In what year did Olivier salad appear. Salad Olivier - what it really is. Necessary products and their proportion per person

And most often observed on the faces of surprise. Here is such a paradox: this salad, invented by one of the representatives of the famous French culinary dynasty, is a Russian national dish.

The famous salad appeared in the 60s of the XIX century thanks to the excellent chef Lucien Olivier, who moved from France to Russia. He became the owner of the famous Moscow restaurant Hermitage on Trubnaya Square. The place was the most pretentious, with European chic and Russian helpfulness (the waiters were dressed like tavern sex workers, only all the uniforms were sewn from expensive fabric ordered, for example, in Holland). The audience was appropriate, and the cuisine was one of the most famous in the capital.

The well-known everyday writer of Moscow in his book “Moscow and Muscovites”, of course, could not ignore the “Hermitage”, talking about this institution in the essay “On the Pipe” - that’s what the people called Trubnaya Square in those days. And about the famous Frenchman and his salad, Gilyarovsky wrote: “It was considered a special chic when dinners were prepared by the French chef Olivier, who even then became famous for the “Olivier salad” invented by him, without which dinner is not at lunch and whose secret he did not reveal. No matter how hard the gourmets tried, it didn’t work out: this, but not that. ” Alas, the original salad recipe remained unknown: Olivier died without revealing the secret ingredients of this dish. We got only a recipe restored by one of the Hermitage regulars based on personal observations and taste sensations.

Russian barbarians

Ironically, they say that Olivier invented his salad out of anger. And it was like that. The chef decided to please the visitors of the Hermitage with a new dish called Game Mayonnaise. It was a real culinary composition: diced lanspic, veal tongue and crayfish necks, sprinkled with Provencal mayonnaise. And in the center of this platter, mostly for decoration, was a pile of potatoes and gherkins, topped with boiled eggs.

But the Russians appreciated not so much the aesthetic as the taste of the dish: in front of the wounded Frenchman, visitors mixed vegetables with game, turning a culinary masterpiece into a kind of hearty salad. The next day, an angry Olivier expressed his "fee" in relation to such barbarism, mixing all the ingredients himself and pouring sauce over them. For which many thanks to him!

Imitation of Olivier

As you know, one of the tasks of the revolutionary movement was the program of ridding the Soviet people of all sorts of bourgeois survivals. And even more so from such a whim as aesthetics. In a word, people were not up to harmonious combinations of tastes of salad ingredients. So for almost 50 years they forgot about Olivier, and then he suddenly appeared in the center as a symbol of prosperity in a crystal salad bowl. A delicious, beloved by everyone, but outrageously simplified version of the once legendary salad, which was enjoyed by the color of the Moscow public, with sausage and terribly scarce mayonnaise and green peas ...

Terminology issues

The kabul sauce (or soy kabul) provided in the recipe is a kind of spicy seasoning. And, apparently, the product called "soy" has nothing to do with it. There are at least three opinions about what it is. Someone says that the Yuzhny tomato sauce, which was prepared in Moscow restaurants, is similar to kabul. Someone believes that this is a mixture of hot pepper, vinegar and broth. There is another option: flour sauteed in butter (1 tablespoon), to which broth (50 ml), grated horseradish (1 tablespoon), cream (1 tablespoon) and salt were added. In a word, there are many difficulties in understanding the recipe. But if you wish, you can conduct a series of experiments. And even if you replace the hazel grouse with chicken, and the crayfish tails with shrimp, it will still turn out delicious!

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

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

French “guest worker” in Russia

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

So, a 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 - a wealthy merchant Yakov Pegov, and opened a restaurant called "Hermitage" in the 60s of the XIX century.

The popularity of the institution grew rapidly, so after a while the Hermitage was followed by another restaurant on Trubnaya Square. But the attendance of the first 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.

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

Fritillaries, crayfish necks 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: from time to time 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 appetizer 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 he ate a real Olivier salad. Indeed, in the original recipe from the modern one there were only ingredients such as potatoes, cucumbers, Provencal mayonnaise and boiled eggs. Well, poultry meat. True, it was not a chicken at all, but hazel grouses or partridges.

