Soviet Classic Olivier Salad - Step-by-Step Recipe and Preparation Secrets

The Olivier salad is not just a dish, but a symbol of holidays in the USSR and now in Russia, especially for New Year. Its taste is familiar to everyone from childhood, and preparing Olivier often becomes a family ritual.

The original recipe for the salad, invented in the 19th century by French chef Lucien Olivier, included expensive ingredients: partridges, black caviar, capers. The Soviet Olivier was adapted to the available products and maintained the tradition of uniting them in one dish. The role of partridges was taken over by cooked meat, and the capers were replaced by pickles.

We share the original recipe for the classic Olivier from the USSR, which preserves the authentic taste and distinctive festive atmosphere.

Ingredients (for 4–6 servings)
— Potatoes - 4 tubers
— Carrots - 2 pieces
— Eggs - 4 pieces
— Pickles - 4 medium (can be replaced with marinated ones)
— Canned peas - 1 can (approx. 300 grams)
— Cooked meat - 300 grams
— Mayonnaise - 200 grams
— Salt - to taste
— Black pepper - to taste
— Herbs (dill or parsley)

Step-by-Step Recipe

Wash the potatoes and carrots and cook them in salted water until soft (or bake for 1.5 hours at 160° in the oven). Then peel and cut into small cubes (approx. 0.5 cm).

Hard boil the eggs (7-8 minutes), cool in ice water, peel, and cut into cubes like the potatoes and carrots.

Cut the pickles into small cubes and squeeze out the excess juice beforehand (otherwise, the Olivier salad will be too wet). Cut the meat into similarly sized cubes. In a deep bowl, mix all the vegetable cubes and the eggs. Add the peas without liquid to the salad (the liquid should be drained beforehand).

Add mayonnaise (this is a very important flavour element - it gives a very Soviet taste). Salt and pepper to your taste.

Mix the salad and place it in a nice serving bowl.

For decoration, use sprigs of herbs or sliced pickles.

Tips for the perfect Olivier:

Don't be afraid to experiment with the amount of ingredients. Some like more potatoes, others prefer to focus on meat or pickles. For example, I love adding fresh cucumber.

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Salad "Herring under a Fur Coat" ("Shuba") is one of the most popular and widespread salads, without which no New Year's celebration in Russia is complete!

Firmly established in the imagination as a culinary symbol of Soviet and modern Russian holidays, the salad might actually be of European origin (there are several theories about its origin).

Culinary historians point out that in the 19th century, salads combining herring and various vegetables already existed in Scandinavian countries, Great Britain, and the German states north of the Danube.

One of the stories about the origin of the famous "Herring under a Fur Coat" dates back to 19th century Russia. According to this version, the dish was created by a chef at the famous Moscow restaurant "Rossiya," which was popular among the upper class.

In 1883, on the occasion of the coronation of Emperor Alexander III, who later earned the nickname Peacemaker, an unconventional salad was prepared. It was based on pieces of trout covered with layers of beets and red beetroot, and the final touch was a Provençal sauce with anchovies.

There is also another quite interesting story about the salad's origin, involving the host of the Moscow tavern Anastas Bogomilov. It is said that his establishment became the scene of lively political debates in 1918, where exhausting physical arguments were often used, leading to large-scale brawls and causing both reputational and material damage.

The idea is said to have come to the chef Aristarch Prokoptsev. He devised a dish that was meant to symbolize the various layers of society in the new Soviet reality: herring embodied the working class, onions and potatoes – the peasantry, and beetroot – the revolutionary spirit.

Regulars had the opportunity to try the new dish on New Year's Eve 1919, against the backdrop of the defeat of the White Armies at the gates of Moscow, which is why it immediately became extremely popular in the community.

Although this story sounds quite romantic, many serious culinary historians tend to believe that everything is much more prosaic and "Herring under a Fur Coat," as we know it today, emerged in the first half of the 1960s from Soviet housewives' kitchen experiments with fish vinaigrette.

Regardless of its origin, the salad remains a popular dish. In 2018, a record was set in Moscow when a "Herring under a Fur Coat" weighing 1018 kilograms was prepared – this is how restaurateurs celebrated the dish's alleged centenary, supposedly invented by Prokoptsev!

