Russian New Year Dishes

New Year is probably the most important and widely celebrated holiday on the Russian calendar and a sumptuous feast with close ones is an essential part of the celebration. You can try each of the New Year specialties throughout the year, but on the New Year night, you’ll see most of them at any Russian home.

Olivier Salad (Russian salad)

This salad, soaked in mayonnaise sauce and known in many countries as the Russian salad, is probably the unhealthiest dish on the Russian festive table. Its name comes from Lucien Olivier, chef of Hermitage, a restaurant in Moscow, who invented the salad in the 1860s. Despite being constantly mocked for its unoriginality and high calorie count, it is still an integral part of most family gatherings at New Year. Every family has its own recipe and secret ingredients, but the basic version remains largely the same.

Ingredients

2-3 potatoes
2 carrots
5-6 eggs
1 can of canned peas (or frozen peas)
400 g bologna (or smoked ham/boiled beef/boiled chicken)
2-3 dill pickles
150 g mayonnaise sauce
Salt, pepper, fresh dill for seasoning

Boil the potatoes and carrots unpeeled, then allow them to cool and peel them. Boil and shell the eggs; dice potatoes, carrots, eggs, meat and pickles into small cubes. Mix everything in a large bowl. Add peas, season with mayonnaise and add finely chopped dill to garnish.

NB: you might want to check out this video and see how Olivier Salad should never ever be cooked!

Caviar

Older Russians may tell you how they used to eat black caviar with a spoon from a jar, since it was quite affordable in the Soviet times. Today, black caviar is prohibitively expensive, while red caviar remains a staple of the New Year menu. It is traditionally served on wheat bread with butter.

Herring Under Fur Coat (Shuba)

This salad with a weird name rates as one of the weirdest-tasting Russian dishes among international guests. This is a layered salad where pickled herring fillet layer is covered by ‘fur coat’ made of boiled vegetables with mayo.

Ingredients

3 potatoes
4 carrots
3 beets
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise sauce
1 red onion
4 fillets of pickled herring in oil
4 hard-boiled eggs
Parsley or dill to garnish

Boil the potatoes, carrots and beets unpeeled (beets take about 20 min longer than the others). Let cool and peel while still warm, then set aside and let cool completely. Shred the vegetables separately. Take a serving platter and place the following layers: shredded potatoes; a thin layer of mayonnaise; herring diced into small cubes and mixed with finely diced onions; shredded carrots; shredded boiled eggs; shredded beets; cover with mayonnaise. Put in a fridge for at least 3 hours.

Cold Meat Jelly (Kholodets)

Kholodets is another dish that might look and taste weird to a foreigner, but is an essential favourite among Russian cuisine lovers. Traditionally, this jelly is cooked without additional gelatin, since it comes naturally from animal bones. You can check the recipe, for example, here.

Cold Fish Jelly

Fish jelly is probably slightly less popular, but it has been immortalized as a New Year dish in the iconic ‘Irony of Fate’ movie, which is traditionally shown on TV in Russia on New Year Eve. Read more about its history and the recipe here.

Tangerines and Champagne

Tangerines are the favourite appetizer, dessert and ornament.

Traditionally, champagne (particularly, Sovetskoye Shampanskoye) is opened while the bells (Kuranty) chime at the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower (broadcast live on TV and radio). The bells ring for one minute, during which you need to open the bottle, pour the champagne into flutes, make a wish and clink glasses exactly when the clock strikes 12.