The composition of the French delicacy also included crayfish necks, veal tongue, lettuce, pressed caviar, lanspeak, or lanspieg (a gelled broth in which hazel grouses were boiled), and soy-kabul. The chef laid out all this in small piles on a large plate and watered it with his signature Provencal. And a little later, when I observed how the restaurant's visitors eat the appetizer, I began to knead it before serving.

Almost none of the ingredients raises questions. Yes, all of them are not linked in our view with Olivier salad, but the products are familiar. But what is soy-kabul? To answer this question, you need to refer to the time the Olivier recipe appeared in print.

On the pages of culinary publications

Lucien Olivier invented his signature salad at the end of the 60s of the 19th century, but the recipe was first published only in 1894 in the magazine Our Food, and then not among other recipes, but under the heading Questions and Answers, since already a lot of people were interested in “how is the appetizer Olivier prepared?”.

Editor Ignatiev gave a detailed answer to this question. In addition to all of the above, he advised to put capers and olives in Olivier, fill it with cold Provencal sauce and add Kabul soybeans. And in winter, replace fresh cucumbers with salted gherkins. It 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 the French salad loved by everyone. M.A. Ignatiev supplemented the publication with a couple more tips. So that the winter version of “Olivier” does not lose its original taste, he recommended putting a borage plant instead of fresh cucumbers - the so-called “cucumber herb”, which tastes exactly like this vegetable. And you can grow borage in the winter in a pot on the windowsill.

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

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

So, unfortunately, "ends in the water." Because a request for Kabool sauce sent to The J.M. The Smucker Company, which owns the thriving Crosse & Blackwell brand to this day, went unanswered.

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

So we won’t be able to try exactly the same salad that Lucien Olivier prepared.

It is interesting: By the coming year 2012, the inhabitants 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!

Tough fate in an era of scarcity

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

But everyone liked the salad so much that they did not want to refuse it. It was only simplified and the meat ingredients were replaced with boiled sausage. Plus, boiled carrots and green peas were added 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 included ingredients that were freely available even in cold 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

Time for preparing: 1 hour 20 minutes

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 lettuce 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

Boiled in beef broth with the addition of seasonings, Madeira, champignons and olives and cooled hazel grouse meat, cut into medium-sized uniform pieces.
Peel the boiled veal tongue and chop it together with pressed black caviar, ready-made lobster meat taken out of the shell, chicken eggs, washed and dried fresh cucumbers and pickles in small cubes.
Rinse lettuce leaves thoroughly under a slight pressure of a flowing jet, blot each leaf with a paper towel and tear it medium-sized with your hands - this way the taste will be better than that of a chopped product.
Carefully remove the capers from the jar and chop as finely as possible.
Strain the amount of canned soybeans required by 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.
Combine all the prepared ingredients listed above in a common bowl, season them with Provence mayonnaise and serve in portioned bowls.

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

The gourmet dish, presented to our great-great-grandparents more than a century and a half ago by Lucien Olivier, has come a long winding way 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, and not come up with a replacement for it.

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

Many people know and love Olivier. People call it "meat salad". Even in Soviet times, he was present at every festive table and was considered an integral attribute of the feast. In those days, few people cared about the history of Olivier salad, the main thing was only that it was tasty and nutritious. Each time, the housewives cooked "meat salad" according to a single recipe that everyone knew. Over time, culinary experts began to add their own special ingredients, while each claimed that his cooking option was correct. That is why the question often arises of what really needs to be put in Olivier salad. The history of origin will help to lift this veil.

Monsieur Lucien Olivier

Before you give the laurels to the creator of the salad, you should find out who he was. It is interesting that the life of a talented chef will explain to us why this culinary masterpiece is so popular among the Russian people, and we will become aware of the real history of Olivier salad. The name of the creator of this dish was Lucien Olivier, he was a Frenchman capable of culinary arts. He was born in 1838. He had two older brothers who cooked no less tasty. But they preferred to stay in their homeland. In his youth, Lucien left for Moscow in order to earn extra money. He chose this particular country because he knew that Russian people were interested in it. It was here that the history of Olivier salad began. It should be noted right away that an improved Provence mayonnaise recipe was born in this family, which Lucien used in his kitchen. Olivier began his business with the opening of his own restaurant "Hermitage", which at first was a huge success.

The secret of the restaurant

Lucien quickly gained popularity. All this became possible thanks to mayonnaise, in which he added mustard in the right proportions and a few spices, which gave the sauce an original spiciness. The huge demand prompted the culinary specialist to open another restaurant in France. His brothers in France enjoyed the same success and were also able to start their own business.

