Olivier Salad: The Great Return

[Seva]

Dear all, please, do not be confused with the click bait-y title – there is a reason for it.  

 

Russians (and surely other post-Soviet countries and Russophone communities world-wide) love Olivier Salad. It is to us as Christmas pudding to British, as turkey with stuffing to Americans, as pilaf with dried fruits to Armenians. A truly uniting dish. Everyone from Putin to my grandmother loves this salad. But here is the point – we've lost its original recipe. Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_salad) says the authentic recipe is unknown which is true. But we've got one lead – the earliest published recipe in the Russian magazine Наша пища (Nasha pishcha, "Our Cuisine"). 

 

It says that the chef Olivier himself ordered a Cabul sauce for his infamous salad from a British food company – Crosse & Blackwell. Our small community of food historians have every reason to believe it was true. But here's the catch.   

 

The company had been divided (as far as I've found online) between The J.M. Smucker Company, Princes Group and Tiger Brands. And now it's hard to reestablish the old recipe.  We've tried to reached the Smucker's (apparently, not the smartest move, because the Princes Group sounds like a more logical move to make, but what's done is done) but got nothing. 

 

We passionately wish to acquire those old recipe or a list of ingredients of Cabul sauce which is mentioned in our food historic books. 

 

Maybe any of you have some connections in Princes Group and could possibly assist us in any way? Thank you! 

 

(P.S. Yes, I know about this French version here http://www.careme.us/glossary_repertoire_sauces.html#cabul_sauce, but we would like to be sure about the authenticity).

 

 

 

[AAQuesada]

There is a great facebook group of mostly food historians and researchers who might be able to help 'oxford symposium on food and cookery'

 

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=oxford symposium on food and cookery

 

Best of luck on your search and please report back if you find what you are looking for. I personally love stories like this.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I had a dear librarian friend who was starting a food history collection at Princeton.  Inconveniently she died.

 

[Tropicalsenior]

On 12/21/2020 at 11:49 PM, JoNorvelleWalker said:

Inconveniently she died.

How inconsiderate of her!

[liuzhou]

On 12/22/2020 at 1:28 PM, AAQuesada said:

There is a great facebook group of mostly food historians and researchers who might be able to help 'oxford symposium on food and cookery'

 

https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=oxford symposium on food and cookery

 

Best of luck on your search and please report back if you find what you are looking for. I personally love stories like this.

 

Gastronomic History @GastroHistory on Twitter is also a good resource for.. well, gastronomic history.