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Cultural code: the legendary Olivier

The building of the Hermitage restaurant. 1900s. Photo: wikimedia.org

Chef of the Hermitage restaurant Lucien Olivier. Photo: persons-info.com

Interior of the Hermitage restaurant. 1900s. Photo: oldmos.ru

The Frenchman Lucien Olivier, the chef of the Hermitage restaurant on Trubnaya Square, hardly planned to end up in the history of Russian gastronomy. But I got it. The snack, which he invented in the 60s of the 19th century for the satiated guests of an expensive restaurant, quickly fell to the taste of the Moscow public. At that time, Russian national cuisine - nourishing, plentiful, but quite simple - was gradually changing under the pressure of a persistent fashion for everything French.

Olivier got it right: his signature appetizer with a special Provençal sauce, the grandfather of modern mayonnaise, almost immediately became the signature dish of the Hermitage. In the book “Moscow and Muscovites” the writer Gilyarovsky said: “It was considered special chic when dinners were prepared by the Frenchman Olivier, who was even then famous for the Olivier salad he invented, without which dinner would not be lunch and the secret of which he did not reveal. No matter how hard the gourmets tried, it didn’t work out: this or that.”.

Culinary historians usually agree that it was the sauce: the chef Lucien, himself originally from Provence, was well versed in the local oil and used only a certain type of it. However, this secret was quickly revealed, and within several years the salad entered the menu of all somewhat reputable catering establishments.

“We started at first with the herring. Then we had Achuevskaya caviar, then grainy caviar with a tiny burbot liver pie, first a glass of cold white Smirnova with ice, and then we drank English with brains and bison with Olivier salad.”

Vladimir Gilyarovsky. "Moscow and Muscovites"

Over the next decade, the salad became so popular that its recipes began to be published in cookbooks for a wealthy audience. These are not books for young inept housewives and not “the secret secrets of a cheap lunch.” Olivier requires skillful hands - and money.

Culinary Manual, 1897

Salad "Olivier"

Necessary products and their proportion for 5 persons.

Grouse - 3 pcs., potatoes - 5 pcs., cucumbers - 5 pcs., salad - 2 cobs, Provencal - ½ bottle. butter, crayfish necks - 15 pcs., lanspicou - 1 glass, olives, gherkins - only ¼ pound, truffles - 3 pcs. Cooking instructions: 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 remove them into a hole the size of a three-kopeck coin, and chop the scraps. 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 Son 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 and start laying everything 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. Leave some of the crayfish necks and truffles 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 everything thoroughly.

Note: In exactly the same way, you can prepare a salad from the remaining roast: beef, veal, grouse, chicken, etc., as well as from any non-bony fish. Sometimes, if desired, you can add fresh tomatoes, cut into circles, to these salads. But the real Olivier appetizer is always prepared from hazel grouse.
Note: Lanspeak is a thickened, sticky, transparent broth with the density of jelly. To get a bottle of ready-made lanspeak, you need to take a bottle of ready-made broth and 12 sheets of gelatin, or a veal head, or two ox legs, or 5-6 veal legs.

In other books of this period you can find recipes without olives, but, for example, with pressed caviar or lobster. There are many options, but one thing in common: in the 19th century, Olivier was a layered salad for the upper classes. But having stepped from restaurants to home tables, Olivier is gradually losing its culinary snobbery and becoming more democratic.

Cookbook, 1912

Olivier salad. Proportion: chickens - 1 pc., boiled potatoes - 5 pcs., fresh cucumbers - 5 pcs., truffle - 1 pc., Provencal sauce - 4 table. spoons.

Preparation: boil the chicken in broth and, after removing, cool, remove all the flesh, both fillet and legs, cut diagonally, thinly, into planks. Take large potatoes, round them into columns and cut them into kopecks. Peel fresh cucumbers and chop finely. Place all this in a saucepan, add a little salt, add Provencal sauce and stir, and then put it in a salad bowl, level it with a mound, top it with shredded truffles, and the salad is ready, served especially as an appetizer.
Note: Salad de boeuf (appetizer). The same as Olivier, but the difference is that you need to take boiled meat instead of chicken. Cut the meat into thin leaves, combine with cucumbers, potatoes and Provencal sauce. Garnish with truffles.

In 5 years, Tsarist Russia will end along with truffles. Mayakovsky’s propaganda declared hazel grouse to be bourgeois food, and those who survived the revolution, and then the Civil War, had no time for culinary delights. In the hungry year of 1921, the writer Arkady Averchenko recalled past feasts in his work “Fragments of the Broken to Pieces”: “A glass of lemon vodka cost fifty kopecks, but for the same fifty kopecks the friendly barmen literally forced an appetizer on you: fresh caviar, jellied duck, Cumberland sauce, Olivier salad, game cheese.”. However, the national cuisine at that time was in obvious decline: rusty rationed herring, saccharin, combined fat. All that remains is to remember Olivier.

In the relatively well-fed thirties, the history of salad - along with the history of the country - took a new turn. The chef of the Moscow restaurant, Ivan Ivanov, who, according to legend, once worked in the wings of Lucien Olivier himself, invents his own remake of an already well-known theme - the Stolichny salad. For the first time, canned food is added to the already known recipe: green peas and crab meat. But “Stolichny” is not yet a candidate for the role of Soviet salad number one. The NEP rehabilitates hazel grouse, sturgeon and crayfish: in the collections of recipes of that time there was an abundance of subtly similar snacks under playful names like “Silva” or “Parisien”. In such a variety, Olivier is not exactly losing ground, but it no longer claims to be the main holiday dish.