Olivier: the history of a culinary masterpiece

As you know, if you eat one sausage, it will soon get bored, and you want to try something new. The same principle worked here too: people were piquantly monotonous, and there were fewer and fewer customers in the restaurant. It was thanks to this that Lucien thought about a new interesting dish that would attract customers. In the course of culinary experiments, he came up with a new recipe, now known to everyone as Olivier salad. The history of the origin of this dish is so interesting that you just can’t wait to try it. But it is known that today's salads are fundamentally different from the one that was created at the beginning. It was exquisite and something unusual, something that returned the popularity of the Hermitage, and its owner - the glory of a great culinary specialist. Fans of this dish gave it a name - Olivier. The story doesn't end there.

original recipe

Lucien himself named the dish he created "Game Mayonnaise" and could not call it by his own name - "Olivier". The French chef did not change the classic recipe at first, and it consisted of well-boiled partridge and hazel grouse meat, between them he put the jelly that remained from the broth. He also cut the tongue of a young calf into pieces and spread it around the edges, alternating with small ones. Then he poured it with a small amount of mayonnaise, which he made with his own hands. There was a place in the center, which he filled with coarsely chopped eggs and gherkins. All this he served to visitors who enjoyed this combination.

Olivier's Secret

The history of the creation of this dish, one might say, has just begun. Many chefs and just housewives tried to repeat this recipe in their kitchens, but, to their surprise, nothing worked. Many tried to find out what the secret was, but Lucien cooked the dish alone, in a closed room, without revealing his secrets. In fact, the secret was in the very mayonnaise, which recently "became boring" to the restaurant's visitors.

Gourmet meal turns into a salad

Lucien tried to make his new dish not only tasty, but also original in appearance. But soon he had to make some adjustments and change his external beauty, and this did not make the salad less in demand. The fact is that the ingredients that were placed in the center of the plate were more likely intended for decoration. But a Russian person does not have the mentality to leave food untouched. This is what was reflected in the fact that the history of the origin of Olivier has changed a little. Once Lucien noticed that his visitors mix all the ingredients and only then eat them. He realized that for Russian people the dishes are not as important as their taste, so he interpreted his own recipe. Now the chef cut all the ingredients into slices, poured in a sufficient amount of branded mayonnaise and mixed everything well. A Russian person has an exquisite and beloved Olivier salad. The French chef took the classic recipe with him without revealing the secret. The great culinary specialist died in 1883.

Lettuce new life

We can say that the history of Olivier salad did not end here either. Although Lucien did not reveal the original recipe to anyone, nevertheless, in 1904 the dish was “reconstructed”.

One former visitor to the restaurant remembered all the ingredients that the creator of this masterpiece added. The only discrepancy was only in the composition of the Provence sauce, to which Lucien added his "secret" spices. So, the new salad included the following components:

fillet from two boiled hazel grouses;
25 crayfish;
one veal tongue;
half a can of soy kabul;
half a can of pickles;
200 grams of lettuce (fresh);
100 grams of pressed caviar (black);
two fresh cucumbers (chop);
5 hard-boiled eggs;
100 grams of capers.

All components were filled with a special French Provence. It was made from 400 grams of olive oil, vinegar and two fresh egg yolks. These ingredients were shipped from France.

Having considered what Olivier was like, having briefly learned about its origin, many will notice that the modern dish is fundamentally different from the one that was originally served.

This is not surprising, since in the Soviet years people did not have such an abundance of food on the tables that wealthy restaurant owners and nobles could afford. For most families, a new version of Olivier has gained popularity, which many still use. Almost everyone loves him since childhood. Here is his recipe:

4 hard boiled eggs;
half a kilo of Doctor's sausage;
4 boiled potatoes;
4 pickles;
a can of canned peas;
a pack of Provence;
herbs and salt optional.

All components are finely chopped, mixed and seasoned with the famous sauce. Here, everyone's favorite dish of Soviet times is ready!

