“Boeuf salad is divine food.” The history of the most “controversial” Romanian holiday dish / The differences between the first recipes and the ones now

Few dishes manage to stir up as much gastronomic controversy as salade de boeuf. From the eternal dispute “with or without peas”, to the question of whether it can still be called “de boeuf” when it is with chicken, fish or smoked salmon, the salad has become indispensable in the Romanian holiday kitchen. But as research shows gastronomic historian Cosmin Dragomirboeuf salad has never been a simple or rigid dish. On the contrary.

The origin of boeuf salad is not in Romanian cuisine, but in a much more complex dish, created in Tsarist Russia by Olivier, a Belgian chef settled in Moscow in the second half of the 19th century. The original, highly elaborate recipe was kept secret until the death of its inventor.

An incomplete version would have been stolen by an apprentice, and what we know today is only a shadow of the original preparation, says Cosmin Dragomir.

The earliest published version known to date appears in the Russian magazine Our food (“Nașa pișta” – “Our kitchen”), number 6, from March 31, 1894. From here begins a long road of reinterpretations, adaptations and simplifications, which will inevitably reach the Romanian space as well.

The first Romanian recipes

In Romania, boeuf salad is documented relatively early. Among the oldest known recipes are those from 1926 and 1928, and reading them could surprise many of today's “classic recipe” followers, says Cosmin Dragomir.

In “Cheerful Cookbook” (1926), Henriette Krupenski–Sturdza speaks of a salad “called de boeuf”, but which she considers “much finer and tastier with poultry”:

“So-called “de boeuf” salad, but which is much finer and tastier with poultry meat. Cut the roast or boiled meat (leftovers) small, mix with all possible vegetables, boiled: potatoes, carrots, celery, beans, peas, beets, etc., chopped raw onions (garlic as you like), olives, capers, small pickled cucumbers, chopped, Lissa sardines (without bones), mustard, salt, pepper, grated horseradish, all to taste and what you have at hand, well mixed, with good oil, placed in a large bowl, on top poured and leveled a successful mayonnaise, or in the absence of eggs, only flowered with red (grated beetroot), yellow (a little chopped egg yolk), white (open, chopped egg white), black (olives), green (capers)'.

Two years later, in “Cookbook” (published in 1928, at the publishing house IG Hertz.), A. Petrini proposes a slightly more restrained version, but equally clear in terms of versatility:

“It is made from the remains of a stew or steak; cut the meat small, boil potatoes, a little carrot, green beans and green peas. All this, the potatoes and carrots, a pickled cucumber, cut and mix with the meat on a plate, put salt and pepper, pour a little vinegar, oil and a spoonful of mustard; make a mayonnaise sauce, from which you also put in a spoonful or two of meat. Place the meat in a pyramid on the plate and garnish it with finely chopped cucumbers, with chopped carrot and beetroot.

Peas, meat and freedom of interpretation

As Cosmin Dragomir observes, these historical recipes not only include peas without any hesitation, but complicate the recipe with numerous other ingredients.

“Basca, ever since then there has been talk of the versatility of meat. This is how the text from the joke column of the newspaper Realitatea Ilustrată, from 1930, is explained: “Boeuf salad is a truly divine food because only God knows what it is made of”, says Cosmin Dragomir.

Interwar opulence and extravagance of ingredients

In 1940, things go even further. In the volume “Household News”signed by Elisabeta Ciortan and Xenia Nicolau, the beef salad is described as a variant of the Russian salad, but enriched, indicates Cosmin Dragomir.

“The Boeuf salad is prepared in the same way as the Russian salad, to which poultry, beef or fish are added. Endives and green salad should not be missing. Who can, adds lobster” (Economic News by Elisabeta Ciortan and Xenia Nicolau, Published in 1940)

What remains today

Seen in historical context, boeuf salad has never been a fixed, standardized or “purist” dish. It was, from the start, an exercise in adaptation, opulence and creativity, where the ingredients reflected the season, social status and imagination of the cook.

Perhaps, before we eliminate the peas or condemn the chicken, it would be worth remembering that boeuf salad has always been exactly what we feel like and can put in it. The rest is just tradition… reinterpreted.