Cooking, a guide for catering establishments. 1945
Vegetable salad with game (Olivier)
Fillet of boiled or fried cold game, boiled potatoes, gherkins or pickled cucumbers are cut into thin slices, green lettuce leaves, soy-kabul [sauce], mayonnaise, and salt are added to them. All this is carefully mixed, placed in a heap in a salad bowl, decorated with slices or slices of hard-boiled eggs, lettuce, olives, slices of game and slices of green cucumber. You can put 2-3 crayfish tails or pieces of canned crab on the salad.

It is easy to see that by this time there was little left of the French appetizer. Stalin's Olivier is a fantasy thing. In 1948, the Soviet culinary bible, “The Book of Tasty and Healthy Food,” recommended adding green salad, lemon juice, apples and even powdered sugar to Olivier. In 1952, a book calling for abundance and showcasing the best examples of Soviet food photography featured boiled carrots and, unexpectedly, cauliflower as ingredients for the first time. The dish is decorated - in the absence of fish - no longer with crayfish, but with a boiled egg; later the decoration gradually slides inside the salad bowl and becomes an obligatory ingredient. Olivier is still considered a game salad, but around it on the pages of the “Book of Tasty and Healthy Food” there are more and more variations that are very similar in composition, including “Sausage Salad” (+ potatoes, celery, lettuce, gherkins, apple) and “ Salad with meat” (+ potatoes and cucumbers).

By the eighties, we have several remakes on the Olivier theme enshrined in mandatory collections of recipes: “Capital Salad” (chicken, potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, eggs, crabs), meat (all the same, only beef or tongue), “Seafood Salad” (fish, shrimp, potatoes, carrots, green peas) and the venerable “Game Salad,” now served with hazel grouse, tomatoes, beans and cauliflower. All this is generously seasoned with mayonnaise, and each recipe is accompanied by important notes: if such and such an ingredient is missing, you can replace it with another or completely leave the dish without it. It’s not surprising that in the end Brezhnev’s Olivier turned into a salad designer: what he got, he chopped up. But on the other hand, it is simple and inexpensive to prepare, ideal for cold weather and strong drinks, and recipe options are passed down from housewife to housewife and are consolidated by family tradition. Olivier successfully survives changes in ruling policies and financial crises, once again becoming the dish without which lunch would not be lunch.

Cooking in Russian, America, 2003
Russian salad (Olivje salad), a must-have at all Russian parties.
2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 1 medium onion, peeled, 6 large potatoes, 6 eggs, 8 medium pickled cucumbers, a cup of green peas, green onions and dill for serving.
Dressing: 1 tbsp. l olive oil, 1 cup mayonnaise, 1 cup sour cream, 1/4 tsp. salt, the same amount of ground pepper.
1. Wash chicken in cold water. Cut the onion in half. Cook the chicken until it is evenly white.
2. Remove the onion.
3. While the chicken is cooking, wash the potatoes well, place them in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil over high heat. Cook until potatoes peel easily. Drain the water.
4. While the chicken and potatoes are cooking, place the eggs in a large saucepan. Fill with water and bring to a boil at high temperature. Reduce heat, cover and leave for 20-25 minutes. Rinse the boiled eggs with cold water until they cool.
5. Cool all ingredients at room temperature before cooking. Cut the chicken into small pieces. Peel the potatoes and eggs. Cut potatoes, eggs and cucumbers into cubes. Place in a large salad bowl.
6. Prepare the dressing in a small salad bowl. Mix everything, add dressing and sweet peas to the salad bowl.
In some areas, Russians put carrots or grated apple in olivje. And keep in mind that for a real traditional taste you can’t use low-fat mayonnaise and sour cream!

The classic Olivier salad with meat is another symbol of the New Year, which we are accustomed to seeing on the festive table. But few people know that the author of this dish is the French chef Lucien Olivier, who opened the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow in the mid-19th century. His signature appetizer, Olivier, made from partridge and hazel grouse meat, with the tongue of a young calf, crayfish necks and a layer of jelly from the broth, brought gourmets from all over the capital to the restaurant. The meat basket was filled with boiled potatoes, eggs, gherkins, capers, olives and topped with delicious mayonnaise made according to a unique author's recipe. Many tried to find out the real French recipe for the classic Olivier salad, but Lucien kept his tricks a secret. Over time, Russian chefs adapted the overseas appetizer to our reality, and in Soviet times, a recipe for Olivier with boiled sausage appeared, which instantly caught on and became popular. Interestingly, modern Olivier has lost its French roots and is known abroad as “Russian salad”.

How to prepare a classic Olivier salad

In the past, Olivier salad was associated with prosperity, so housewives always prepared this appetizer for the New Year's table. The step-by-step recipe for classic Olivier looks very simple. First, potatoes are boiled in their skins and eggs are hard-boiled, and when the products have cooled, they are peeled and cut into cubes. Pickled cucumbers with cut off tails are cut into cubes, boiled meat (beef, chicken, turkey) is chopped, liquid is drained from a jar of peas, onions are finely chopped. All ingredients are mixed in a salad bowl and seasoned with mayonnaise. Despite the fact that the classic Olivier is prepared with meat, as was the original recipe of the French cook, doctor’s sausage can also be considered a variant of the classic.