Lettuce Interpretations

Today, Olivier has a different name and is better known as "meat salad". That is why many remembered that sausage should not be added to it, but white meat should be put. Since it is difficult to get partridges and hazel grouses, housewives boil many types of olivier with this ingredient, which differ in their composition. Now carrots, apples, onions are put in salads. Other components, on the contrary, are removed. Here is one of the recipes for a modified Olivier:

4 eggs;
4 potatoes;
1 apple;
1 onion;
1 breast;
1 can of peas;
3 pickled cucumbers;
2 carrots.

Vegetables, as usual, are boiled and cut. Breast and eggs are also boiled and chopped. Onions and cucumbers are chopped. But it is worth considering that it is not recommended to store salads in which onions are added for a long time, since this vegetable gives the dish an unpleasant aftertaste over time. Next, peas are poured into Olivier. Everything is diluted with Provence. If necessary, greens and salt are added.

The other option is slightly different. You will still need the same amount of potatoes, eggs, carrots, breast. We put less pickled cucumbers, one is enough, pour 100 grams of peas and the same amount of canned olives. Also chopped fresh cucumber is added. Refueled in the usual way.

The third method is interesting in that you need smoked fillet and 200 grams of champignons from a jar. A peeled apple with sourness is also added here, it is chopped into small pieces. Then 200 grams of peas, three "uniforms", four eggs. All crushed components are mixed. Olivier is salted and peppered. Next, you need to get 250 grams of fat sour cream from the refrigerator, pour a teaspoon of granulated sugar and salt into it. This mass is well whipped, after which 2 tbsp. tablespoons of lemon juice and a tablespoon of cognac. In the future sauce is poured 1 tbsp. a spoonful of nutmeg. The salad is dressed with the finished mass.

Do you know the secrets and legendary history of the Olivier salad? How difficult it is to restore the exact recipe for the famous dish, which was created in Moscow in the 1860s, at house number 14, on Trubnaya Square along Petrovsky Boulevard, the corner of Neglinnaya, which today is occupied by the Moscow Theater "School of the Modern Play". You will learn the secrets of the legendary Olivier recipe by reading our story about the most famous salad in Russia.

If you turn to some old recipes, then among them you can find many interesting, and even legendary dishes. How do you like the achaic “cumberland sauce”, the name of which can be found in the book by A. T. Averchenko “Shards of the smashed to smithereens” and in the “Culinary Guide” by the king of French cuisine Auguste Escoffier, from where we reliably learn that he was invented by the chefs of Cumberland County, located in northern England, where it was served as a spicy seasoning for dishes prepared from game. Its recipe includes redcurrant jelly, port wine, shallots, orange and lemon peel, fresh orange and lemon juice, mustard, cayenne pepper and ginger powder.

And if you hear such a culinary name as “game cheese”? Intriguing? And such a recipe is common in European cookbooks and refers to cold appetizers made from fried game meat (partridge, black grouse, hazel grouse, pheasant), from which minced meat is first made, wine, strong meat broth, butter, grated cheese are added to it, grated nutmeg, ground black pepper and salt - everything is mixed until smooth and served in portions in dough baskets or other molds.

Secrets of the legendary Olivier salad

According to lovers of secrets and mysteries, the famous author of the legendary salad, culinary specialist Lucien Olivier, whose grave is located in the former German, and now the Vvedensky Moscow cemetery, took away the original recipe of his culinary masterpiece.

Even during his lifetime, the famous Moscow culinary specialist Lucien Olivier, the owner of the Hermitage restaurant, called his signature salad “Game mayonnaise”. It was with the light hand of Moscow gourmets that the salad that became popular was given the name of its creator, which stuck with it along with the wide distribution of this very spicy dish in Russian cuisine, which has become one of the main attributes not only in Russia, but also for compatriots far beyond its borders.

History of Olivier salad - Moscow, 19th century

In the book "Practical Foundations of Culinary Art", published in 1889 and withstood 12 editions, the last of which was in 1927 in the printing house of the Financial Department of the Leningrad Gubispolkom, you can find the exact legendary recipe for Olivier salad and its history. The author of this book, Pelageya Pavlovna Alexandrova-Ignatievna (1872-1953), a teacher of culinary skills at the Imperial Women's Patriotic Society, created not just a thorough textbook on the art of cooking, but a real monument of the era, conveying to the modern and future reader an authentic recipe and professional techniques for preparing all kinds of dishes Russian cuisine.

