assure, it’s worth it.

Ingredients

• Lightly salted trout – 0.3 kg;
• Fresh cucumbers – 3 pcs.;
• Gherkins – 5-6 pcs.;
• Boiled potatoes “in their jackets” - 5 tubers;
• Boiled eggs - 4 pcs.;
• Canned peas – 150 g;
• Black caviar - 0.15 kg;
• Mayonnaise - 100 g;

Cooking pre-revolutionary Olivier

1. Cut eggs, fish, fresh cucumbers, gherkins and potatoes into medium rectangular pieces and place in a salad bowl.
2. Add the peas there, season everything with mayonnaise and carefully mix the salad.

Before serving, the treat was generously decorated with black caviar.

Just a year after the previous masterpiece, Russian chefs have taken their culinary experiments even further. All that remains from the classic recipe in this recipe is mayonnaise and peas with cucumbers.

Where these variations on the theme of the Olivier salad came from in those ancient times, one can only guess. However, the idea of ​​how to make a gourmet snack using this old recipe is quite interesting.

This dish will create special intrigue when we find out what ingredients are needed for this salad ala “Olivier”.

Ingredients

• Potatoes – 150-160 g;
• Kamchatka crabs – 0.1 kg;
• Partridge fillet (can be replaced with chicken) – 0.15 kg;
• Boiled veal tongue – 0.1 kg;
• Pickled cucumbers – 150 g;
• Fresh cucumbers – 60 g;
• Boiled chicken egg – 4 pcs.;
• Canned brain peas – 60 g;
• Capers – 45 g;
• Creamy horseradish – 40 g;
• Mayonnaise – 125 g;

For an original Olivier serving

• Quail eggs – 8 pcs.;
• “Frise” salad – 50 g;
• Red caviar – 20 g;
• Sturgeon caviar – 20 g;
• Crayfish fillet – 80 g;

Preparing the salad

The process does not require any overly original approach.

1. Boil the tongue, partridge fillet, crabs, potatoes and eggs until tender. The meat components should be salted. After cooling, chop all the components into equal slices and transfer to a common container.
2. We also add peas, chopped pickled and fresh cucumbers, capers and season the salad with mayonnaise and horseradish.

When serving, the dish is decorated with “Frise” salad, on which is laid out a portion of “Olivier” salad, decorated with a scattering of red and black caviar, surrounded by quail eggs, and topped with boiled crayfish meat.

After the November Revolution and the First World War, many products became unaffordable luxuries, which gave Soviet chefs the impetus to once again embark on a “culinary fever” in search of an alternative Olivier recipe.

The original, historical recipe for how to properly prepare Lucien Olivier’s “brainchild” remained a sealed secret, so the task of the kitchen creators was only to create a new, not quite ordinary, but very tasty salad, vaguely reminiscent of that legendary treat from the Hermitage restaurant "

Thus, the Soviet-era Olivier recipe in the 1920s at the Moscow restaurant looked like this:

1. Boiled vegetables (6 potatoes and 3 carrots), 250 g of chicken and 3 eggs, as well as pickled cucumbers (2 pcs.), should be cut into even, neat small cubes. Onions (1 head) must be chopped very finely.
2. After this, add salt to all the slices and 1 cup of green peas, pepper to taste and mix with mayonnaise (170 g).

When serving, garnish a portion of Olivier with parsley and green apple slices.

By the 1930s, the chef of the same “Moscow” again turned to the original recipe of the Frenchman Lucien Olivier, and, having made a couple of amendments, gave the dish a new name - “Stolichny” salad, which until the 1950s held a leading position among other Soviet treats.

Ingredients

• Game – 50 g;
• Fresh cucumber – 40 g;
• Green lettuce leaves – 10 g;
• Boiled potatoes – 60 g;
• Boiled crayfish fillet – 10 g;
• Boiled egg – 40 g;
• Gherkins – 10 g;
• Olives – 10 g;
• “Southern” spicy sauce – 1 tbsp;
• Mayonnaise – 1/3 cup;
• Salt - to taste;

Preparation

1. Cut fried game, boiled potatoes, eggs, cucumbers and gherkins into thin and equal pieces. Chop the lettuce leaves finely.
2. Mix all the ingredients, add some salt and season with mayonnaise and sauce.

You can decorate the dish with olives, chopped rings and crayfish necks.

Not a single New Year can do without it, no matter how many different delights are present on the festive table. This is the whole charm of our favorite salad.

The standard Olivier salad is a classic of the culinary genre; the simple, familiar from childhood composition of the salad with pickled cucumbers and boiled sausage cannot be compared with anything, even with that original recipe that caused so much noise.