The number of products is calculated based on the number of eaters and taste preferences. Some people like more meat, others don’t add eggs, and some add twice as many potatoes. The classic Olivier salad includes 400 g of meat or sausage, 5 medium-sized potatoes, 5 eggs, 4 pickles, a can of green peas, 2 medium onions and 200 ml of mayonnaise. The classic calculation of potatoes and eggs is simple - there should be exactly as many of them as there are guests at the table. You can also add boiled carrots, dill and green onions to the salad.

A new look at traditional Olivier

It is interesting that the well-known salads “Winter”, “Meat” and “Stolichny” are variations. However, the classic Olivier can be turned into a real delicacy if you replace the meat with shrimp or fish, such as salmon. This is quite acceptable, and Lucien Olivier also used seafood. Some Olivier recipes contain apples, oranges, pomegranates, pickled or fried mushrooms, avocados, arugula, lettuce, any tasty smoked fish, red caviar, beets and even raw cabbage, which is added to Olivier in some regions of Ukraine. Italians prepare “Russian salad” with green beans, Germans with smoked sausage, Americans with tuna and canned corn, Spaniards with crab sticks and asparagus. In Bulgaria, ham or salami is added to Olivier, in Iran they use meat salad as a filling for sandwiches, and Greeks, Serbs and Poles generally prepare this appetizer without meat.

A few secrets of making Olivier

It is difficult to cut meat beautifully, but to make the salad look more aesthetically pleasing, first cut the meat along the grain and only then chop it crosswise. Do not overcook the potatoes or you will end up with mashed potatoes instead of cubes. It, of course, will not spoil the taste of the salad, but the aesthetics will suffer. By the way, there should be more potatoes and carrots than other salad components. Country eggs with bright yolks and halves of quail eggs look very beautiful in Olivier.

Try not to take large pickled cucumbers, otherwise there will be seeds in the salad, and it is better to remove the skin from hard cucumbers so that the Olivier turns out tender and pleasant to the taste. Place the sliced ​​cucumbers in a colander or sieve to drain excess moisture. Instead of pickled cucumbers, you can take pickled or fresh cucumbers, which are often mixed together. Pickled squash also adds a piquant salty taste to the appetizer. In general, experiment!

When using fresh onions, pour boiling water over them after chopping to remove the bitterness, otherwise the salad will have a strong taste. You can make mayonnaise yourself, adding spices for flavor - it is not only tasty, but also healthy. If you are on a diet, replace sausage with veal or chicken breast, and mayonnaise with low-fat sour cream or yogurt.

For something unusual, cut the ingredients into strips rather than cubes - it will be very unusual. And most importantly, the salad should be seasoned with mayonnaise immediately before serving, otherwise it will lose its freshness. You can add a little horseradish and mustard to the dressing. Olivier is decorated with herbs, green peas, curly slices of meat and vegetables, and beautifully cut eggs.

Recipe: not quite classic Olivier with meat

Cut 300 g of boiled veal tongue into thin slices, mix with 3 boiled potatoes and 3 boiled eggs, cut into cubes. Add thin half rings of 2 onions, finely chopped red bell pepper, any greens and mix with the sauce.

Prepare the sauce like this: beat 2 eggs with 2 tsp. salt without a slide, add 2 tbsp. l. milk and beat again. Next, pour in 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil and 1 tsp. sugar, stir well and season the salad.

Olivier is prepared from simple, accessible and inexpensive ingredients. Therefore, you can safely serve Olivier on the New Year’s table, and to make the salad seem more festive, diversify it with interesting ingredients. Your family and guests will appreciate this tasty, appetizing and beautiful dish, because Olivier never gets boring!

Olivier salad is the king of salads. Any man will say: no Olivier salad means no holiday. The recipe for Olivier salad has many varieties, so everyone, depending on their tastes and food preferences, can choose how to prepare Olivier salad.

Classic Olivier salad recipe

Ingredients:

• 3 hazel grouse
• 5 boiled potatoes in their jackets
• 1 veal tongue
• 100 g red caviar
• 200 g green salad
• 100 g pitted olives
• 25 boiled crayfish
• 200 g fresh pickles
• half a jar of soya kabul
• 100 g capers
• 5 hard-boiled eggs
• Provencal sauce

1. Cooking method:
   Fry the hazel grouse fillet in butter. Cut it into even pieces.
2. Peel the boiled potatoes in their jackets and cut them into even cubes or circles.
3. Boil veal tongue in salted water with bay leaf, black allspice and peas. Cool, remove the shell, cut in half and cut into thin slices.
4. Cut small fresh cucumbers into even pieces.
5. Cut the pitted olives in half and add to the salad. Sprinkle the salad with capers.
6. Add 1-2 tbsp to Provencal mayonnaise. l. Teriyaki sauce. Mix well.
7. Pour this mixture over the salad. Gently scatter red caviar and some capers over the sauce. Decorate by beautifully placing boiled and peeled crayfish tails, halved hard-boiled eggs, and green salad leaves around the edges.