Traditional Recipe for Layered Salad with Herring:

— Herring fillet = 250 g;
— Onion = 1 piece;
— Chicken egg = 4 pieces;
— Potatoes = 2 pieces;
— Carrot = 1 piece;
— Fresh beetroot = 2 pieces;
— Add mayonnaise to taste;
— No need for salt – the fish is already salty enough.

The recipe is simple:

Boil the carrot, potato, and beetroot in their skins (the water does not need to be salted, as the herring and mayonnaise are already salty). Or bake them for 1.5 hours at 160° in the oven. Then let the vegetables cool and peel them.

Hard boil the eggs.

Place the grated potato at the bottom of the salad bowl, pieces of salted herring, and then layers of finely chopped onions, carrots, and coarsely grated beetroot. You can add a layer of grated boiled eggs on top of the beetroot for decoration.

Each layer is covered with mayonnaise. After that, the salad should be placed in the fridge for 2 hours to infuse. During this process, the top layer of mayonnaise will be stained red by the beetroot juice.

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"Crab" Salad

The top three traditional New Year salads are completed by another Russian favourite – the crab salad. The classic recipe for this dish contains only four ingredients:

• Crab sticks;
• Boiled eggs;
• Canned corn;
• Fresh cucumber.

However, in different parts of Russia, it is prepared in their own way: for example, fresh grated apple, croutons, cheese, or even oranges are added.

Recipe:
Cut 500 g of crab sticks, 4 boiled eggs, and a fresh cucumber into small cubes, add canned corn and a few spoons of mayonnaise. Mix, season with salt and ground pepper to taste, and serve.

There are also more filling versions of this salad – for example, with boiled rice.

Enjoy your meal!

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How often do Russians prepare aspic? We dare to say, not often, but definitely for New Year. Aspic requires a lot of time to prepare, but the effort will pay off multiple times over. In Russian culinary tradition, aspic plays the same sacred role as Christmas pudding in Britain or roast turkey in America. No wonder the polite guest must first praise the aspic, as they acknowledge its special New Year status and know exactly how much effort was involved.

To ensure the aspic is successful, only three conditions are important: time, a large pot, and the right choice of meat. For the broth, low-quality meat pieces that contain a lot of tendons and cartilage, i.e., collagen, are suitable. There are many such parts: beef legs, beef bones, pork knuckle (front), and feet are best suited here.

The ingredients for aspic are always extremely modest: meat, water, and a limited amount of spices like garlic and bay leaf. From so little, a dish is created that can be proudly placed at the head of the table.

For aspic, the parts of the body that contain a lot of collagen (i.e., bones and tendons) are always used, which turns into natural gelatin during long cooking and allows the aspic to set.

Recipe:

Ingredients:
- Beef legs with bone 800 grams
- Meat, beef, beef shank 1000 grams
- Pork knuckle 1500 grams
- Water 4800 ml
- Carrot 1 piece
- Onion 1 piece
- Bay leaf 2 pieces
- Garlic 4 cloves
- Black peppercorns 1/4 teaspoon
- Allspice 1/4 teaspoon
- Clove spice 1 piece
- Salt to taste (at least 1.5 tablespoons)

Soak all shanks and legs in cold water for 4 hours. Then wash them thoroughly and scrub them with a brush.

Place all prepared meat ingredients in a pot and pour in cold water so that it stands 8 cm above the meat.

Add the carrot and onion – for the onion, it is enough to remove the top, coarse skin, and clean the carrot with a brush.

Bring the contents of the pot to a boil, remove the foam, and cook over very low heat, so that only a few bubbles rise, under a slightly open lid for 6–7 hours. One hour before the end of the cooking time, salt the broth, and 15 minutes before the end, add the spices.

An indicator for the cooking time of the meat: It should easily come off the bones. Then the pot can be removed from the heat, the carrot, onion, and bay leaf removed. Let everything cool until the meat can be handled by hand.

Break down the meat and separate it from the bones.

Collect the fat from the surface of the broth with a spoon or ladle and filter the broth through a paper towel.

Distribute the broken-down meat in moulds and pour the broth over it. Gelatin does not need to be added: The stickiness of the broth can be checked by dipping your fingers in. If they stick together, the aspic will also set.

Place the aspic in the cold to set completely.

Serve it traditionally as well – with horseradish or hot mustard.

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