Salad Olivier is a famous holiday dish for many people from post-USSR countries. Usually, Salad Olivier is prepared and served for dinner on New Year’s Eve. It is a rich salad and goes well with wine or other drinks, helping happy drinkers celebrate late without becoming tipsy.
The Original Olivier
Lucien Olivier (1838–1883) was a chef trained in classic French haute cuisine. It is unclear whether he was French or Belgian-born; very little material is available on his life.
With a business partner, Yakov Pegov, he founded the famous Hermitage Restaurant in Moscow in 1864 and spent his career in Moscow.
His Hermitage restaurant listed a popular hors d’oeuvre taken with an aperitif: wild game mayonnaise.
According to another version, based on Gyliarovski writing, the author of the famous recipe could not have been Olivier himself, but his chef Dughet.
There were unsuccessful attempts to steal the recipe and sell it to Moscow’s cookbook publishers during Olivier’s lifetime. One of the most notorious recipe thieves of that time, Ivan Ivanov, managed to smuggle the list of salad ingredients. Yet, some secret ingredients, especially the French sauce, were missing.
Lucien Olivier died young, at age 45, and he took the secret of the famous salad recipe with him.
One of the first printed versions of the salad in 1884 called for half of a hazel grouse, smoked duck, veal tongue, caviar, two boiled potatoes, one large cornichon, three crayfish tails, one teaspoon of capers, 4 pitted olives, 3 lettuce leaves, ¼ cup of aspic cubes made from grouse bones broth, and Provençal dressing, which we call mayonnaise these days.
Over time, the common ingredients have changed, such that these days the dish usually comprises potato, pickles, peas, eggs, carrots, and chicken.
The Wineswinging Version of Salad Olivier
We love pairing Olivier with Champagne. Since our favorite Champagne pairing protein is usually a seafood appetizer, we re-created Salad Olivier without meat. We used marinated squid and octopus to replace the dense texture of cooked chicken or beef meat.
We suggest using cooked squid if you don’t have marinated squid and octopus.
Serving Salad Olivier
Serving such a fancy salad in a huge bowl is not the way we like. We think it demands more. Moreover, red caviar, which we included in the ingredients, must be placed on top of the salad. The only suitable way to serve it is in an individual plate. Another idea is to use dessert cups (glass or disposable) to make this presentation memorable.
Ingredients
- Potatoes, boiled with skin on, peeled, and cut into small cubes
- Carrots, boiled the same way, peeled, and cut into small cubes
- Fresh cucumbers, cut into small cubes
- Chicken eggs, boiled, cleaned, and cut into small cubes
- Capers
- Marinated octopus and squid, also cut into small cubes
- Crab meat
- Red caviar
Dressing
- Mayonnaise
- Lemon juice
- Black pepper
- Salt
You can use store-bought mayonnaise. We went a little further to make it more flavorful. We add a little bit of freshly squeezed lemon juice, black, or pink pepper and salt to it. The best mayonnaise, of course, is homemade!
Building It Up
The ingredients of the salad have to be placed forming layers on a plate (or in the serving glass). We recommend placing carrots on the bottom layer for visual appeal. Next, add the potato layer.
Add some of the dressing on top of the potato layer.
Capers have a relatively intense flavor compared to other ingredients. And that is the reason we included them. However, placing them in one layer might affect an overall perception of the flavors. Mix them with eggs and spread them on top of the potatoes.
Place cucumbers on top.
Next, place squid, octopus, and crab meat, selecting the most visually appealing pieces for the top of the dish. Finish decorating with red caviar on top.