In order to prepare Olivier salad according to the correct recipe, you should remember one of the main elements - salad dressing or that very mysterious sauce. The secret of the sauce is mixing 100 ml. olive oil, 3 egg yolks, 2 teaspoons wine vinegar, 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard with salt and pepper to taste.

Ingredients:

• Potatoes - 3 pcs.
• Carrots - 3 pcs.
• Eggs - 3 pcs.
• Pickled cucumbers - 3 pcs.
• Green peas - 250 gr.
• Boiled sausage - 300 gr.
• Salt to taste
• Mayonnaise - 100 gr.
• Dill to taste

Cooking method:

1. Boil the eggs. Boil carrots and potatoes in a separate pan. Cool.
2. Meanwhile, cut the sausage into cubes.
3. Also cut the pickles.
4. Cut the cooled eggs, carrots, and potatoes in the same way. Try to keep the cubes approximately the same size.
5. Mix all ingredients, add green peas. Leave some peas for decoration.
6. Place the salad in the refrigerator to cool for 2-3 hours.
7. Before serving, season the salad with mayonnaise and add salt if necessary. I don’t do this because there’s already enough salt in the mayonnaise for my taste.
8. The salad looks very beautiful if you arrange it in portions using serving rings (you can make them yourself). It will also look original if you place Olivier in beautiful glass glasses or wine glasses.
9. Garnish the salad with fresh herbs and remaining green peas.

Olivier salad real French recipe

Ingredients:

• boiled hazel grouse fillet - 2 pcs;
• boiled veal tongue - 0.5 pcs;
• pressed black caviar - 100 g;
• lettuce leaves - 100 g;
• boiled crayfish - 25 pcs;
• pickled cucumbers (picks) - 200−250 g;
• fresh cucumbers - 2 pcs;
• capers - 100 g;
• hard-boiled eggs - 5 pcs;
• Kabul soybean paste;
• Provencal sauce (beat 400 grams of olive oil with two fresh egg yolks with the addition of mustard and French vinegar);

Cooking method:

1. Hazel grouse should be fried in a 1-2 cm layer of oil for 5-10 minutes, then put in boiling water or broth (beef or chicken), add 150 ml of Madeira per 850 ml of broth, 10-20 pitted olives, 10-20 small champignons. Cook for half an hour over low heat, covered. When the meat begins to easily separate from the bones, add salt to the broth, leave for another two minutes and remove from the heat. When the hazel grouse are warm, remove the meat from the bones, wrap in foil and put in the refrigerator.
2. Clean the tongue from fat, put it in cold water, bring to a boil and cook over low heat with the lid closed for two hours. Half an hour before it’s ready, add chopped carrots, parsley root, onions and one small bay leaf to the broth. Add salt 10 minutes before the end of cooking. As soon as the tongue is cooked, you should immediately put it in cold water for half a minute, and then lay it out and remove the skin. When the tongue is cleaned, it must be put back into the broth, quickly brought to a boil and removed from the heat. Wrap the cooled tongue in foil and put it in the refrigerator.
3. Prepare the broth for boiling crayfish: take 25 g of parsley, onions and carrots, 10 g of tarragon, 30-40 g of dill, 1 bay leaf, a few peas of allspice and 50 g of salt. Bring the broth to a boil, then place the live crayfish, washed in cold water, head down into the boiling broth, let it boil again and cook for 10 minutes. Let the crayfish steep in the broth and set aside to cool.

1. Peel fresh cucumbers before slicing, rinse and dry lettuce leaves, dry capers. Boil the eggs for no longer than eight minutes. Finely chop and mix all ingredients, add mayonnaise and serve immediately.

It is worth noting that Olivier added some spices to the salad that made the taste of the dish unique, but he took this secret with him to the grave.

Olivier salad with chicken

Ingredients:

• Chicken fillet – 300 g
• Potatoes - 3 pcs.
• Carrots - 2 pcs.
• Egg - 4 pcs.
• Pickled cucumbers - 2 pcs.
• Green peas - 200 g
• Mayonnaise - 2 tbsp. l.
• Greens to taste
• Spices to taste
• Salt to taste

Cooking method:

1. To prepare a delicious and everyone-loved salad, you first need to boil all the ingredients. Rinse the vegetables and place in a saucepan with water, cook until tender for about 15 minutes. Or bake vegetables in the oven directly in their jackets.
2. Rinse the chicken fillet and boil until done.
3. Boil the eggs hard.
4. Cool all boiled products, peel and cut into small cubes. To make the salad taste and look better, cut the meat, vegetables and eggs into cubes of the same size.
5. Open the jar of green peas, pour out the liquid, add the peas themselves to the vegetables and meat.
6. Cut the pickled cucumbers into small cubes.
7. Mix all the ingredients for the salad in one large bowl, add salt and pepper to taste, and add chopped herbs. Parsley and dill go well with all products, but there should not be a lot of greenery, and it is better to use only leaves without branches.
8. Before serving, season the Olivier salad with chicken with mayonnaise.

Olivier in Italian

Ingredients:

• Boiled potatoes - 30 gr.
• Boiled carrots - 10 gr.
• Fresh cucumber - 10 gr.
• Pickled cucumber - 10 gr.
• Boiled egg - 1 pc.
• Shrimp - 1 pc. cleaned
• Mussels - 3-4 pcs.
• Vongole - 3−4 pcs.
• Mini squid – 2 pcs.
• Fresh peas - 12 gr.
• Homemade mayonnaise - 25 gr.
• Salt to taste
• Pepper to taste

Homemade mayonnaise:

• Olive oil - 150 gr.
• Mustard - 20 gr.
• Yolks - 4 pcs.
• Salt - 2 gr.
• Sugar - 2 gr.

