# Ceasar Salad



## icedhazelnut (Nov 26, 2002)

I am looking for an authentic Ceasar salad recipe. I think it uses egg yolks, fresh grated parmesan, maybe some anchovey .. not sure about that. Does anyone know the origin of the salad?


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## mezzaluna (Aug 29, 2000)

I used the search function on this site to come up with quite a few earlier threads on this topic. Here's a good one:

http://www.cheftalkcafe.com/forums/s...t=caesar+salad

That search function is DA BOMB!


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## icedhazelnut (Nov 26, 2002)

Thanks! Just what I was looking for!


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## buddyrv (Jan 8, 2003)

The classic needs to be eaten right away because of the raw egg yolk. Having said that:

In a wooden bowl, rub the bottom with a garlic glove.
Add in egg yolks
add juice of lemmon
add salt/pepper
add on anchovie and crush with fork
whisk in olive oil until it emulsifies
pour over romaine with croutons

SERVE


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

If by authentic, you mean as the original first served, there would be no anchovy.

Phil


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## foodnfoto (Jan 1, 2001)

Whether you eat the salad immediately or not, the egg yolks are still a problem. Salmonella and Campylobacter are epidemic in all poultry products. 
Eating uncooked egg products that haven't been pastuerized puts anyone (especially older folks, children and people with compormised immune systems) at severe risk for food poisoning.
The insidious thing about Campylobacter is that its incubation period averages about 5 days. So you can eat a caesar salad, get sick a week later and have no way to trace it to a particular dish.


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## dearolddave (Apr 7, 2003)

Dear Icedhazelnut,

Here is an authentically made Caesar with a few added touches form our web site at http://www.newitalianrecipes.com. The croutons are really worth the effort.

New Italian Recipes:
Caesar Salad Dressing

Homemade Italian Croutons:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. 
Slice up a day old loaf of French bread into 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes. (You can use regular bread if that is all you have). Toss bread in mixture of 3 T melted butter, 2-3 finely diced garlic cloves, 2 T of dried basil and 2 T of dried thyme. 
Spread evenly on baking sheets. Bake for about 20 minutes, until browned but not over crusted.

Dressing Ingredients:
1 clove garlic, chopped finely
1/3 cup or so of good quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Note: Amount may very due to individual tastes. Remember, folks, this is gourmet cooking. (Taste and adjust, taste and adjust. This process is impressive to your guests, as well.) 
8 anchovy fillets, chopped
Note: We usually use the kind that come in the jar packed in oil. That way, if you don't use them all, you can just leave the remainder in the refrigerator until you need them. Probably very soon, in our case. 
1 1/2 T Worcestershire Sauce
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard or 1 t Dijon (optional) (We usually leave this out, but to some it adds to the dressing.)
5-6 sun-dried tomatoes (oil packed), chopped finely
Freshly ground pepper, to your own taste
Juice of 1 lemon
1 "coddled" Egg (1 minute in boiling water, then cooled, peeled and added in entirety) (To eliminate the fear of all those big word maladies.)

The Rest:
1 head Romaine Lettuce, leaves torn into edible pieces (If you tear the leaves away from the stems, and then discard the stem pieces, you will need to add more salad leaves to this amount of dressing). (We occasionally use mixed green salad because it's good and the stems are tender and very edible!) A salad spinner makes washing the lettuce a whole lot easier. 
Homemade Italian croutons
1/3 cup parmigiano-reggiano cheese

Preparation:
Wash, tear and drain the lettuce. 
In a large wooden salad bowl, mash the garlic with a fork or pestle. 
Add chopped anchovy fillets, Worcestershire, mustard (optional), sun-dried tomato, lemon juice, and coddled egg. 
Note: A coddled egg is a raw egg that has been boiled for about 1 minute to reduce the risk of botulism or some other contamination. If your eggs are fresh, the chances are "infinitesimally" small of contamination but we perform this step just to be as safe as possible). 
Blend with garlic, mash the anchovies really well, then swirl all of this around the sides of the bowl until it is "coated". 
Mix in the olive oil, sparingly, with a fork until it is well incorporated. The dressing should appear "creamy". Taste it to see if you have added just the right amount of olive oil. (You'll know.) 
Add the romaine, then the croutons and cheese. Toss it all well to combine with the Caesar dressing.

Regards,
Dave


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## pongi (Jan 11, 2002)

Dearolddave,
I have a question for you.
Why do you speak of "italian recipe"?
I've always heard that Caesar's Salad was born in California, don't know if it's true but in any case it isn't an Italian recipe.

Could you (or somebody else) tell me the story of this dish?

Pongi


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## pinarello (May 3, 2002)

This is not my post I made a copy and pasted it here. Posted from Kimmie.

"Created in the 1920s, it has not only outlasted other 'classics' from the period but has grown in popularity ever since. The most likely, and most accepted, story of its creation has Caesar (Cesar) Cardini, a restaurant owner and chef in Tijuana, Mexico (sometimes referred to as an Italian immigrant) preparing it for a group of Hollywood movie stars, after a long weekend party in the 1920s. (Some have pinpointed it to 1924; at least one story says is was a group traveling with the Prince of Wales on his tour of North America). Their departure was delayed by morning rain, supplies at the restaurant were running low after the weekend, and he had to whip up a meal for the group before their return to Hollywood (or it was late one night as some stories go).

Created on the spur of the moment with leftover ingredients. (Although several California restaurants claim to have invented it, few give credit to their stories).

The original contained Romaine (Cos) lettuce, coddled eggs, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, croutons, salt and pepper. No anchovies. Almost everyone agrees on this. No one really knows when the anchovies got in, but I feel the salad is a little flat without them. The anchovies should be mashed in as the dressing is made, so even those who dislike anchovies will enjoy this salad. (Dry or Dijon mustard and wine vinegar [red or white] are also frequently added ingredients).

Caesar salad is best when made fresh: freshly squeezed lemon he juice, freshly mashed garlic cloves, freshly ground black pepper, fresh garlic croutons, and freshly grated cheese. The egg should be coddled, but a raw egg can be used. Our slight variation here at Blue Heaven Restaurant is to use key lime juice instead of lemon juice.

An acceptable dressing can also be made using tofu instead of the raw or coddled egg, if you have concern about salmonella. This should be made in a food processor to completely incorporate the tofu.

In the late 1990's, Caesar salads were made illegal in California, by a new health law banning the sale of any food that used raw eggs as an ingredient. Presumably there was a black market for the contraband salad. The law was soon revised and the situation remedied in 1998."

Thats very similar to the story I have heard as well.
It is definately not Italian.
And I have never heard of sun dried tomatoes in this salad but if they are packed in oil, why not just add the oil(same taste) and save the tomatoes for some other dish where they will be seen.


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