Vinaigrette was the first Russian salad; before it, there were no salads in traditional Russian cuisine.
How did the word “vinaigrette” appear?
But the origin of the word “vinaigrette” is not Russian at all, but French - “vinaigrette”, where “vin” is wine, and “aigre” is sour, together “vinaigre” is vinegar sauce, which is not at all like a modern salad. In general, the original French word meant the preparation of various sauces based on vinegar and vegetable oil. In French restaurants you can find such a salad, only under the name "salad russe", which the French have the value of confusion, a mess. Here is such a change of concepts, and even more interesting is that the salad itself, the origin of the word and composition - everything came from Scandinavia.
Legend of Vinaigrette
And in Russia, mention of vinaigrette appeared in the XIX century. According to legend, during the reign of Alexander the First, the French chef Antoine Karem worked in the king’s kitchen. Seeing how Russian chefs make a strange salad, simply mixing all the ingredients and then pouring vinegar on everything, he asked in surprise, “Vinaigre?” (in French, "vinegar"), and they answered: "Vinaigrette! The vinaigrette!". So a new dish appeared in the imperial menu, and then it passed on to the people and became a snack, without which not a single feast was complete. The salad recipe has since been greatly simplified, but there are still cooking secrets. For example, if you want all the ingredients to have their natural color, then the beets need to be mixed in the oil separately, and if you want all the ingredients to turn pink from beet juice, then you need to knead everything together.
The recipe for the most popular Russian salad
Vinaigrette is probably the most popular salad in Russia and the USSR, and it was considered to be an original Russian dish. Probably, people simply did not know that the vinaigrette - the origin of the salad and the method of preparation - were once borrowed in other countries. In the Soviet Union, this salad was a New Year's dish, along with olivier, but the recipes were very different.
The most famous recipe for this appetizer is boiled potatoes, beets, carrots, chopped onions and pickles, all in equal quantities. Previously, the same composition, only without beets, was used for okroshka. Also, some housewives add sauerkraut, herring soaked in milk, canned green peas to the salad. William Pokhlebkin, a well-known culinary publicist, could also not know what the salad is, the origin of the word, and where the salad comes from. So, he talked about the fact that in a primordially Russian salad a boiled egg should be present. It should be noted that this salad is a perishable dish, this is due to pickles and dressing from oil and vinegar. Its use after a day can cause indigestion.
Vinaigrette or Salmagundi?
Interestingly, in the English cookbook of 1845, a salad similar to a vinaigrette called "Swedish herring salad" was also found. In addition to all the ingredients of Russian vinaigrette, grated apple was added there. The most interesting thing is that if vinaigrette itself came from Scandinavia, the origin of the word comes from the French name, then it turns out that the same salad came to England from Sweden.
And in France, for example, a salad similar to our one appeared in the 17th century. And it was not someone who started to cook it, but the pirates and hunters. They used any meat (turtle, duck or pigeon), then marinated it in vinegar or wine, added spices, could also add fish, then everything turned into a mishmash, added greens and vegetables, such a salad was called Salmagundi.
Thus, the salad itself, the origin of the word and the fact that it is seasoned with vinegar, originates in France and Scandinavia, but the salad can actually be called world-wide. The thing is the simplicity of the components and the availability of those in almost all European countries.