'Olivier' salad: recipe modern and original

Salad "Olivier" was an integral part of the festive table of Russians in Soviet times. His popularity was due to the availability of all the ingredients of this salad. Most of them grew in the gardens, the rest could be bought without difficulty, again, all these ingredients were well kept all winter. By the way, that's why this salad is often called "Winter".

However, the history of this salad is mysterious and interesting. He appeared in the 1860s. Its author was the French chef Lucien Olivier. Salad, the recipe of which the cook did not reveal to anyone, became the main dish in his tavern "The Hermitage" on the pipe square. In fact, this inn was a luxurious and expensive restaurant, with a truly palace decoration. The only difference from restaurants of that time was that the waiters were not dressed in an indispensable dress coat, but in the traditional costumes of Russian sex.

This restaurant enjoyed great popularity among the nobles, merchants, and then merchants, as well as the creative intelligentsia. And along with the tavern, a delicious salad became popular and unusually tender. He became so popular that over time he was the reputation of the institution, and not vice versa.

Many cooks tried to guess the salad recipe, but none of them did. Only in 1904, after the death of Olivier, a salad, a recipe from memory was restored by one of the habitues of the Hermitage tavern and a famous gourmet, was revived, although he never received the previous popularity.

The original recipe for salad "Olivier" is lost forever. It remains to be content with what has been restored. According to this restored recipe, the following ingredients were included in the composition of the dish: boiled grouse meat, veal tongue, also boiled, black caviar, green salad leaves , crayfish or lobsters, pickles, soybean paste, capers and eggs. As a dressing for the salad , the Provençal sauce was used, which was prepared from vinegar, olive oil and egg yolks. Now you can afford to prepare a salad "Olivier", the original recipe of which is written above. The only thing that nowadays does not produce a product such as soybean paste. Instead it is proposed to use canned white beans. In addition, it is very important to prepare the sauce yourself, and not buy mayonnaise in the store. It is believed that it can ruin the whole taste of salad.

Where did the salad come from, which is still known in every house under the same name "Olivier" salad? His recipe has undergone a number of changes due to the fact that a series of wars and Soviet policy have made most of the products used in the original recipe scarce. And since you want to join the high kitchen everyone, these ingredients were replaced, if possible, by the like, which were at hand. So it turned out simple and affordable, and, in general, a delicious salad, which, however, does not go to any comparison with the original.

Nowadays, when the products are available again, the Soviet recipe for salad "Olivier", vernacular "Winter", fades into the background, as the space for experiments opens up, people often try new recipes, in every way they try to diversify the table. However, even now "Olivier" is a salad, the recipe of which everyone knows and there are almost always products for it, which means that it can be a great help to the hostess if the guests come unexpectedly, without warning. And in those cases when there is no desire to tinker with new, untested recipes, you can always go back to a classic salad.

And so, how and from what is now prepared the salad "Olivier"? It's very simple: boil 4 medium potatoes, carrots and 5 chicken eggs, and cut into cubes, in the same way cut 300 g of boiled sausage (or boiled meat), 3 salted or pickled cucumber and one medium onion. All the ingredients should be poured into a bowl, sprinkled with a jar of green peas and filled with mayonnaise. It remains only to guess, in what order and in return what included those or other ingredients in this salad.

By the way, some gourmets prepare this salad with red fish and call it "Olivier in a royal way". The recipe is quite different: instead of boiled sausage, you need to take 300 g of red fish, and instead of canned peas used frozen. Before you put peas in a salad, it should be left for two minutes in boiling water.