There is no place for exotic capers here and we will not put black caviar and hazel grouse fillet in our native Olivier, but let us remember the most common recipe for preparing this irreplaceable snack with step-by-step instructions.

So, what do you need to prepare to prepare a classic Olivier salad?

Ingredients

• Boiled sausage – 0.4 kg;
• Canned green peas – 1 can;
• Eggs – 5 pcs.;
• Carrots – 2-3 root vegetables;
• Potatoes – 5 tubers;
• Pickled cucumbers – 4 pcs.;
• “Provencal” mayonnaise - 100 g;
• Purple onion – 1 head;
• Salt - to taste;

Preparing the salad

We will prepare the salad step by step.

1. To begin, wash the potatoes and carrots thoroughly and put them in a saucepan, add water, and set to cook.
2. We also set the eggs to boil in a separate container.
3. Meanwhile, cut the pickles and sausage into medium cubes, and the onions into small cubes, and pour the slices into a deep container. We put peas in there.
4. Cool the boiled vegetables and eggs and peel them, then chop them into cubes and add to the salad bowl.

Now all that remains is to season the salad with mayonnaise, add salt and mix gently from bottom to top.

The history of Olivier salad in a new way

Often on culinary websites you can find “classic” Olivier video recipes with an original presentation, or detailed step-by-step instructions with colorful photos, providing for a reduced or modified composition of products.

For example, an unusual set of ingredients may be offered without eggs, pickled cucumber, or with fresh vegetables, without peas, but with beans or corn. Don’t delude yourself, this gastronomic miracle is no longer the traditional salad that we are used to seeing on all New Year’s tables, but a simpler recipe for preparing an Olivier-type appetizer.

Prepared in such a modernized way, our historical good Olivier salad may well be both the simplest and very tasty. However, this treat has nothing to do with either the original or the “Soviet era” recipe.

Lenten versions of the historical Olivier salad

In the case of fasting days, when sausage and eggs fall into the prohibition zone, we can still prepare an appetizer in the image of Olivier.

However, in this case, we replace the meat component with asparagus or a soy analogue, and the egg with a green apple. It turns out a fresh and very tasty salad.

In general, everything in salads is interchangeable:

• potatoes can be replaced with rice,
• peas - beans or corn,
• onions - green,
• sausage - cheese, fish, crab sticks or mushrooms,
• You don’t have to put the carrots in at all.

What about cabbage or lettuce, tomatoes and olives? And why not, because for more than a century, Olivier has undergone colossal changes. If you add mustard to mayonnaise, you get an amazingly tasty sauce, and the taste of an ordinary snack will sparkle with new colors. Sour cream and ketchup would also make a great dressing.

We offer several creative options for creating a new salad and dressing for it.

An excellent illustrative example in the case of product replacement is the “Fairy Tale” and “Venice” salad.

Salad “Fairy Tale”: history + modernity

• Boiled beef fillet -250g
• Boiled round grain rice – 1 tbsp.;
• Boiled eggs – 4 pcs.;
• Fresh cucumbers – 3 pcs.;
• Canned peas – ½ can;
• Onion - 1 head;
• Mayonnaise – 50 g;
• Sour cream – 70 g;
• Black pepper powder – 1/3 tsp;
• Ground paprika – ½ tsp;
• Salt - to taste;

Preparation

1. Chop the meat, eggs and cucumbers into medium cubes, and finely chop the onion.

In a salad bowl, mix chopped products, rice, peas, add spices, salt and sour cream-mayonnaise dressing. Salad ready!

Salad “Venice”: Olivier + olives

1. Finely chop boiled chicken (2 hams), ham or boiled sausage (0.3 kg), pitted olives (1 can), boiled eggs (4 pcs.) and potatoes (4 pcs.), 1 bunch of green onions and 1 fresh cucumber.

Season the salad with mayonnaise and add salt to taste.

The secret of the original historical recipe for the Olivier salad became publicly available not so long ago, but we will never be able to fully comprehend all the secrets of Olivier, because the most important taste element - a special collection of herbs - Lucien took with him.

For more than a century, many chefs have studied the history of Olivier salad and tried to figure out that triumphant recipe, but instead of the obvious answer, we only received more and more new variations of the classic recipe for this snack, and as a result, today we have what we have as a traditional Olivier salad.

