Once I started making my own Caesar salad dressing at home, Caesar salads for me at home went from meh to unbelievable... basically what you'd get at a nice restaurant. So make your own dressing and never buy the bottled stuff... it's so worth it.
I also add fresh cooked bacon (NEVER bacon bits) and capers.
The first chicken Caesar salad I ever had was, I believe, at Metro Grill during the summer of 2006. I was not (and still am not) much of a salad fan, but that was the salad that made me say "maybe I can learn to like salad."
Hint - it existed long before they claim it did. I have found similar recipes for dressing going back hundreds of years.
Also what's with the lazy restauranteurs allowing their employees to serve lettuce without even chopping it? That's a deal breaker for me, if I am expected to chop the lettuce myself I'm ordering tap water only and no food and never ever EVER going back lol.
I'm curious about these similar dressing recipes as I've found nothing similar enough to call them the same thing.
I've seen plenty of anchovy/mustard/aioli dressings that one might call predecessors, but they lack the egg yolks, parmigiano reggiano and Worcestershire sauce, so they would not taste like Caesar salad dressing.
This reminds me of a surprisingly good buffet lunch at a tourist spot in New Zealand's south island where the chef would prepare the Caesar salad right in front of you. You could pick and choose your ingredients, which was nice, but the really unique approach was that the chef mixed the salad in a "bowl" cut into a wheel of Parmesan cheese. This thoroughly coated every leaf with cheesy goodness. Best salad I've ever had in my life!
It casts the same spell as pizza. You'd have a hard time finding someone who doesn't really enjoy it. It even works on people who don't generally like salads.
That's an incredibly American take IMO. Pizza is loved worldwide... Caesar salad?! Where are the famous Caesar salad global chains? I don't think it's much of a thing in Europe, at least.
It is precisely a salad for people who don't generally eat salads.
The big uncut leaves are suited for slow nibbling of token amounts of salad.
Croutons are recognizable from a distance as a non vegetable ingredient, making it attractive to someone who'd rather not eat vegetables at all. To me they're just stale bread.
Some years ago tried Caesar salad many
times and settled on the recipe below.
The Caesar dressing is in the family of
oil and vinegar mixtures with flavorings
and emulsifiers.
The salad also has croutons (pieces of
toast flavored with some of the dressing)
and grated hard, dry cheese, Parmesan or
Pecorino Romano (and I prefer the second).
The lettuce is Romaine. If separate the
leaves, rinse them, shake dry, wrap in
some clean kitchen towels, refrigerate for
several hours, then the lettuce usually
will be crisp, which is desirable. Just
before combining all the ingredients to
make the actual salad, tear the leaves
into irregular pieces.
For the egg, boil it the 10 seconds not to
cook the egg but to sterilize the
outside before cracking the egg.
=====
Note:
This oil/vinegar mixture has close to the
usual (by volume) 3 parts of the oil to 1
part of vinegar. For a brighter flavor,
might use more vinegar, maybe as high as a
ratio of 3 to 2.
And the other measurements here are also
subject to change.
One issue is, some of the ingredients,
e.g., basil, oregano, parsley, fresh
versus dried, can vary in flavor by a lot.
Some garlic is mild and some very strong.
And the flavors of the red wine vinegar
and olive oil vary.
So, the results tend to vary, between two
cooks a lot and even between two trials by
one cook.
So for each trial, it's good to have good
notes on what did so that can repeat the
trial if it was good or adjust the trial
if it was not.
So, the notes here are from some trials
that seemed good but are subject to
adjustment.
=====
Abbreviations (common in the US)
T -- tablespoon
t -- teaspoon
C -- cup
=====
Good to have three bowls, 1 quart plastic
or stainless, 5 quart stainless, ~3 quart
wooden.
The wooden bowl is for style and the
serving, and the large volume of the 5
quart bowl is to ease tossing the
croutons and lettuce to coat them with the
Caesar dressing.
=====
Caesar Dressing.
In a one quart bowl, combine
1 egg boiled 10 seconds
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2/3 C red wine vinegar (what you pay
for wine vinegar can vary
significantly)
1 1/2 T finely minced garlic
3 T Dijon mustard (what you pay for
the mustard can vary significantly)
1/2 T basil (fresh or dried)
1/2 T oregano (fresh or dried)
2 T parsley (fresh or dried)
1/2 t salt
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
One 2 ounce can flat anchovies packed
in oil, minced, with the oil
2 C olive oil (what you pay for olive
oil can vary significantly)
Combine all but the olive oil. Whip to
start the emulsification of the oil and
vinegar with the egg and mustard
emulsifiers.
Add olive oil slowly with whipping. Seek
good emulsification of the oil with the
vinegar and the rest.
Makes about 3 C.
=====
Grated Cheese.
Grate some solid Parmesan or Pecorino
Romano hard, dry cheese to yield ~1 C of
grated cheese.
=====
Toast for Croutons.
Toast four slices of bread (might use some
bread other than US lunch box white
bread). Stack the four slices and cut in
two parallel cuts, rotate 90 degrees and
repeat so cut each slice of toast into 9
pieces.
