Russian salad

Olivier salad.

Russian salad or Salade russe, also known as Salade Olivier (Салат Оливье in Russian), is a salad composed of diced potato, vegetables and sometimes meats bound in mayonnaise.^[1]

History

The original version of the salad was invented in the 1860s by Lucien Olivier, the chef of the Hermitage restaurant, one of Moscow's most celebrated restaurants. Olivier's salad quickly became immensely popular with Hermitage regulars, and became the restaurant's signature dish.

The exact recipe -- particularly that of the dressing -- was a jealously guarded secret, but it is known that the salad contained grouse, veal tongue, caviar, lettuce, crayfish tails, capers, gherkins, cucumbers, hard-boiled eggs and possibly soy beans. Other reported ingredients included truffles, cubed aspic and smoked duck, although it is possible that the recipe was varied seasonally. The original Olivier dressing was a type of mayonnaise, made with French wine vinegar, mustard, and Provencal olive oil; its exact recipe, however, remains unknown.

A homemade variant of the Russian Salad containing carrots, ham, onions, pickled gherkins, eggs, sweetcorn, cucumber, peas, potato and mayonnaise.

At the turn of the 20th century, one of Olivier's sous-chefs, Ivan Ivanov, attempted to steal the recipe. While preparing the dressing one evening, in solitude as was his custom, Olivier was suddenly called away on some emergency. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Ivanov sneaked into Olivier's private kitchen and observed his mise en place, which allowed him to make reasonable assumptions about the recipe of Olivier's famed dressing. Ivanov then left Olivier's employ and went to work as a chef for Moskva, a somewhat inferior restaurant, where he began to serve a suspiciously similar salad under the name "The Capital Salad", (rus: "Stolychnyj", "Столичный"). It was reported by gourmands of the time, however, that the dressing on the Stolychnyj salad was of a lower quality than Olivier's meaning that it was "missing something".

Later, Ivanov sold the recipe for the salad to various publishing houses, which further contributed to its popularization. Due to the closure of the Hermitage restaurant in 1905 and the Olivier family's departure from Russia, the salad could now be referred to as "Olivier".

One of the first printed recipes for the Olivier salad, by Aleksandrova, appearing in 1894, called for half a hazel grouse, two potatoes, one small cucumber (or a large cornichon), 3-4 lettuce leaves, 3 large crawfish tails, 1/4 cup cubed aspic, 1 teaspoon of capers and 3-5 olives and 1 1/2 tablespoon provencal dressing (mayonnaise).

As inevitably happens with gourmet recipes which become popularized, those of the salad's ingredients that were rare, expensive, seasonal, or difficult to prepare were gradually replaced with cheaper and more readily available foods, until it evolved (or devolved) into the dish we know today.

Ingredients

Earlier, it always included cold meat such as ham or tongue, or fish. The mid-20th century restaurant version involved not just vegetables, but also pickled tongue, sausage, lobster meat, truffles, etc. garnished with capers, anchovy filets, etc. Some versions mold it in aspic. In modern usage, it is usually boiled diced vegetables bound in mayonnaise.

Modern Olivier

Olivier salad

Today's popular version of "Salade Olivier" -- containing boiled potatoes, dill pickles, peas, eggs, carrots, and boiled beef/chicken or bologna, dressed with mayonnaise -- is a version of Ivanov's Stolychnyj salad, and only faintly resembles Olivier's original creation. This version was a staple of any Soviet Russian holiday dinner, especially of a New Year dinner (to the extent that its presence is considered on a par with Soviet Champagne or Moroccan Tangerines), due to availability of components in winter. Even though more exotic foods are widely available in Russia now, its popularity has hardly diminished: this salad was and maybe still is the most traditional dish for the home New Year celebration for Russian people^[2]. While some of the ingredients are considered to basic and absolutely essential (peas, pickled cucumbers, potatoes, some sort of meat, mayonnaise), other are either favored or angrily dismissed as a threat to the supposed authenticity: carrots, fresh cucumbers, onions, etc. Russian influence has influenced the popularity of the salad in Bulgaria to the point where it is called ruska salad (руска салата)which literally means "Russian salad," and in Greece, where you can find "Russian Salad" on almost any restaurant's menu. The Bulgarian version of the salad usually consists of potatoes, carrots, peas, pickles and some sort of salami or ham. The Greek version usually contains no meat. It is also very popular in Iran, where chicken is usually added to the recipe. Because of a French influence on Spanish cuisine, it is also widely consumed in Spain (where it is called ensaladilla rusa and is popular as a Summer meal) where it typically consists of carrots, canned tuna, eggs, peas, roast red pepper strips, green olives, potato and mayonnaise. This bears some similarity to versions of macédoine de légumes froid.

Walloon Variant

A variant of Russian Salad is made in the Ardennes region of Belgium, more specifically in Malmedy and other municipalities, and served during the Carnival season. The recipe calls for potatoes, herrings in vinegar, red beets, celeriac, and apples.

See also

• Russian cuisine
• Macédoine salad
• potato salad

References

• Alan Davidson, The Oxford Companion to Food, Oxford, 1999. ISBN 0-19-211579-0.
• Larousse Gastronomique
• Andrey Savostyanov, At the source of the recipe: Olivier's salad family, a detailed history of the salad and the Hermitage Restaurant (in Russian): http://www.millionmenu.ru/lib/article.php?id=843&l=1
• http://jalna.skynetblogs.be/post/891998/salade-russe-region-de-malmedy
• http://www.erik-rasmussen.com/blog/2008/05/22/ensaladilla-rusa-russian-salad/

External links