Who invented the herring under a fur coat? History of lettuce

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

Herring under a fur coat is everyone's favorite salad, which often adorns the festive table of our citizens. The combination of s alted and oily fish with sweet vegetables gives the dish a unique taste. If earlier in the Soviet Union there were few products for creating culinary masterpieces and people used beets, carrots and potatoes available to everyone, now the choice is simply huge. New recipes are available that are full of the Internet, but such a simple salad is still present at all feasts.

Besides this, over time, this dish acquires many legends about who invented the herring under a fur coat, when this dish appeared on the tables of our parents, which preceded its appearance as a beautifully decorated holiday dish.

Norwegian roots

The history of herring under a fur coat goes far from our country to the northern Scandinavian countries, which have always been famous for the abundance of this delicious fish.

In 1851 Norwegian cookbooks, you can find a similar recipe called Sillsallad, which means herring salad in Russian. The recipe included herring, which was laid on the bottoma large plate, boiled beets, thinly sliced carrots, and eggs were laid out on top of it. However, all ingredients were not mixed.

English equivalent

Many culinary historians have been looking for an answer to the question of who invented the herring under a fur coat. A similar recipe was found in an 1845 cookbook in England called Swedish Salad. The components of this salad also have similarities with the dish we are studying. This is Norwegian herring, which was peeled, cut into pieces and laid out on a dish. They covered it with layers of sliced beets, potatoes, finely chopped eggs, and added pickles and a grated apple.

Recipe in Russian sources

From the second half of the 19th century, and in Russian cookbooks, one can trace the history of the salad recipe "herring under a fur coat". Although this dish was created, of course, without mayonnaise and more like a vinaigrette. The ingredients present in such a salad are incredibly similar to herring under a fur coat. These are the same boiled beets, diced potatoes, and carrots.

Much later, mayonnaise sauce, which is used by people all over the world, is gaining popularity. This salad also did not escape the addition of this popular sauce, and since about 1960 a variant of the modern, so traditional for the Russian feast puff dish with mayonnaise has appeared.

Beautiful legend of Soviet times

If you are interested in the question of who invented the herring under a fur coat, then on numerous Internet sites you can read the legend aboutthe origin of this popular dish. It sounds like this.

In Moscow and Tver, a certain innkeeper named Anastas Bogomilov in 1918 thought about the state of affairs in his establishments. Many visitors, after a good portion of booze, began to brawl and fight, thus sorting out relations on a political basis. After all, people of different classes visited the tavern, of course, that alcohol quickly unleashed their tongues, and eternal disputes began.

A certain Aristarkh Prokoptsev worked as a cook in a tavern, to whom the owner gave the task to come up with a salad that would be nutritious and high-calorie so that people would not get so drunk and fight in his taverns. He suffers terrible losses, because after a fight there are broken dishes, furniture, windows, etc. Not to mention the fact that people are simply afraid to go to his taverns and bypass them.

Aristarkh Prokoptsev approached the matter creatively. He deciphered the composition of the selected ingredients as follows:

• herring is a symbol of the proletariat, as the workers often ordered and loved it;
• beets are a symbol of the revolutionary red banner;
• other vegetables are root crops (onions, carrots, potatoes), which symbolize the land, which means the peasantry;
• mayonnaise is a French sauce that pays homage to the French revolutionaries.

Deciphering the word "fur coat"

If you are interested in the history of a herring under a fur coat, you may come across sayings that the word "fur coat", which covers the fish onplate, turns out to be an abbreviation. It is decoded as follows:

• Ш means chauvinism.
• U - respectively decline.
• B stands for boycott.
• A - in the full version - anathema.

It sounds like a combination of words:

"Chauvinism and Decadence - Boycott and Anathema"

The legend ends just fine. After tasting the salad for the New Year 1919, the visitors of the establishment were incredibly satisfied, no one got drunk anymore, everyone ate the herring under a fur coat, which had become a popular salad, and things in the tavern got better.

Unmasking the legend

Since those times, many have been interested in the question: "Who invented the herring under a fur coat in reality?" Culinary historians have studied old Russian and Soviet cookbooks and come to a disappointing conclusion: the beautiful legend has absolutely no evidence of its veracity. There was no innkeeper Anastas Bogomilov and no cook Aristarkh Prokoptsev. And the first edition of the cookbook in Soviet Russia did not contain such a recipe.

The first mention of such a salad occurs in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was during this period that mayonnaise sauce gained popularity, in many countries they began to use it, replacing ordinary salads with layers. Each ingredient was crushed, stacked separately and smeared with mayonnaise.

In the presented video you will see where the herring under a fur coat was invented, what dishes preceded its appearance.

Cooking recipe

Afteras we have found out in detail the origin of this dish, let's look at how it should be prepared. This is a layered salad, which includes, in addition to herring, several other ingredients. Beets should be taken sweet, maroon, fresh, not sluggish.

Light and unsweetened beets can significantly affect the taste characteristics of the dish. You also need to boil the carrots. Potatoes are chosen of the same size and variety, which does not boil soft. Let vegetables cool before cutting for salad.

How to choose a delicious herring?

Before buying the ingredients for the classic "herring under a fur coat" salad, you need to learn how to choose a herring. It comes in 3 types of s alting. S alted herring have red eyes. She is usually fatter. Medium s alted fish should be firm to the touch. There should be no "rusty" brown spots on it, no cracks or scratches. If they are on the body of the fish, it means that it was overexposed in s alt, and the temperature regime of s alting was not respected.

If the fish's eyes become cloudy, it may be with caviar. Many people love it, but be prepared that there will be less pulp and fat content. The herring gave all her life reserves for the maturation of offspring. If the fish is covered with white coating, this indicates poor-quality s alt, in which harmful impurities were present.

The most delicious herring are males. They can be recognized by their narrow and elongated mouth. They are fatter and meatier. If the herring has a round mouth -this is a female. She may have caviar in her stomach, which means that there will be very little meat, mainly on the back. And as mentioned above, females are not that fat.

Also, when buying herring, you need to pay attention to the state of the brine in which it was s alted. It must be transparent. If you see a cloudy liquid, and even smell an unpleasant smell, do not risk it, but look for it in another store.

Steps of cooking salad "herring under a fur coat"

After you have purchased the necessary products, well-s alted herring, potatoes, onions, carrots and dark beets, you can start cooking. First you need to thoroughly clean the herring, remove the skin, select all the bones and rinse it under sewage. Clean boneless fillets should be cut into slices. This will be the first layer of our layered salad.

Onions are placed on top of the herring. You can use onion, some like fresh green onions. The onion is cut into thin half rings or cubes and poured on top of the fish. You can pre-pickle the onion using water, vinegar and a spoonful of sugar, or you can simply scald it with boiling water to get all the bitterness out of it. Mayonnaise is spread over a layer of fish and onions.

Further are layers of potatoes, carrots, which are also smeared with mayonnaise. Beets are traditionally placed on top. Some people sprinkle finely chopped egg or green onions on top of the mayonnaise layer.

The salad is prepared in different ways: some cut vegetables into cubes, and somerub them on a grater. Herring looks beautiful under a fur coat in the form of a roll. Decorate the salad before serving with olives or vegetable figurines, draw a grid with mayonnaise, add greens.

In the article, we examined in detail who invented the herring under a fur coat and how to make it according to the classic recipe.