No. 796

Russian Macedoine

Macedoine Russe

This is composed of anchovies, marinated tunny fish, cucumbers, shrimps, beets, a few olives and some red herring fillets, all cut into quarter of an inch dice. Mix all in a mayonnaise with finely chopped tarragon, and arrange it on side dishes, garnishing with thin slices of pickled lobsters, some capers and chopped parsley.

← No. 795 Lobster Mayonnaise Printaniere Cold Side Dishes No. 797 Mackerel in Oil →

For the Modern Kitchen

A cold assembly rather than a cooked dish: the only real work is precise knife cuts and a mayonnaise firm enough to hold them. Ranhofer assumes you have the rest of his book to hand, so several components arrive unexplained.

The dice is the recipeQuarter-inch dice, evenly cut, is what makes this a macédoine rather than a fish salad. Cut everything to the same size and drain each wet element well on paper before mixing, or the mayonnaise will slacken and pool.
Tunny fishTunny is tuna. "Marinated tunny" here most likely means tuna cured or steeped in oil, and possibly vinegar; a good jarred ventresca or solid loin, drained and diced, is the closest substitute, since standard flaked tuna will disintegrate in the mixing.
Red herringRed herring is herring heavily salt-cured and cold-smoked until the flesh turns reddish-brown, once a staple and now scarce. Any firm smoked or salt herring fillet works; soak briefly in milk or water if it is aggressively salty, since anchovies, olives and capers are already bringing salt.
Shrimps"Shrimps" in this period generally meant small shrimp, usually sold already cooked and peeled. Use cooked cold-water shrimp, and if they are large, dice them to match everything else.
BeetsCooked beets, diced. Add them last and fold gently, or their colour will bleed through the whole dish.
The mayonnaiseRanhofer's mayonnaise is raw-yolk, and this dish is never heated. If you are serving anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immune-compromised, make it with pasteurized eggs or use a good commercial mayonnaise thinned with a little lemon.
Pickled lobsterPresumably a separate preparation elsewhere in the book: cooked lobster kept in an acidulated brine. Cold poached lobster tail, sliced thin, gives much the same effect without home-preserving shellfish.
TarragonChop the tarragon just before folding it in. It bruises and turns hay-like quickly, and it is the flavour that distinguishes this from any other fish mayonnaise.
Yield and serving"Side dishes" means small individual dishes served cold as part of a larger service. Ranhofer gives no quantities, so scale to the number of dishes you need. Dress it no more than an hour ahead and keep it refrigerated.

A Little History

A macédoine is a mixture of ingredients cut to uniform dice, the name generally traced to the mixed peoples of Macedonia under Alexander and applied in French kitchens from the eighteenth century onward, usually to vegetables. Calling it russe places it in the family of dressed cold salads that European chefs of the period labelled Russian - bound with mayonnaise, built from cooked and preserved elements, and served cold in small portions. Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a working record of that kitchen, and the run of cold side dishes around this entry shows what a large restaurant kept ready in the larder: anchovies, oil-packed tuna, smoked herring, pickled shellfish, olives, capers and cooked beets, all shelf-stable or long-keeping, all assembled to order. The dish is less a Russian import than a demonstration of what a well-stocked American pantry could produce in ten minutes with a sharp knife.