The next time Soviet culinary specialists raised the “Olivier salad” to a wave of new popularity when in the 30s of the last century it appeared on the menu of the Moscow restaurant under the name “Capital”, the chefs of which, it seems, still remembered the true taste of this famous salad, what connoisseurs of haute cuisine of that time agreed on, arguing an almost complete resemblance to its classical predecessor.

The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food, published in 1939, which became the first sample of a large cookbook in the USSR, contains a recipe called "Game salad", which is the legendary "Olivier salad".

Over time, the multi-component recipe for the legendary Olivier salad "lost the ingredients", narrowing down to 3 main components: boiled eggs, potatoes and cucumbers. As the popularity of the Olivier salad grew, a lot of people formed, but the main 6 components somehow settled down: potatoes; hard-boiled chicken eggs, boiled or semi-smoked sausage (boiled chicken as an option); fresh, pickled or pickled cucumbers; green canned peas, mayonnaise.

The author of the rumor about the mysterious disappearance of the authentic recipe for “Olivier salad” was the connoisseur of Moscow city life, writer Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky, who in the book “Moscow and Muscovites” remarked: “It was considered a special chic when dinners were prepared by the French chef Olivier, who even then became famous for his invention” salad Olivier, without which dinner is not at dinner and the secret of which he did not reveal. No matter how hard the gourmets tried, it didn’t work out: this, but not that. ”

And now, out of place, the word “secret” used by “Uncle Gilai” (as his friends called him) and an enthusiastic opinion about the golden hands of Lucien Olivier became the beginning of a far-fetched mystery of the disappearance of a recipe for a favorite salad. This is confirmed by the prosaic fact that the Hermitage restaurant served this legendary salad for a long time even after his death. In addition, the recipe for "Olivier salad" was also known to the chefs of the St. Petersburg restaurant "Medved" on Konyushennaya Street; and the culinary specialists of the Testov tavern, famous in Moscow, as evidenced by Gilyarovsky himself, describing his lunch in a friendly company: “I have before me the account of the Testov tavern at thirty-six rubles ... We started at the beginning “under the herring”. - For rhyme, as I. F. Gorbunov used to say: vodka-herring. Then, under Achuev caviar, then under grained caviar with a tiny pie from burbot livers, a glass of cold white myrrh with ice first, and then they drank it, tinted with pikonchik, English under brains and bison under Olivier salad ... "

For a more or less complete picture in this story, let's add to the above options for Olivier salad several other interesting versions of it, which may encourage you to create similar dishes.

Olivier salad according to the recipe from the book "Practical foundations of culinary art", 1899

Necessary products and their proportion per person.

hazel grouse - 1/2 piece;
potatoes - 2 pieces;
cucumbers - 1 piece;
lettuce - 3-4 leaves;
cancer necks - 3 pieces;
lanspic - 1/2 cup;
caporets - 1 teaspoon;
olives - 3-5 pieces.

Cut the fillets of fried good hazel grouse into blankets and mix with boiled, not crumbly potato blankets and slices of fresh cucumbers, add caporets and olives and pour over a large amount of Provencal sauce, with the addition of soy-kabul.
After cooling, transfer to a crystal vase, remove with crayfish tails, lettuce leaves and chopped lanspic.
Serve very cold.

According to the book Practical Foundations of the Culinary Arts (1899), large gherkins can be substituted for fresh cucumbers. Instead of hazel grouse, you can take veal, partridge and chicken, but the real Olivier appetizer is prepared without fail from hazel grouse.

Interpretation of obscure words in Smirnova's recipe:

Blankets (from the French blanc - clean, white) - straight pieces of food cut in parallel lines, used as semi-finished products for the manufacture of dishes and culinary products.
Lanspic - chicken or meat broth, boiled to a state of jelly.
Soy kabul or kabul sauce is a popular spicy seasoning brought from Afghanistan.
Caporets are capers, the pickled or salted flower buds of the prickly caper plant.

2. "Game salad" according to the classic recipe from the "Book of Tasty and Healthy Food" (1939)

Ingredients:

hazel grouse (boiled or fried) - 1 piece;
boiled potatoes - 300 grams;
gherkins or pickles - 75 grams;
green salad - 75 grams;
boiled chicken eggs - 2 pieces;
mayonnaise sauce - 0.5 cups;
soy-kabul - 0.5 tablespoon;
table vinegar - 1 tablespoon;
powdered sugar - 0.5 teaspoon;
salt - to taste.