Cooking method:

1. Mayonnaise: Break an egg into a bowl or tall blender glass, add mustard, salt and sugar. Beat with a blender until smooth. Without stopping the blender, pour in olive oil in a thin stream until the mayonnaise reaches the desired consistency.
2. Seafood: Peel the seafood, fry in a hot frying pan with garlic, thyme, hot pepper. Add a little white wine and wait until it boils away. Add salt to taste.
3. Cut boiled potatoes, carrots, eggs, pickled and fresh cucumbers into small cubes. Add shrimp and mini-squid, also cut into small cubes, add peas and mix with mayonnaise. Add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with mussels and vongole on top.

Olivier salad with sausage

Ingredients:

• boiled sausage - 0.5 kg.
• potatoes - 1-2 pcs.
• green peas - 150 gr.
• carrots - 1 pc.
• egg - 2 pcs.
• fresh cucumber - 1 pc.
• mayonnaise for dressing
• salt pepper

Cooking method:

1. Boil the egg for the Olivier salad. To do this, cook the eggs in boiling water for about 8-10 minutes, then cool and peel them. Chop finely.
2. Wash the carrots thoroughly, cut off the tail, and then cook in boiling water for 13-15 minutes. Then cool the carrots and cut into small cubes.
3. Boil the potatoes in their jackets - wash them well and cook for 15-17 minutes until soft. Check for doneness by piercing the potato skin with a toothpick. After the potatoes are cooked, cool them, peel them, and cut them into cubes.
4. Open the peas and drain the water from the jar.
5. Cut the sausage and cucumber into small cubes. Mix the ingredients and season the Olivier salad with sausage with mayonnaise, pepper and salt.

Salad "Olivier"

Ingredients:

• 600 g boiled beef;
• 4 potatoes of the same (medium) size;
• 2 carrots, also the same size (small);
• 200 g pickled cucumbers;
• 200 g peas;
• 4 boiled eggs;
• 1 jar of Provencal mayonnaise weighing 200 g;
• 1 teaspoon table vinegar;
• 2 pinches of sugar;
• salt to taste.

Cooking method:

1. For Olivier, it is important to cook delicious meat. Young and non-wiry beef should be thrown into boiling water. The white will instantly coagulate and all the juicy flavors will remain in the beef. Once cooked, cool and cut beautifully.
2. It is very important for Olivier to chop all the ingredients into equal cubes - the balance of taste will be impeccable.
3. While the meat is cooking, you can boil the vegetables on another burner. Potatoes and carrots must be cut immediately into cubes. Throw into boiling salted water, add sugar, and after 10 minutes pour in vinegar. The vegetables will remain crispy and the potatoes won't get soggy. Ready? Throw into a colander.
4. Chop the pickles and eggs. Combine all the salad ingredients, don’t forget the peas.
5. So, the dish is almost ready. Now it needs to be seasoned with Provencal mayonnaise and served. If there is still a lot of time before the guests arrive, it is better not to dress the salad, but to put it in the refrigerator. Add the sauce just before serving.

Salad Olivier with salmon

Ingredients:

• Potatoes - 2 pcs.
• Egg - 2 pcs.
• Carrots - 1 pc.
• Pickled cucumber - 1-2 pcs.
• Lightly salted salmon – 100 g
• Sour cream - 5 tbsp.
• Mayonnaise - 2-3 tbsp.
• Mustard - to taste

Cooking method:

1. Wash potatoes and carrots.
2. Place in a saucepan, add water and cook until tender.
3. Cool, peel and finely chop.
4. Boil the eggs, peel and cut into cubes.
5. Peel the apple and cut into very small cubes.
6. Grind the salmon.
7. Combine all ingredients.
8. Add canned green peas and chopped onion.
9. Season the salad with sour cream, homemade mayonnaise, salt and mustard to taste.

History of Olivier salad

The Olivier salad was invented by a cook from France in the sixties of the 19th century, this man’s name was Lucien Olivier. In addition to the fact that Lucien was a culinary specialist, he also owned the Hermitage tavern, which was located at that time on Trubnaya Square in Moscow.

The tavern corresponded in its level to a real Parisian restaurant. His signature dish was the Olivier salad. Lucien Olivier kept the recipe for this dish in the strictest confidence. Since the death of the chef, the history of the Olivier salad began to become overgrown with secrets and it was believed that the secret of the famous real Olivier salad was lost. There were many attempts to solve it, but nothing worked.

Cooks in 1904 managed, knowing the main ingredients, to restore the recipe for the real Olivier salad. Thus, to prepare this original salad, it was necessary to have the following products on hand: pressed caviar - ¼ pound, two hazel grouse, veal tongue, boiled crayfish - 25 pieces, kabul soybeans - ½ can, two fresh cucumbers, half a pound of fresh lettuce, half a can pickles, capers - ¼ lb. and five hard-boiled eggs. To prepare the sauce, you needed French vinegar, two eggs and Provencal oil (olive) - 1 pound (the same Provencal mayonnaise).

