Delicious Russia: Olivier salad, the immutable part of Russian New Year celebration

Russian New Year celebration is in the full swing! Today RBTH and our cook Yury Stefanov will make the most popular dish of these winter holidays - Olivier salad.
You might think that the name of the salad goes from Jamie Oliver - false. The roots of the dish are much deeper.

 For Olivier salad:

4 potatoes

2 carrots

3 eggs

200 grams of peas

7 pickles

1 onion

300 grams of Bologna sausage

The original version of the salad was invented in the 1860s by Belgian Lucien Olivier, the chef of the Hermitage, 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, 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 Provençal olive oil; its exact recipe, however, remains unknown.

Today Olivier salad is a traditional salad dish made with diced potatoes, vegetables, eggs, and sometimes ham and is dressed with mayonnaise. Worldwide, the dish is commonly referred to as Russian salad, although this term can connote with Vinegret. In many Russophone communities, the salad has become one of the main courses served during New Year celebrations.

Five steps to a perfect Olivier:

1) First we should boil the vegetables. We take the eggs out 10 minutes after the water starts to boil, as soon as they are hard-boiled, and we put them in cold water. It’s important not to over boil the vegetables. They should stay solid enough so that we can slice them and add them to the salad afterwards.

2) We clean all the vegetables and eggs that we boiled, and then we should cut all the ingredients into small cubes.

3) Before we slice the pickles, we should squeeze them a little bit because they have a lot of moisture inside.

4) We add the peas at the very end.

5) And, finally, we top everything off with a mayonnaise dressing. Enjoy!

All rights reserved by Rossiyskaya Gazeta.

This website uses cookies. Click here to find out more.

Accept cookies