"Game salad" according to the classic recipe, cook like this:

Cut the hazel grouse fillet into thin slices, half a hard-boiled egg and gherkins, and dried lettuce leaves into 3-4 parts.
Put everything in a bowl, salt, pour mayonnaise sauce, add soy-kabul, vinegar or lemon juice.
Lay the seasoned and mixed salad in a salad bowl.
Place lettuce leaves in the center of the hill, and around the oval, decorate with boiled eggs, cut into quarters, slices of fresh cucumber and pieces of pickles.

You can decorate the salad with crayfish tails, pieces of crabs, as well as circles of tomatoes. Such a salad can be prepared from various game or poultry, from meat, veal and other things.

3. Salad "Capital" according to a restaurant recipe from the times of the USSR

Ingredients for 1 serving:

poultry or game (ready) - 60 grams;
boiled potatoes - 60 grams;
fresh, pickled or pickled cucumbers - 40 grams;
green salad - 10 grams;
cervical cancer - 10 grams;
boiled egg - 2 pieces;
sauce "Southern" - 15 grams;
mayonnaise - 70 grams;
pickles - 10 grams;
olives - 10 pieces.

Salad "Capital" according to the restaurant recipe is prepared as follows:

Boiled or fried game or poultry, boiled peeled potatoes, fresh, pickled or pickled cucumbers, hard-boiled eggs, cut into thin slices (2-2.5 centimeters), and chop lettuce leaves.
Mix all chopped products, season with mayonnaise sauce, add Southern sauce for taste.
Put the mixed salad in a salad bowl and decorate with mugs or slices of hard-boiled eggs, slices of pickles, lettuce, thin circles of fresh cucumbers.

On the salad, you can put beautifully sliced game fillets, crayfish necks or pieces of canned crabs and olives

4. Homemade Olivier Salad

Ingredients:

boiled potatoes - 4 pieces;
boiled carrots - 2 roots;
cucumbers - 2 pieces (any);
boiled chicken egg;
canned green peas - 1 jar;
ham (sausage, boiled meat, smoked chicken fillet) - 300 grams;
mayonnaise - 100 grams;
salt - to taste.

Olivier salad according to a homemade recipe is prepared as follows:

Boil vegetables and eggs, cool and peel
Cut all the ingredients into the same medium-sized cubes and put in one capacious container.
Add green peas without broth, mayonnaise and mix everything gently. It remains to arrange in mini salad bowls or bowls, decorate on top with a sprig of fresh herbs and be sure to let it brew in a cool place so that all its ingredients are saturated with a bouquet of joint aroma.

As you can see, the Olivier salad in this case is without onions, although you can afford your salad and onions. If you are afraid of its harsh taste, scald the chopped onion with boiling water.

Lucien Olivier (fr. Lucien Olivier) - 1838 - 1883 - a chef of French or Belgian origin, who kept the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow in the early 1860s - the author of the legendary Olivier salad, who took with him the exact secret of its preparation.

culture

Have you ever wondered why so many people love Olivier salad so much? And why exactly this dish is so popular in the territory of the former USSR, being associated with New Year's festivities?

And after all, even those who cannot stand Olivier are well aware of the peculiar sacred meaning this salad is for almost everyone who loves the New Year holiday (that is, for the majority).

The special status of Olivier salad, as a dish for the holiday, is perceived by us as such from early childhood. And it seems like it's always been that way. In fact, the popularity of Olivier in our country is a vivid example of a kind of random product placement.

Where did this dish come from? A lot has been written about its origin, but too much artistic look most of the stories, causing a lot of questions.

So how did the “bourgeois” salad penetrate the life of almost every citizen of the former USSR? Why exactly Olivier salad became the most favorite New Year's dish for many millions? Let's talk about everything in order.

The history of the birth of Olivier salad usually begins with the history of the birth of a person, a great hereditary chef. And this man was a Lucien Olivier. It is believed that Lucien was born in Moscow somewhere at the turn of 1837-1838 (nothing is known about the more exact date of the birth of the future "father of Olivier salad").

Sources that mention the name of Lucien Olivier usually immediately throw us into the mid-60s century before last when wealthy Muscovites and guests of the city favored a restaurant called the Hermitage with their attention.