But, nevertheless, gourmets who tried the original salad prepared by Lucien Olivier argued that it was much different from the salad made according to the restored recipe. This, one might say, is the end of the history of the Olivier salad, as its contemporaries knew it. The well-known Olivier salad with boiled sausage has nothing in common with the creation of the French chef. The recipe for modern Olivier was invented during the Soviet Union. Back then it was very difficult to find crayfish, hazel grouse and other delicacies. So they were replaced with boiled sausage, green peas and other available ingredients. This is how the story of the new Olivier salad began, which is still prepared in almost every family.

Olivier salad, the classic recipe for which you will learn, has been a traditional dish on holiday tables for many years. Surely you are familiar with its taste from childhood. Therefore, we suggest you learn the classic method and the secrets of its preparation, so that all guests will give your culinary abilities the highest score.

Olivier salad: classic recipe

Olivier is not only the name of everyone's favorite salad. Today it is prepared according to a variety of recipes, replacing ingredients, their quantities and technology.

But few people know that Olivier salad came to us from France in the 60s of the 19th century. It was invented by Lucien Olivier, after whom the dish was named. He was the owner of the Hermitage restaurant, the pearl of which was this French salad.

The authentic Olivier recipe was a secret for a long time, because the chef did not reveal it to anyone.

But after his death, attempts did not stop to find out the secret ingredients and ways to combine them.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the original version of the recipe was restored through trial and error. It included the following ingredients:

• poultry meat (two hazel grouse);
• calf tongue;
• pressed sturgeon caviar with a rich taste;
• fresh lettuce leaves;
• boiled crayfish;
• pickles - vegetables pickled with vinegar;
• soybean kabul;
• fresh cucumbers;
• unopened bush buds for seasoning, eggs and sauce.

But over time, the idea of ​​the traditional recipe has changed.

We owe this to the Soviet shortage, because of which housewives and cooks had to change the ingredients of the dish to more affordable ones.

How to prepare a real Olivier salad: secrets

These details will help you achieve the desired result in preparing the salad:

• Although the recipes indicate the exact quantity of each product, it nevertheless varies depending on the preferences of the cook, the housewife and those whom she will treat.
• An important role is played by the aesthetics of salad design, so try to cut the meat beautifully. To do this, you need to cut the meat along the grain. After that, chop it crosswise.
• Chicken eggs can be replaced with quail eggs.
• Choose home-cooked eggs that have bright yellow yolks.
• To avoid large cucumber seeds during your meal, choose medium and small sized vegetables. If the cucumber peel is hard, it is better to get rid of it.
• You may like the combination of pickled and fresh cucumbers.
• To prevent onions from becoming bitter, pour boiling water over them after slicing.
• For those on a diet, you can use sour cream or yogurt without filler as a dressing instead of mayonnaise. Do this just before you put it on the table.

Traditional dressing for real Olivier

Traditional salad dressing is called Provence. To make this sauce you will need:

• olive oil - 4 tbsp. l.;
• quail eggs – 5–6 pcs.;
• fat sour cream - 2–3 tbsp. l.;
• lemon juice - 0.5 tsp;
• mustard - 1 tsp;
• sugar - a quarter of a teaspoon.

The cooking method is as follows:

1. Beat the egg yolks with butter until smooth.
2. Combine sour cream with other ingredients.
3. Beat the two mixtures.

Olivier salad is an exquisite and light dish that does not lose popularity.

To prepare it according to the classic recipe, carefully study the recommendations. When the desire and opportunity arise, prepare it.

Olivier is one of the favorite salads of the entire Russian people: it is prepared for the New Year, it decorates tables during birthday celebrations, it is an indispensable dish at weddings, corporate parties, anniversaries... the list is endless. One thing is clear: no holiday is complete without this dish on the menu. But, in addition to its bright taste, Olivier salad has an equally bright, interesting history, as well as many different modifications and preparation options, having learned about which, you can delight your guests with something new every time.

The creation of Lucien Olivier

Many people have heard that this beloved salad comes from France. But is it?

In fact, “Olivier” was invented in the Russian Empire, but its creator was indeed of French blood. This creator's name was Lucien Olivier. He was born in 1838 and, while still young, moved to Russia to work. Throughout his life, Lucien was engaged in the art of cooking, and in the sixties of the 19th century he became the owner of the Ermitage restaurant (in the current manner - “Hermitage”).

Lucien loved the Russian Empire, but always believed that it lacked French sophistication. That is why, externally, his restaurant corresponded to all the canons of the most expensive French places: huge halls with columns, a sophisticated interior and luxurious crystal chandeliers and lamps. Even for the capital of the country, this restaurant seemed too luxurious. That is why the local rich people flocked there with all their enthusiasm.

Olivier's restaurant was considered one of the best: it was praised for its appearance, service, and cuisine. They booked parties and banquets, celebrated all the most significant events and simply came to feast. The restaurant became the center where the most significant people of those times moved.

While Lucien was conquering the Russians with his culinary delights, his two older brothers were doing the same in their homeland. And all because all three young people had a secret family recipe, to which it was impossible to remain indifferent anywhere in the world. We're talking about their improved mayonnaise sauce.

