A mandatory attribute of the holiday table will fish specialties - salted salmon or trout, smoked sturgeon, salmon roe. Salted fish can be done by purchasing fresh-frozen trout or salmon for a few days before the holiday. In this case, you get a guaranteed result as to the degree of salted, and on the freshness of the product.
A piece of cold-smoked fish vacuum packed must be an integer, no cracks and deformations. On the surface of the piece must not be yellow spots of fat inside the piece and must be dried without the extracted juice. Color hot-smoked fish can have all shades of brown. It is better to check the appearance and smell.
Caviar is better to take in bulk, choosing the one in which all the eggs whole, are easily separated from each other and caviar itself has a bright orange-red color. The size of eggs depends on the type of fish, considered the most delicious caviar chum. Its small size and caviar has a thin, elastic membrane.
Choosing sausage, pay attention to its shell - it should be clean and dry without damage or mold, fit snugly to the body of sausage. Color stick in the context should be uniform, himself a loaf - a dense and elastic. Fat in the sausage must be white. Smell sausage - it should smell of spices and lightly smoked, but the smell should not be very strong - so camouflage is not very high quality raw materials.
Meat is better to take one piece and to cut it at home. Most proven option - familiar butcher. If there is no, it is still advised to take the meat to the festive table on the market. Pay attention to the color - good beef and lamb should be a uniform red color, pork and veal - pink. If you put a hand to a piece of fresh meat, it will remain dry. And be sure to smell a piece, if not like the smell or doubt - do not take it, nothing worthwhile prepared from such meat can not.
Vegetables and fruit, choose whole and fresh in appearance. Even a small defect can become a breeding ground for germs and harmful bacteria, so the integrity - the main criterion.