It was in this restaurant that visitors tried for the first time the prototype of the Olivier salad, named after supposedly hereditary chef(and part-time manager) of this institution Lucien Olivier. But this is where the first questions arise.

There is no evidence that Lucien Olivier was a hereditary chef

You may be surprised, but there are no reliable sources that would confirm that restaurant manager Lucien was a great cook (and even hereditary, as you can read in some "historical" research), does not exist.

What do you know about Lucien? It is believed that the man was French or Belgian of French origin. However, here we are faced with the same problem: no matter how hard you try, you will not find a reliable source of this information (and many enthusiasts and historians have been purposefully doing this).

And what do the Moscow archives say about people with the surname Olivier, who then lived in this city? It is well known that in the address book of 1842 year there is a mention of only one Olivier, who then lived in Moscow. Perhaps in his family a “great cook” was born?

It is unlikely. The likelihood that it was in the family of this Olivier, a merchant and owner of a hairdresser named Osip, then grew four year old Lucien, the future creator of the super-popular salad, is practically zero: although Osip had four children and three of them were boys, none of the guys fit either by age or by name.

Was there even a man named Lucien Olivier?

For most of the fragmentary information that we have about Lucien Olivier, as the manager of the Hermitage restaurant, we are indebted to such a person as the writer Count Vladimir Gilyarovsky. And it would be possible to refer to his information, if not for one "but": Gilyarovsky was called at one time nothing more than a collector of urban legends. Legends and Rumors.

And, nevertheless: according to the same archival sources (namely, they are the most reliable), the Hermitage restaurant, which opened in luxury hotel "Hermitage" on Trubnaya Square in Moscow, like the hotel itself, were managed by a certain ... Nikolai Olivier. Another Olivier? Where did he come from?!

For the first time, Nicholas Olivier is mentioned in 1868 in a sort of Moscow guide to hospitals, trading shops, various enterprises, educational institutions, usury offices, as well as hotels and restaurants.

Who was the first to talk about Lucien Olivier as a cook?

The writer Gilyarovsky, in his descriptions of the life and traditions of Muscovites of those years, described the Hermitage establishment as very popular and elite place. And it was he, Vladimir Alekseevich Gilyarovsky, who painted the talents of the chef Olivier, who allegedly prepared an exceptionally delicious salad that made Lucien popular throughout Moscow.

Gilyarovsky personally, of course, could not see this, since he was born only in 1855; his book "Moscow and Muscovites" was published in 1926. And now the most interesting: any other sources of information, which we would have learned about Lucien Olivier, as a talented hereditary chef, are simply absent.

However, the manager of the "Hermitage" by the name of Lucien existed, being, quite obviously, Nikolai, who changed his name to a more French one. What for? Perhaps to match "Frenchness" of the restaurant itself. One can only guess about the motives of Nicholas (Lucien), since the man died in 1883, leaving almost no data behind him.

Could the manager of the hotel and restaurant personally undertake the preparation of dishes in the restaurant of the hotel he manages? Hypothetically, this possibility is not ruled out, but no evidence we do not have this fact, except for the existence of a beautiful legend about the hereditary chef Lucien Olivier (and many conjectures based on this legend). But we have Olivier salad.

real olivier recipe

First Olivier salad

The question immediately arises: perhaps there was no Olivier salad then? There was, although the story of Olivier, like a salad, no less confusing than the story of Lucien Olivier as a cook. There were many delicious dishes that the sophisticated Moscow noble public really tasted for the first time in the Hermitage restaurant in the hotel of the same name.

By the way, another Russian writer, Pyotr Dmitrievich Boborykin, who lived just in that era and visited the Hermitage restaurant, sincerely admired the incredible huge kitchen this institution in their articles published in the popular monthly. There was also mentioned a French manager, allegedly born in Russia.

At the same time, as Bobrykin assured, insisting on this information, in the kitchen of the Hermitage restaurant, which hosted all the nobility not only of Russia, but of all Europe, about six dozen chefs. Was there any point in the hotel manager getting behind the stove?

However, let's get back to the salad, or rather, to its prototype!

The restaurant "Hermitage" served a very tasty and varied dish (perhaps really a salad), which later became known as named after manager restaurant. Perhaps it was called that right away, in the restaurant's menu, although there is no indication of this.