In addition to the usual ingredients at that time, the Olivier brothers began adding mustard to it, which made the mayonnaise a little more refined and spicy. Spices were also added, the composition of which no one has yet been able to find.

The mayonnaise “boom” in Russia for a long time kept Ermitage at the top of the culinary arts, but after some time sauce alone became not enough to support the entire business. It was necessary to come up with something new in order to amaze the taste buds of the entire Russian nobility. Then Lucien came up with a recipe that would bring the cook unprecedented popularity and make him a household name for many centuries - the Olivier salad recipe.

Dozens of restaurants in Russia at that time tried to duplicate Lucien’s recipe, but no one succeeded in achieving exactly that unique taste. That is why, in order to try the original Olivier, you had to visit the famous Ermitage restaurant.

The taste of the salad directly depended on Olivier’s mayonnaise sauce recipe, which he kept “under a dozen locks” in his separate room for the chef. He prepared it there, so that no one would ever spy on his recipe.

“Olivier” did not appear in the usual form of salad right away - at first it was just a sauce, and the dish created by Lucien was called “Game Mayonnaise.” Overall, the French chef’s creation looked like an impressive structure of neatly stacked hazel grouse fillets, potatoes, eggs, gherkins, crayfish and other ingredients, seasoned with a drop of the famous sauce. But after some time, Lucien began to notice that the clients of his establishment, before eating this exquisite dish, broke its structure to smithereens, stirring it with a fork. Then Lucien himself began to mix all the ingredients and season them with an abundance of everyone’s favorite sauce.

This is how the birth of that very “Olivier” happened, which everyone respected so much at that time. However, the taste of the former salad and the taste that we now know are completely different things.

The Olivier salad, which won thousands of hearts in the mid-19th century, again conquered people exactly a hundred years later - in the 50s of the twentieth century. The famous salad has undergone changes and has no longer become a restaurant dish, but the most accessible table decoration for Soviet people.

Mr. Olivier's exquisite mayonnaise was replaced with regular factory mayonnaise. Doctor's sausage replaced hazel grouse fillet. A number of products had to be excluded due to their inaccessibility to the Soviet population, but peas, boiled carrots and cucumbers, on the contrary, were added to the “French recipe” of Mr. Lucien Olivier. The taste of the primitive version of the dish was forgotten, but no one was sorry: everyone loved the new recipe, adapted to ordinary life.

The salad received its second name - “Winter”. It was nicknamed that way because this dish became indispensable on the New Year's table, since its ingredients, unlike all summer salads, could be found on store shelves at any time of the year.

Now that there are many “cooks” for this salad, the composition of the ingredients is constantly changing. They modify it in different ways: replace sausage with chicken, add apples, add herbs. How many people there are, so many options, and the best of them will still be discussed.

A selection of the most delicious variations of Olivier

Before you find out how you can diversify the usual Olivier salad, you need, of course, to go through the classics. And you need to start with the earliest recipe by Sir Lucien Olivier.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to repeat the entire recipe of the famous French chef, and this is clear from the history of the creation of this dish. However, modern chefs have nevertheless put together the closest version of the recipe that was used in the Ermitage restaurant.

So, to prepare Mr. Olivier’s salad, you need the following products:

• hazel grouse fillet – 2 pieces;
• beef tongue – 1 piece;
• black caviar – approximately 100 grams;
• fresh lettuce leaves – 200 grams;
• lobster – 1 piece;
• gherkins – 250 grams;
• soy paste - half a jar;
• fresh cucumber – 2 pieces;
• capers – 100 grams;
• eggs – 5 pieces;
• mayonnaise sauce: 400 grams of olive oil, 2 egg yolks, a little vinegar and mustard, beat until smooth. The sauce also contains Mr. Olivier's secret seasonings, the composition and proportions of which are unknown.

How to cook? The step-by-step instructions are as follows.

Step 1. First you need to fry the hazel grouse over high heat in oil. Need a light crispy crust. To achieve this, just fry the fillet for 3-4 minutes on each side. Next, transfer the fillet to any broth (850 ml), add Madeira, 15 boneless olives, 15 champignons and cook for about half an hour. Add salt to taste. Next, you need to remove the meat from the bones and wrap it in foil. Leave the fillet to cool.

Step 2. It is necessary to prepare the tongue. To do this, it is thoroughly washed in water and sent to cook over low heat for two to four hours (depending on the age of the calf). About half an hour before the tongue is fully cooked, add carrots, parsley, onions and bay leaves to the tongue. Add salt to your taste.

Then you need to remove the skin from the tongue, let it cool a little, wrap it in foil and put it in the refrigerator.

Step 3. Cooking lobster. It is necessary to prepare the solution:

• parsley 25 grams;
• onion 25 grams;
• carrots 25 grams;
• tarragon 10 grams;
• dill, bay leaf, black pepper and salt to taste;
• water.

Bring the solution to a boil and place pre-washed lobster in it (you can use small crayfish, but then you will need about 20 of them). Boil the lobster for 10 minutes, then place it in ice water and put it in a cool place.

Step 4. Boil eggs in the usual way. It is important not to overcook them: you need a delicate structure of the protein and yolk.

Step 5. Finely chop all the prepared meat, caviar, pickles, soy, capers, cucumbers and lettuce.

Step 6. Mix all ingredients and season with mayonnaise sauce.

Step 7. Serve Mr. Olivier's famous salad to your guests.

