Who doesn’t know the Olivier with Beef Salad? This is one of the most popular salads decorating the New Year's table. To date, housewives prepare such a salad much less often, mostly on holidays.
Salad history
In the second half of the 19th century, a cook from France, Lucien Olivier, worked in Russia, creating a unique salad recipe. For the first time, Olivier with Beef salad was offered to visitors to the Hermitage Restaurant, located on Trubnaya Square. This restaurant
discovered by Monsieur Olivier. The institution was often compared with restaurants in Paris and subsequently it was given a name in honor of the creator. The cuisine in the restaurant was quite familiar to the Russian nobility, so the cook had to come up with something special to surprise his guests. Many tried to repeat the
recipe "Olivier with beef", as a result, the salad began to have a rather simplified composition.
Original Olivier Salad Recipe
To prepare a salad that was invented by Lucien Olivier himself and served in the Hermitage restaurant, you will need the following ingredients: boiled fillet of two grouse, veal tongue (boiled), 100 g of black caviar, 200 g of lettuce leaves, 25 pieces of boiled crayfish (can be replaced one lobster), 250 g of small cucumbers, 100 g of capers, ½ can of soya paste and 5 pieces of boiled eggs. Refueling is a well-known sauce - mayonnaise.
After the death of its creator, the salad recipe has undergone many changes. Before the First World War and the Revolution of 1917, it was not too modified, but after these significant events, many products became simply inaccessible. Therefore, cooks began to replace inaccessible products with those that were available in stores. So there were a lot of options for Olivier.
The beef recipe has become more festive. In Moscow restaurants in the 1920s, the salad included boiled potatoes, onions, boiled carrots,
pickled cucumbers, an apple, boiled poultry fillet, canned
green peas and eggs.
Dressed the salad with the same mayonnaise.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the salad was prepared from ingredients available at that time. As you can see, the salad is prepared in the same way in our time. Many foreigners love the salad "Olivier with Beef", the recipe of which is called for some reason "Russian Salad". Apparently, they do not know about the true origin of the dish.
Salad Ingredients
For a salad with the usual taste for us, you will need 500 g of beef, 6 medium-sized potatoes, 3 pickled cucumbers, a can of canned peas, 2 carrots and 5 eggs. Chives, salt and ground pepper are added to taste. Dressed with salad, as in previous years, with mayonnaise.
Salad cooking method
Boil the meat until cooked. If desired, during boiling add sweet peppers, peeled carrots and onions, this will give a greater saturation to the taste of meat. Salt at the end of cooking, then let the beef cool and cut into small cubes. Boil potatoes with carrots, cool and cut into slices of the same size as the meat.
Boil the eggs hard and dip them in cold water. Dice or grate if desired. Rinse the cucumbers and cut into small cubes. Finely chop the onion and herbs.
In a deep cup, mix all chopped ingredients, add canned peas. Do not mix the added products during the process of digestion, so that they retain their natural appearance and the salad does not turn into a "mess".
Add salt and ground pepper to the salad "Olivier with beef". Season the dish with mayonnaise and mix well. In order for the salad to infuse, it must be put in the refrigerator for several hours.
Enjoy your meal!
If you wish, you can repeat the preparation of the original recipe. Nowadays, finding the ingredients prescribed in Lucien Olivier’s recipe will not be difficult.