A New Year’s Eve party in Russia is unimaginable without salads, especially those made with mayonnaise and receiving calories. Main courses and desserts take a back seat to these jewels of Russian cuisine.
1. Olivier, alias “Russian salad”
In the 19th century, French chef Lucien Olivier, who worked at the Hermitage restaurant in Moscow, kept the recipe for his branded salad a secret. The original version contained wild game, crayfish, caviar and a secret dressing. Later, the salad recipe changed, then disappeared and returned only in the middle of the 20th century. Then, expensive wild game was replaced by sausage and capers with pickled cucumbers. The salad became affordable and accessible to millions of Soviet citizens.
Recipe
2. Herring under a fur coat
The origins of this layered salad are surrounded by legend. According to one, this dish existed before the 1917 revolution and was served in taverns as vegetables, onion rings and oil helped hide the less than perfect quality of herring. Also, herring is a good snack when drinking alcohol. According to another legend, the salad was created by the Moscow merchant Bogomilov shortly after the revolution, and all its ingredients had a particular meaning: beetroot symbolized the revolution; carrots and onions: the peasantry; and the herring: the proletariat. All ingredients are layered and dressed with mayonnaise.
Recipe
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3. Vine
Although it is not known when the vinegar salad was first made in Russia (late 18th or early 19th century), the truth is that it has become so popular that it is now a staple of the diet. Russian and is prepared not only occasions. The dressing is vegetable oil and not mayonnaise, which is especially important when the table is filled with mayonnaise salads; thus giving another option to those who may not like Mayo. The ingredients are simple: beets, pickled cucumbers, peas, carrots and potatoes.
Recipe
4. Mimosa
This salad, decorated with yellow crumbs on top, has become a regular on the festive menu since it appeared in the 1970s. There is a theory that was created by cooks in Abkhazia before International Women’s Day, with the scrambled egg yolks on top that symbolize the mimosa, which grows in Abkhazia and is associated with the holidays of the women, March 8th.
Women on holiday in Abkhazia loved the canned salad of fish, eggs, carrots and potatoes and took the recipe home, spreading it all over the country. Currently, this salad is mainly served for New Year celebrations.
Recipe
5. Crab salad
The recipe for this salad, another made with mayonnaise, appeared in the USSR in the 1980s. The main ingredients are: crab sticks, eggs and cucumbers, with rice and corn as optional additions. Few people still believe that crab sticks contain real crab meat, but the salad is still considered “expensive” and therefore suitable for special occasions.
Recipe
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