This is roughly what Olivier’s recipe from the Ermitage restaurant was. Of course, something was not taken into account by the cooks who tried to recreate the famous recipe (the same seasonings for the sauce), but in general the list of ingredients and method of preparation were recreated correctly.

What did Olivier salad look like in the Soviet Union? If you managed to come to some Moscow canteen in the fifties of the 20th century and order this delicious dish for lunch, the list of ingredients would be as follows:

• canned green peas – 0.5 cans;
• potatoes – 2-3 tubers;
• boiled sausage – 100 grams;
• onion – 1 head;
• eggs – 5 pieces;
• pickled cucumber – 2-3 pieces;
• mayonnaise – 2-3 spoons.

The cooking method is usually simple.

Boil potatoes and eggs and cut into small pieces. Add finely chopped sausage, onions, cucumbers and add green peas (drain the sauce from the jar in advance). Season the mixture with mayonnaise sauce, add salt to taste. This is the most standard, centuries-tested recipe.

This type of Olivier appeared a little later than its main version and later began to be called “Stolichny”. It was invented as a cheaper alternative to the classic Soviet Olivier salad, since poultry fillet was much cheaper than sausage. But over time, the situation has changed, now chicken meat is more expensive than boiled sausage, but the number of fans of this version of the dish has hardly become less.

All that is required to prepare this version of the dish is to boil the chicken fillet or chicken breast in lightly salted water in advance. Then the meat will need to be cooled and cut. All that remains to be added to the chicken is all the other standard ingredients of the Soviet Olivier, and the Stolichny salad will be ready.

For fish lovers - Olivier salad with salmon

Again, the basis is a standard Olivier straight from the Soviet Union. You just need to replace the boiled sausage with salmon, and this will radically change the taste of Mr. Olivier’s usual dish. But for everyone who loves fish and fish products, this is a must for cooking.

Olivier with crayfish tails - a modern adaptation of the French master's salad

This type of Olivier is called “Royal”. But no matter how pretentious this name may sound, it is absolutely easy to prepare it at home.

To prepare this delicious version of Olivier you will need:

• boiled crayfish tails – 90 grams;
• chicken fillet – 90 grams;
• egg - 1 piece;
• lettuce leaves;
• potatoes - 2 tubers;
• carrots – 1 piece;
• fresh cucumber;
• canned green peas - a quarter of a jar;
• half an apple;
• a quarter of a lemon;
• pickled cucumber;
• capers – 10 grams;
• grainy mustard, mayonnaise sauce - to taste.

Boil chicken fillet, potatoes, carrots and eggs and cool. Finely chop all ingredients except lettuce, apple and lemon and place in a bowl. Finely chop the apple, season with lemon juice and after 5 minutes place in a bowl with the rest of the ingredients. Season Olivier with a mixture of mustard and mayonnaise.

Serve on lettuce leaves.

Olivier salad with calf tongue

Another exquisite modification of the salad. To prepare it, you will need all the same ingredients as for the standard recipe. However, instead of sausage, they use beef tongue. It is boiled in advance for 3 hours, the skin is removed and added to the rest of the crushed ingredients.

Other dish options

Olivier is a salad with which you can experiment endlessly. Try adding unusual ingredients to it: bell peppers, nuts, mushrooms, cheese, apples. You can replace the meat component. For example, add smoked chicken or shrimp. Change the ingredients, and then even the most ordinary salad will bring something new to your table.

Salad serving options

There are only 2 main ways to serve this dish.

1. The first of them is the classic presentation. All ingredients are mixed in advance, seasoned and served in a salad bowl. The top of the salad is traditionally decorated with herbs, chopped egg yolk and olives.
2. The second serving method is restaurant style. Chopped vegetables are placed in layers, which are sealed with sauce. This option can be either portioned or placed on a large platter.

And finally, useful tips that will help you prepare the most delicious Olivier salad.

1. It is better to prepare ingredients that require heat treatment in advance. Basically, this is done in the evening to allow all the products to cool thoroughly. If you chop ingredients into a salad that have not yet cooled down, the salad will turn into porridge.
2. Mayonnaise will be much tastier and healthier if you prepare it yourself.
3. If you want to add onions to the salad, it is best to pre-marinate them in vinegar and sugar. This way the onion will not taste bitter and will retain only a pleasant sweetness.
4. The finer you chop the ingredients for the salad, the more tender it will taste. However, again, don’t turn it into mush.

What is measured by the “Olivier index”?

Based on the history of its creation, it is absolutely clear why Olivier salad is so wildly famous in Russia. This dish is considered as traditional for Russian people as McDonald's cuisine is traditional in the United States. That is why, along with the “Big Mac index,” the term “Olivier index” appeared in the Russian Federation in 2009.

It was first used in a newspaper called Trud. How does the index work? The price of all ingredients for a standard set of salad products is added up and compared either with the same indicator in Russia at any other time, or with indicators in another country.

Thus, using the Olivier index, you can track the level of inflation in the country, or compare indicators of the standard of living of different cities and countries.

Conclusion

Olivier is a dish with excellent taste and rich history. This salad has been pleasing the Russian people for more than a century and a half and has undergone many changes and modifications. There is no need to be afraid to experiment with it, and then, even after many years, you will not get tired of it and will delight and surprise you with its taste after each preparation.