Hostesses resort to the Olivier recipe in a variety of cases. It is an obligatory dish on the traditional New Year’s table and a welcome “Guest” in the daily diet. Salad “Olivier” is otherwise called winter salad, as it is very satisfying and all its ingredients are available all year round. Each housewife can certainly boast of her recipe for a delicious Olivier, and in each variation it has certainly undergone many changes. What is the recipe for the classic Olivier really? The creator of “Olivier” The founder of the beloved salad is considered to be the Frenchman Lucien Olivier, the owner and chef of the Moscow restaurant “Hermitage”. He created the traditional “Olivier” in the 60s of the XIX century and did not reveal the recipe of his invention to anyone. It was believed that lunch without a delicious Olivier salad was no longer lunch, but all attempts to repeat it at home invariably ended in failure. It turned out “that, but not that,” as V. A. Gilyarovsky writes in his book “Moscow and Muscovites”.
History of lettuce
It is believed that initially the great cook served all the ingredients of Olivier separately, placing fillets of hazel grouse and partridge on a plate, alternating them with cubes of jelly obtained from the broth in which the bird was cooked. Along the edges of the dish, Olivier placed crayfish necks and veal tongue, and in the center a composition of potatoes, gherkins and eggs, which was not intended for food and served only as a decoration. But many visitors to the restaurant, not understanding the whole aesthetics of the dish, mixed it up, turning it into a salad. From what he saw, the chef was horrified, and as a sign of his resentment, the next day he mixed all the ingredients, seasoning them with mayonnaise. The success of the original Olivier salad was phenomenal. The most distinguished residents of Moscow came to the restaurant to taste this dish, but no one could reproduce the recipe for the classic Olivier salad. Traditional Olivier Recipe The great chef took his knowledge of how to cook Olivier to the grave. However, the composition of the Olivier salad was approximately restored in 1904 by one of the regulars of the Hermitage restaurant. From memory, he reproduced some of the ingredients, and, having no other available, this method of preparation began to be considered traditional. The Olivier salad recipe in the classic version necessarily contains hazel grouse meat, boiled potatoes, fresh cucumber, lettuce, crayfish necks, capers, lanspieg and olives. This mixture should be filled with Provencal sauce prepared in a special way, the composition of which no one could unravel. Soviet salad “Olivier” with sausageIn Soviet times, it was out of the question for the average resident of the country to add crayfish necks and other delicacies to the salad. This is how the Olivier recipe came about, with Doktorskaya sausage and other readily available ingredients, which usually included boiled potatoes, pickles, hard-boiled eggs, green peas, boiled carrots, and mayonnaise. Many modern variations of Olivier cooking are based on this recipe, sometimes excluding or adding some product.