Discussing the recipe for Olivier salad is like discussing the Real Borscht. Pointless. The fact is that the history of the appearance of salad is shrouded in so many myths that it is no longer clear what is truth and what is fiction. Almost all of us have heard that the salad was invented by the French chef Lucien Olivier, who worked at the Hermitage restaurant, and information about this came to us thanks to. But Gilyarovsky is still a writer, is it possible to completely trust dreamers?

This is what historians say. “Vladimir Gilyarovsky’s version, according to which Lucien Olivier became famous for his salad back in the 1860s, is not confirmed by anything,” explains, Candidate of Philological Sciences, researcher of Russian everyday culture. — In non-culinary pre-revolutionary sources one can find references to “Hermitage” and Olivier himself, but not to his supposedly famous salad. There are a few exceptions: the story “On Tatyana’s Day” (between 1896 and 1899), the story “Tanya” by Vasily (?) Sakhnovsky (1907). Olivier salad began to appear regularly in memoirs and literary sources only in the 1920s. It follows from this, in particular, that in Russian cuisine this dish did not have the same significance that it acquired in Soviet cuisine. The Olivier salad was just one of many successful appetizers accompanied by aromatic vodka.”
What is the real history of the salad?

“If we ignore urban legends,” continues Maxim Marusenkov, “the first recipe for “Olivier appetizer” was published in the St. Petersburg magazine “Our Food” in March 1894. A certain Webe, answering a reader’s question “How is Olivier’s appetizer prepared?”, gave a recipe for Lucien Olivier’s dish with a “savory” and “subtle” taste, which he “enjoyed more than once” at the Moscow Hermitage Hotel in 1882, during the All-Russian art and industrial exhibition and during the lifetime of Olivier himself (he died a year later). Pelageya Alexandrova-Ignatieva included this recipe, already indicating the proportions of ingredients, in her first book, “Guide to the Study of the Fundamentals of Culinary Art” (1897), and then in “Practical Fundamentals of Culinary Art” (1899), which soon became very popular. With the release of new editions of this book, the salad recipe was refined and detailed. The closest thing to Lucien Olivier’s original version (restored, however, from memory by a restaurant guest) was precisely the first, magazine version of the recipe.”

Olivier salad recipe from the magazine “Our Food”

Shutterstock

“Fry the hazel grouse, cool, cut into small slices; prepare boiled (non-crumbly) potatoes, also in slices, and slices of fresh cucumbers, then add capers [capers] and olives; mix all this and pour in plenty of the following sauce: add Kabul soy to an ordinary cold Provençal sauce until it has a darkish color and a piquant taste, cover it with crayfish tails, lettuce, lettuce and a little chopped lanspic on top. Serve very cold in a crystal vase, like a fruit masedouane.”

The recipe, of course, requires some explanation. Soy "Kabul" is a spicy aromatic soy sauce produced in London, lanspik is a jelly made from a strong broth, and Provencal is what we now call mayonnaise, it was prepared from egg yolks ground with mustard, which were beaten while slowly adding vegetable oil .

Lemon juice was added to the finished thick sauce. Let's take this into account and turn to the recipe of Alexandrova-Ignatieva, thanks to whom the canonical Olivier recipe appeared, which has almost nothing in common with the one to which we are accustomed.

Olivier salad from Pelageya Alexandrova-Ignatieva’s book “Practical Fundamentals of Culinary Art” (1899)

Required Products:
Ryabchikov - 3 pcs.
Potatoes - 5 pcs.
Cucumbers - 5 pcs.
Salad - 2 pieces
Provencal - ½ bottle. oils
Crayfish necks - 10-15 pcs.
Lanspika - 1 glass
Olives, gherkins - only ¼ lb.
Truffles - 3 pcs.

Cooking rules:
Sear, gut, season and fry natural banquet shot hazel grouse, cool and remove all the flesh from the bones. Cut the fillets into blankets, and chop the rest of the pulp a little. Make a good broth from the game bones, from which you can then prepare lanspik. Boil the potatoes in their skins, then peel them and take them out into a hole the size of a 3-kopeck coin, and chop the trimmings.

Peel fresh cucumbers and cut into thin slices. Cut the truffles into circles. Boil the crayfish and take their necks. Prepare a thick Provençal sauce, add kabul soy to it for spiciness, and a little thick cream for better taste and color. Peel large olives using a screw. When everything is prepared, take a glass vase or deep salad bowl, remove the bottom of the bowl with some lettuce leaves and start laying everything out in rows.

First, put the trimmings of game and potatoes on the bottom, lightly seasoning them with Provençal, then put a row of game on top, then some potatoes, cucumbers, some truffles, olives and crayfish necks, pour all this with some of the sauce so that it is juicy, put a row of game on top again and etc. Some of the crayfish necks and truffles should be left for decoration on top.

