What to cook for the New Year: an authentic recipe from Olivier of the 19th century

Olivier salad, without which it is difficult to imagine a New Year's table today, initially had little in common with our usual sausage and vegetable dish. The original recipe, created in the 60s of the XIX century by the French chef Lucien Olivier, was lost during the author's lifetime, and his attempts to recreate it were unsuccessful. Olivier's recipes, which are close to the original, and the history of the famous salad are in the Izvestia article.

The history of Olivier salad: French chef Lucien Olivier and the Hermitage Restaurant

Olivier salad is strongly associated with New Year's holidays and Soviet cuisine, where it is made from sausage, boiled vegetables and peas. However, the original recipe, created in the 1860s, was completely different. It was an exquisite restaurant dish, the secret of which was lost over time.

Its author, Lucien Olivier, the owner of the popular Moscow Hermitage restaurant on Trubnaya Square, carefully guarded the recipe. The French chef was famous for his special mayonnaise, the recipe of which he kept in the strictest secrecy.

The original recipe for Olivier salad of the 19th century: a complete list of ingredients

The original olivier salad recipe was radically different from the modern one. The basis of the dish was not boiled vegetables, but game and delicacies. The key ingredient was grouse meat and veal tongue.

Capers and Kobbor soy, a popular sauce at the time, were added for piquancy. All the ingredients were cut carefully and not too finely to preserve their texture.

According to surviving memoirs and publications in pre-revolutionary publications, in particular in the cookbook by P. P. Alexandrova-Ignatieva (1894), Olivier salad included the following components:

• Grouse meat

• Boiled veal tongue

• Boiled crayfish (about two dozen pieces)

• Powdered (black) caviar

• Fresh cucumbers

• Potatoes (in small quantities)

• Capers

• Pickled gherkins

• Lettuce leaves

  

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Olivier's Secret Provencal sauce: why the recipe was lost

The main mystery of Olivier salad has been the sauce recipe for more than a hundred years. Lucien Olivier never revealed his secret, despite numerous attempts by competitors to repeat it. The dressing was provencal sauce, a type of homemade mayonnaise.

According to some reports, high-quality French olive oil and specially selected eggs were used for the sauce. It is believed that it also included French vinegar, mustard and soy Kabul sauce.

After the death of Lucien Olivier in 1883, the recipe for the sauce was officially lost. The heirs and chefs of the restaurant tried to recreate the formula, but, not knowing the exact proportions and nuances, they failed.

Why the Olivier salad recipe was lost: the secret of the sauce and attempts to copy

Many competitors tried to copy the famous dish. The most famous attempt belongs to another Moscow restaurateur, who, having copied the visible composition, failed.

An analysis of this failure shows that the list of ingredients announced to the public was incomplete. The secret of success lay in the sauce, the cooking technology of which was kept in the strictest secrecy.

It was his unique taste, achieved through special products and techniques, that connected all the components into a harmonious whole. After Olivier's death, the recipe for the sauce was lost, and none of the attempts to recreate it were successful.

How Olivier's Recipe Changed: Transformation in the Soviet Era

The drastic social changes that took place after the October Revolution of 1917 led to the disappearance of the pre-revolutionary restaurant culture. Expensive and scarce ingredients such as grouse, crayfish and caviar have become inaccessible to the masses.

In Soviet times, the recipe was adapted to the realities of a scarce economy. Grouse was replaced with boiled doctor's sausage or chicken, crayfish and caviar with canned green peas and carrots.

Provencal sauce, which is difficult to prepare, has given way to industrial mayonnaise, which has been mass-produced since the 1930s. The dish became democratic, satisfying and easily reproducible, which ensured its incredible popularity in the USSR.

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Olivier's Real Recipe Today: Restoration Attempts and Modern Variations

Nowadays, olivier salad in its traditional Soviet version remains one of the most popular dishes. However, culinary historians and chefs periodically attempt to recreate an authentic recipe from the 19th century.

These attempts are rather experimental in nature, since the key element — Olivier's own provencal sauce — has been irretrievably lost. The authentic taste that captivated the Moscow elite of the 19th century is forever a thing of the past.

Thus, the original olivier salad recipe was lost due to the death of its creator, the lack of precise written instructions and fundamental changes in society. Today, culinary historians and enthusiasts can only roughly reconstruct it based on fragmentary archival data.

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