What did the first recipe for this dish look like, did it even look like a salad - unknown! Everything else that can be found about Olivier salad with reference to the Hermitage restaurant is tales, legends and conjectures.

One such legend says that the restaurant's chef (according to the same legend, the chef was Lucien Olivier) served his new culinary masterpiece, which was not a salad at all. Rather, it was like ensemble of various products, generously poured with Provence sauce. The dish allegedly included crayfish necks, partridges, hazel grouse, lanspieg, veal tongue and much more, including separately presented potatoes and eggs.

Some of these products are actually used as ingredients for the modern Olivier salad. But, as the legend says, visitors to the Hermitage did not appreciate the refined taste of the artist and maestro Olivier, mixing all the ingredients together. And the next day, the cook, upset by the ignorance of the public, served the same dish, but in a mixed form. Like, this is how Olivier salad appeared.

I would like to believe in this memorable legend, but there is one caveat (at least): the dish itself was allegedly called "Mayonnaise from the game." However cookbooks the middle of the century before last they present us under this name a lot of dishes from pork, beef, hare, and other living creatures. It seems that mayonnaise became the sauce later.

Where did the original Olivier recipe go?

After the death of Olivier, the Hermitage restaurant was repeatedly repaired, completed, rebuilt, and then finally closed in 1917. Have any recipes been lost? It is obvious. Was there a recipe for that famous Olivier salad among them? As you understand, there are no direct instructions for this. But the story did not end there, but only began.

Starting from 1884, recipes began to appear in various culinary and near-culinary publications of the country, which are allegedly a reference to "the same" famous recipe Olivier salad, popular among the nobility of Moscow and guests of the city. The recipes changed from edition to edition and from publication to publication.

The authors of each subsequent recipe could make changes to the "original" recipe, replacing, for example, hazel grouse with chicken, recommending Provence sauce. By the way, standards for mayonnaise, as for the sauce familiar to us, called "Provencal", were already developed in the Soviet Union. By the way, there were no preservatives in it, except for vinegar from alcohol.

Needless to say, among the writers of culinary recipes, as well as among the publishers and editors, there were many not the most talented people who relied, first of all, on to earn money? Not much trying to look for any historical truth, some even invented the ingredients of the “first Olivier” (adding, for example, black caviar).

Salad for the New Year's table

Soviet Olivier

The glory of Olivier salad as "a unique dish with incredible taste and nutritional qualities, the recipe of which has been irretrievably lost" is simply couldn't fly. And she didn't fade. In the famous restaurants of the Soviet Union, many chefs tried to speculate (in a good way) on the long-standing glory of Olivier salad.

Speculation can be called purely conditional, as the chefs of the establishments sincerely tried to cook something close to original(at least close to what was published in the old pre-revolutionary culinary publications).

Ideologically correct Olivier

It is known, for example, that in the mid-30s of the last century, in some restaurants of the capital, salad a la Olivier was no longer served with expensive ingredients, echoes of the bourgeois past (take at least the same hazel grouse!), but with an ideologically verified red carrot. And it was called "Capital".

Perhaps the story about the "ideologically verified" carrot is also a legend, and the chefs were simply forced to try new ingredients, including the same green peas instead of capers. And the sausage that appeared in the dish was the result of attempts to reduce the cost of the final product.

I must say that by that time the Olivier salad was known under several names: “Russian salad”, “Winter”. Again, Capital. There is no clear justification for this. You can find fabrications on the topic that “Russian” differs from “Olivier” in that one uses meat, and the other uses sausage.

However, the logic in this, given the previous story, is not observed. Most likely, in the Soviet catering system they tried to get away from the not quite popular name "Olivier", trying not only new ingredients, but also new titles. As we can see, one, and the second, and the third took root. There are even names like "Game Salad".

How did doctor's sausage appear in Olivier?

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet people actively restored the destroyed country. But even among the harsh everyday life, sometimes I wanted to arrange a holiday for myself - with festive meals and drinks. Olivier suddenly became an attribute of the festival. But, since chicken fillet was expensive, cheaper doctor's sausage began to be used everywhere.

In addition, this boiled sausage, developed back in 1936 as an element of dietary nutrition recommended for those who undermined his health still as a result of the Civil and First World Wars, it was recommended to citizens even at the end of the Great Patriotic War.