The original Olivier recipe

Making Olivier salad according to the original recipe requires many exquisite products and expensive ingredients. But the incredible flavor of this Olivier salad is worth the effort, especially if there's a special occasion for such a sumptuous dish.

Carrots, which we're accustomed to adding in traditional cooking, aren't mentioned anywhere in the original recipe. Lucien Olivier's recipe used fresh truffles, but you can get as close to the idea as possible by buying canned ones.

Step-by-step recipe

Let's start by preparing the meat ingredients. Veal tongue, unlike beef, takes less time to cook—about an hour and a half. Hazel grouse, as called for in the original recipe, are hard to find, so we'll substitute quail. Remove the quail from its carcasses and fry it with salt, black pepper, and half a clove of garlic.

Lanspik is another important ingredient in the recipe. It's the broth in which the hazel grouse (or quail in our case) were cooked, reduced to a jelly-like consistency. We boil the crayfish and peel them at the end, as the crayfish tails will be used for garnish.

Pre-boil the salad vegetables. Now you can begin preparing the Olivier salad.

Step 1

Cut the quail into cubes.

NOTE: Do not mix all the chopped ingredients for the future salad; store them separately. According to one version of the recipe, Lucien Olivier served all the ingredients separately for the dish, which bears no resemblance to the modern Olivier salad.

Step 2

Cut fresh cucumbers into cubes.

NOTE: Peel the cucumbers, but leave the cores in – this will add juiciness to the salad. It's best to match the size of all ingredients to the size of the capers to ensure all the salad ingredients are roughly the same size.

Step 3

Let's move on to slicing pickled cucumbers (gherkins).

Step 4

Cut the olives into rings, leave the capers whole.

Step 5

Cut the potatoes into cubes.

NOTE: It is better not to use crumbly potatoes with a high starch content for Olivier salad, as they will fall apart.

Step 6

Chop the eggs using an egg slicer (or a knife).

Step 7

Next comes the veal tongue – we cut it up for the salad.

Step 8

Now we cut the lanspeak into cubes.

NOTE: You can make a lanspic for Olivier salad using quail bones (skeletons), add 35 grams of gelatin, and refrigerate until it sets. When slicing, it's best not to chop the gelatin too finely, or it will melt in the salad.

Step 9

Cut the canned truffle into thin slices – you will need it to decorate the salad.

NOTE: If you can't find fresh truffles, as in the original recipe, you can season canned truffles with truffle oil to impart the characteristic truffle aroma.

Step 10

Place a round lid on the dish and begin to form the Olivier salad according to the original recipe: begin to arrange the chopped ingredients around it, each separately, without mixing.

Step 11

Remove the lid from the middle of the dish while the salad cools and make the dressing – Provencal sauce.

Step 12

Add a raw egg yolk, well separated from the white, vinegar and a little lemon juice to a spoon of mustard.

NOTE: The original Olivier recipe uses French (wine) vinegar. You can use balsamic vinegar or regular 7% vinegar, diluted with a drop of lemon juice.

Step 13

Add olive oil, grind mustard with yolk until it reaches the consistency of mayonnaise, add salt if necessary.

NOTE: If desired, you can use quail eggs instead of chicken eggs.

Step 14

Add a little Soy-Kabul sauce to the Provencal sauce and stir.

NOTE: Soya-Kabul is a versatile sauce made from fermented soybeans that can be added to various bases, like mayonnaise, and then used for meat, fish, chicken – as desired.

Step 15

Season the Olivier salad ingredients evenly distributed around the circle with the sauce.

Step 16

According to the Olivier recipe, the finished salad is garnished with cleaned crayfish tails and truffles – carefully distributed.

NOTE: According to the original Olivier recipe, the finished salad was also garnished with black caviar.

Cooking tips

The recipe for the perfect lanspic for the original Olivier salad: to ensure the jelly is as clear and strong as possible, the broth must first be thoroughly strained and cooled completely (to 10-15°C) before adding the gelatin.

When preparing Provençal salad dressing, temperature is important. All ingredients should be at the same temperature (preferably room temperature). Add the oil in a thin stream, whisking constantly.

You can try a ready-made Olivier salad. Serve the salad according to the original Olivier recipe, arranging all the ingredients into sections on the platter as indicated in the recipe. Decide for yourself whether to mix all the salad ingredients together on your plate or sample each exquisite Olivier salad component individually.

This luxurious, expensive salad is worthy of a holiday treat. The combination of flavors is so rich, you can't wait to try this masterpiece.