When all the products are placed in a vase in the form of a slide, then cover the top with Provençal so that the products are not visible.

Place some salad in the middle of the vase as a bouquet, and arrange crayfish necks, claws from boiled crayfish and truffles around it more beautifully. Chop the frozen lanspik, put it in a cornet, make a thin elegant mesh on top and cool it well.

Since the original Olivier recipe has changed beyond recognition, we are allowed to handle it quite freely. Some people put boiled sausage in it, considering it a Soviet classic. Some people boil beef for a long time. Others add smoked chicken. Chefs of Moscow restaurants go the furthest and juggle ingredients at their own discretion.

Tangerine Olivier (chef of the Dukhless bar)

A. Podgornykh

Ingredients:
Boiled potatoes - 500 g
Boiled carrots - 300 g
Green onion - 100 g
Fresh fennel – 100 g
Celery, stalks - 100 g
Green apple – 100 g
Baked chicken - 1 pc.
Mayonnaise with parsley - 200 g
Salt - to taste
Jalapeno pepper - 1 pc.
To cover:
Fresh tangerine – 400 ml
Corn starch - 30 g
Edible gelatin – 50 g

How to cook:
First, bake the chicken - rub the whole carcass with salt, sweet paprika and olive oil and bake in the oven for 90 minutes at 160°C. Make mayonnaise: for 3 yolks, add 50 g of Dijon mustard and 30 ml of lemon juice, beat and add vegetable oil in a thin stream, without ceasing to beat, until you get a good sauce.

Add 50 g of finely chopped parsley. Cut all the salad ingredients into small cubes, mix with the sauce and put in the refrigerator for an hour.

Make jelly. Soak the gelatin for 10 minutes. Warm the juice with starch, when the mass thickens a little, add gelatin. Take out the salad and roll into balls in the shape of a tangerine. Cover with jelly several times until the salad is completely hidden in the tangerine (about 8-9 approaches every 10 minutes). Let the tangerine harden and place it on a bed of red caviar.

Olivier with shrimp, veal tongue and salmon (Mikhail Simagin, chef of the Siberia restaurant)

A. Podgornykh

Ingredients:
Fresh cucumbers – 25 g
Lightly salted cucumbers – 20 g
Carrots – 20 g
Potatoes - 25 g
Canned peas - 10 g
Shallot – 3 g
Boiled chicken egg white - 20 g
Boiled shrimp 13/15 – 20 g
Beef tongue - 30 g
Lightly salted salmon - 15 g
Dill, parsley - 2 g each
Watercress - 5 g
Pea puree – 50 g
Fresh frozen green peas – 50 g
Butter - 50 g
White wine – 20 g
Capers - 5 g
Olives - 5 g
Olives - 5 g
Chicken broth - 100 g
Refill – 35 g
Homemade mayonnaise – 100 g
Sesame oil - 10 g
Creamy horseradish - 20 g

How to cook:
Bake carrots and potatoes in the oven and cut into cubes. Boil the beef tongue and also cut into cubes. Do the same with salmon, cucumbers and protein. Season everything with sesame-lemon dressing. To prepare the dressing, mix homemade mayonnaise, sesame oil, and horseradish in a blender.

Place the resulting salad on a plate in the form of a roll. And wrap with pea puree petals. Garnish with watercress.

To make pea puree, simmer green peas in water for at least an hour until tender. Separately, place olives, olives, capers in a saucepan, fry in butter, then add white wine, evaporate, add chicken broth, butter and bring to sauce consistency. Combine the resulting sauce with green peas and puree in a blender. Place the resulting mass in a mold and make an imitation of petals.

Olivier with smoked chicken (Vladimir Gorskikh, chef of the Nikolas farm restaurant")

Oleg Citizen

Ingredients:
Smoked chicken fillet – 65 g
Potatoes - 85 g
Carrots – 60 g
Fresh cucumber – 50 g
Pickled cucumbers – 65 g
Canned peas - 50 g
Chicken egg - 1 pc.

Ingredients for chicken lanspeek:
Chicken broth - 700 g
Gelatin sheets - 40 g
Salt - 2 g
Pepper mixture - 1 g

Ingredients for decoration:
Caper fruits in vinegar with tail - 3 g
Balsamic caramel – 5 ml
Cherry tomatoes – 10 g
Smoked chicken – 65 g
Cancer necks - 15 g
Hellmans mayonnaise – 40 g

How to cook:
Boil the potatoes and carrots in their skins until tender and cool. Cut the peeled vegetables into small cubes. Add two types of cucumbers, a boiled egg and smoked chicken fillet, also diced. Season the resulting salad with homemade mayonnaise. Place the salad on a plate. Garnish with crayfish tails, halved capers and cherry tomatoes and chicken lancepick.

