Whenever approaching the change of one calendar year and the other smaller cells calendar remains up to the red date "December 31 - January 1," again and again raises the question about the New Year's table. And the puzzle, what dishes to decorate their view this table, then to delight the palate and stomach guests and hosts feast traditionally begins much in advance, no later than November. In this regard, the Russian culinary traditions of the New Year, more or less simple and democratic - in fact the main role here is usually played salads.

Christmas salad - not a good life

Although closer to the truth will be called an abundance of salads in the New Year's feast is not Russian, and Soviet-Russian .  As each person in terms of psychology from childhood, and many components of Russian life come from more distant, but not yet covered with a touch of the history of the Soviet past .  And this is the Soviet past was quite controversial, including the terms of holidays .  On the one hand, the level of welfare was such that some gorgeous dishes, even for a major national holiday, what is the new year and were simply inaccessible .  The reasons for this were two - revenues were stable, but in the mass sovey low, and high-quality food products were terrible deficit and the majority were not available .  Therefore, the Soviet people had to get out of position due to the very salads and tangerines in the absence of real meat, shrimp and pineapple .  By the way, it should be noted that in other countries in the New Year's table as a "tack room" made to stand still no salads and various meat dishes: in Italy it is a pork leg with spices and lentils, the UK turkey, in Spain most diverse fried meat, from lamb to turkey, French pate, poultry, mussels, etc. .

But the holiday still wanted to ...

But on the other hand, the sense of celebration is still wanted and if it was possible to put on a New Year's table with a tray of mandarin oranges and a bottle of "Soviet champagne" and salads, the salads, these were supposed to be the most luxurious on the situation in extremely large quantities. That is why the main for New Year celebrations in the Soviet Union and partly in Russian steel easy to prepare, but wearing a shade of plenty of salads, "Olivier" with crab sticks and certainly prepared them in large containers, and all that was enough for several holidays. After all, the Soviet-Russian version of the salad "Olivier", which in its traditional form is very refined (fowl, veal tongue, caviar and other luxury), very, very unassuming on ingredients: potatoes, chicken (often replaced doctoral sausage), eggs , pickles, green peas, mayonnaise, sour cream Smetana: untold riches of Russian cuisine , greenery.

Salad with crab sticks was a bit more difficult to prepare because they themselves sticks were slightly less accessible than the sausage, however, and this dish was available for New Year's Soviet desk: crab sticks, mayonnaise, eggs, potatoes, boiled corn, onions. In addition, the technology of preparation was quick and easy - all cut and mix, which also added the two salads popularity and gave them a cult character. It became famous after the film "Irony of Fate" herring under a fur coat was still a sign of a certain luxury holiday table: all the same quality herring was relatively uncommon.

However, in modern conditions, when the food shortage seems to be over, and you can prepare it any desired salads, not only "Olivier" and crab sticks Crab sticks   can be rich "salad table" on New Year's Eve. Fortunately, the recipes are now available not only in rare or very rare cookbooks, but also on the Internet. Just get online and type in any search engine something about Christmas salads New salads - history and tradition As will countless options for every taste and every budget. For example, a very affordable product salad "Admiral", which are needed for two potatoes, two carrots, apple, radish, onion, a couple of eggs, mayonnaise and greens. Is it possible to stay on a more solid form, such as its name speaks much salad "Royal": here is necessary, in addition to carrots, mayonnaise, onions and beets, and even canned salmon in its own juice. And so it continues to crumble recipes to infinity - the main thing that was a desire to prepare the salads so that New Year's Eve guests had a desire to eat them.

Alexander Babitsky

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