No. 2646

Russian Salad for Lenten Dinners

Salade Russe au Maigre

Have some small quarter-inch carrot balls, small sticks of turnips, both blanched and cooked separately in water with some butter, salt and sugar, green peas and lozenge-shaped string beans, both cooked in salted water. Lay these vegetables in a salad bowl in four distinct sections, cover them over with a mayonnaise (No. 606), highly seasoned, and set on top four groups, one composed of smoked salmon, one of fillets of sole, one of salt herring, and one of egg-white, all cut into quarter-inch dice. Decorate with fillets of anchovies, sliced pickled cucumbers, capers, olives, shrimps, beetroots and truffles, and in the middle set a fine lettuce heart.

← No. 2645 Russian Salad Cooked Salads No. 2647 Shrimp Salad →

For the Modern Kitchen

A composed salad rather than a tossed one, and the assembly is the whole point: four wedges of vegetable under mayonnaise, four heaps of fish and egg above, and a garnish ring around the rim. Everything must be cut to the same quarter-inch scale or the arrangement reads as clutter.

Cut everything to one sizeQuarter-inch carrot balls, turnip batons, lozenge-cut beans and whole peas are all sized to the pea. A small Parisienne scoop cuts the carrot balls; the beans are cut on a sharp diagonal into diamonds. The dice of fish and egg white match the same quarter inch.
"Au maigre"The phrase means a lean or fast-day dish, containing no meat. That is why the protein here is entirely fish and egg white, and why the plain Russian Salad is given separately at No. 2645.
The sole must be cookedThe recipe takes cooked fillets for granted but does not say how. Dice them only when cold and firm; warm poached fish will shred into the mayonnaise.
Salt herringBarrel-salted herring of the period needed soaking, often several hours in cold water or milk with changes, before it was edible in a salad. Modern jarred herring in brine or oil is already mild and needs only rinsing and draining.
Glazing the carrots and turnipsBlanching first, then cooking in water with butter, salt and sugar, is a glaze: the liquid should reduce to a shine just as the vegetables turn tender. Cook the two separately, as the recipe directs; the timings differ.
The mayonnaiseNo. 606 is a standard oil-and-egg-yolk mayonnaise. "Highly seasoned" here means lemon or vinegar sharp enough to cut through smoked salmon and herring, plus a firm hand with cayenne and mustard. Because it is served uncooked, use pasteurised eggs if you are serving anyone elderly, pregnant or immunocompromised.
Truffles and shrimpsThe recipe specifies only truffles, sliced thin as a decorative element rather than a flavour one; a small jar of truffle peelings does the same visual job. "Shrimps" here should be read as small cooked and peeled shrimp.
Serving and yieldAs written this is a centrepiece for a table; the recipe gives no quantities, so scale the vegetables to the bowl. Chill the bowl and build no more than an hour ahead: the mayonnaise weeps and the beetroot bleeds pink into everything if it stands.

A Little History

Salade russe entered the French repertoire in the nineteenth century as a mosaic of diced cooked vegetables bound with mayonnaise, and it is closely related to the dish still sold as Russian or Olivier salad across Europe and Latin America. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete professional reference, and his cross-referenced numbering — the mayonnaise sits at No. 606, the plain Russian Salad at No. 2645 — reflects a kitchen where cooks worked from a shared system rather than a standalone recipe. The au maigre label suggests a clientele observing Lent and Fridays: a fast-day dish in a luxury restaurant meant no meat, but it did not mean austerity, and here abstinence is met with smoked salmon, anchovies, shrimps and truffles.