Place grilled chicken fillet on top of the salad. On the fillet is an egg cut into slices. Garnish with balsamic caramel.

Chicken lancepick: dissolve soaked leaf gelatin, salt and pepper to taste in warm chicken broth, pour into molds and cool. Cut the frozen lanspik into small cubes.

Olivier with chicken breast and poached egg (Alena Solodovichenko, chef of the Kompot cafe)

A. Podgornykh

Ingredients:
Boiled potatoes - 40 g
Smoked chicken breast – 60 g
Fresh frozen peas – 30 g
Pickled cucumber – 25 g
Fresh cucumber – 25 g
Boiled carrots - 35 g
Green onion – 5 g
Homemade mayonnaise – 35 g
Chicken egg - 1.5 pcs.
Sour cream 20% – 20 g
Fresh lemon – 5 g
Salt - 2 g
Dill - 3 g

How to cook:
Blanch the green peas. Boiled potatoes, fresh and pickled cucumbers, cut carrots into cubes. Finely chop half an egg. Cut the smoked chicken breast into cubes. Mix everything and season with mayonnaise and sour cream.

Place a mound of salad on a plate, sprinkle with dill and chopped green onions. Place a poached egg on top, cut slightly so that the yolk comes out.

To prepare a poached egg, add a couple of drops of table vinegar to boiling water for better protein coagulation, stir, make a funnel, stir for about a minute. Then crack the egg into the funnel and cook for 3 minutes.

Lucien Olivier at the end of the 19th century and was considered a rare delicacy. Lucien Olivier himself never gave anyone the exact recipe for his salad - this appetizer was very expensive at that time, and its preparation for wealthy merchants brought considerable profit to the author.

Variations of the original Olivier salad recipes that have survived to this day are only replicas and attempts to recreate the taste of the famous salad.

In the book "A Guide to Learning the Basics of Culinary Arts" The 1897 edition contains the following recipe for Olivier salad:

Olivier's original recipe

Ingredients for 1 person:

• Hazel grouse - 1/2 pieces
• - 3 pieces
• - 1 piece
• Lettuce - 3-4 sheets
• - 1.5 table. spoons
• Cancer necks - 3 pieces
• Lanspik - 1/4 cup
• Capers - 1 teaspoon
• Olives - 3-5 pieces

Step-by-step cooking recipe:

Cut the fillet of fried good hazel grouse into blankets and mix with blankets of boiled, not crumbly potatoes and slices of fresh cucumbers, add capers and olives and pour in a large amount of Provencal sauce, with the addition of Kabul soybeans. Once cooled, transfer to a crystal vase and decorate with crayfish tails, lettuce leaves and chopped lancepick.

Serve very cold. Fresh cucumbers can be replaced with large gherkins. Instead of hazel grouse, you can take veal, partridge and chicken, but a real Olivier appetizer is always prepared from hazel grouse.

For the sauce: Provencal mayonnaise should be prepared with French vinegar from 2 eggs and 1 pound of Provencal (olive) oil.

According to other sources, the original recipe for Olivier salad is as follows:

Cooking Olivier salad according to the classic recipe of Lucien Olivier

The method of preparation, serving and serving is similar to the first recipe.

Rumors and facts

It is believed that Olivier initially came up with a mayonnaise for vodka rather than a salad. The word "mayonnaise" has undergone linguistic changes - it originally meant a dish seasoned with Provencal sauce. It was Provencal sauce that later began to be called mayonnaise. And on this dish were laid out fillets of hazel grouse, lobsters, crayfish tails, fresh cucumbers, and pressed black caviar. And all this was topped with Lucien Olivier’s own Provençal sauce. And in the center of this large dish was his designer delight - a mound of potatoes, chopped eggs and gherkins.”

According to Lucien Olivier, there was no need to eat this “slide”. But soon the cook noticed that the guests were mixing its contents and eating with pleasure. Then he decided: if you want a salad, there will be one for you. The original recipe for Olivier salad was different from the current one. “It included the hazel grouse fillets I mentioned, lobsters, crayfish tails - a whole range of ingredients - and all this was seasoned with Provencal sauce.

There are other versions of the “Real Olivier Recipe”, but based on the list of ingredients and comparing them with historical facts that have survived to this day, they do not inspire confidence.