=====
Dress the Lettuce.
In 5 quart stainless steel bowl, tear
three Romaine hearts into irregular
pieces.
Add 3/4 C of the dressing (right, will
have plenty of dressing left over for more
salads).
Toss.
Goal is to flavor the lettuce with the
dressing but still keep the lettuce crisp,
not wet or 'soggy'; so try to use the
least dressing for the needed flavor.
Notes:
A nice way to present and serve is with a
stylish wooden salad bowl full of the
salad with croutons and grated cheese on
top.
Thus the stylish wooden bowl is too small
for tossing; use the 5 quart bowl for
tossing and the wooden bowl for presenting
and serving.
For the serving, might also use some
stylish wooden salad tongs or f...
The egg is not cooked to sterilize the outside, it is a coddled egg, part cooked outside the shell historically. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coddled_egg These emulsify differently from raw egg.
I make a great Caesar and the secret is a lot of anchovy. Even people who claim to hate anchovies love it and are surprised when I tell them how much I add.
> surprisingly, it doesn’t involve a certain Roman emperor.
Not surprising at all. Modern historians regard Augustus as the first emperor, whereas Julius Caesar is considered the last dictator of the Roman Republic.
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I also add fresh cooked bacon (NEVER bacon bits) and capers.
Also what's with the lazy restauranteurs allowing their employees to serve lettuce without even chopping it? That's a deal breaker for me, if I am expected to chop the lettuce myself I'm ordering tap water only and no food and never ever EVER going back lol.
I've seen plenty of anchovy/mustard/aioli dressings that one might call predecessors, but they lack the egg yolks, parmigiano reggiano and Worcestershire sauce, so they would not taste like Caesar salad dressing.
Please share.
The big uncut leaves are suited for slow nibbling of token amounts of salad.
Croutons are recognizable from a distance as a non vegetable ingredient, making it attractive to someone who'd rather not eat vegetables at all. To me they're just stale bread.
The Caesar dressing is in the family of oil and vinegar mixtures with flavorings and emulsifiers.
The salad also has croutons (pieces of toast flavored with some of the dressing) and grated hard, dry cheese, Parmesan or Pecorino Romano (and I prefer the second).
The lettuce is Romaine. If separate the leaves, rinse them, shake dry, wrap in some clean kitchen towels, refrigerate for several hours, then the lettuce usually will be crisp, which is desirable. Just before combining all the ingredients to make the actual salad, tear the leaves into irregular pieces.
For the egg, boil it the 10 seconds not to cook the egg but to sterilize the outside before cracking the egg.
=====
Note:
This oil/vinegar mixture has close to the usual (by volume) 3 parts of the oil to 1 part of vinegar. For a brighter flavor, might use more vinegar, maybe as high as a ratio of 3 to 2.
And the other measurements here are also subject to change.
One issue is, some of the ingredients, e.g., basil, oregano, parsley, fresh versus dried, can vary in flavor by a lot. Some garlic is mild and some very strong. And the flavors of the red wine vinegar and olive oil vary.
So, the results tend to vary, between two cooks a lot and even between two trials by one cook.
So for each trial, it's good to have good notes on what did so that can repeat the trial if it was good or adjust the trial if it was not.
So, the notes here are from some trials that seemed good but are subject to adjustment.
=====
Abbreviations (common in the US)
=====Good to have three bowls, 1 quart plastic or stainless, 5 quart stainless, ~3 quart wooden.
The wooden bowl is for style and the serving, and the large volume of the 5 quart bowl is to ease tossing the croutons and lettuce to coat them with the Caesar dressing.
=====
Caesar Dressing.
In a one quart bowl, combine
Combine all but the olive oil. Whip to start the emulsification of the oil and vinegar with the egg and mustard emulsifiers.Add olive oil slowly with whipping. Seek good emulsification of the oil with the vinegar and the rest.
Makes about 3 C.
=====
Grated Cheese.
Grate some solid Parmesan or Pecorino Romano hard, dry cheese to yield ~1 C of grated cheese.
=====
Toast for Croutons.
Toast four slices of bread (might use some bread other than US lunch box white bread). Stack the four slices and cut in two parallel cuts, rotate 90 degrees and repeat so cut each slice of toast into 9 pieces.
=====
Dress the Lettuce.
In 5 quart stainless steel bowl, tear three Romaine hearts into irregular pieces.
Add 3/4 C of the dressing (right, will have plenty of dressing left over for more salads).
Toss.
Goal is to flavor the lettuce with the dressing but still keep the lettuce crisp, not wet or 'soggy'; so try to use the least dressing for the needed flavor.
Notes:
A nice way to present and serve is with a stylish wooden salad bowl full of the salad with croutons and grated cheese on top.
Thus the stylish wooden bowl is too small for tossing; use the 5 quart bowl for tossing and the wooden bowl for presenting and serving.
For the serving, might also use some stylish wooden salad tongs or f...
That's not at all surprising.
Not surprising at all. Modern historians regard Augustus as the first emperor, whereas Julius Caesar is considered the last dictator of the Roman Republic.