Caesar salad

A Caesar salad (also spelled Cesar and Cesare) is a green salad of romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with lemon juice (or lime juice), olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, anchovies, garlic, Dijon mustard, Parmesan cheese, and black pepper.

In its original form, this salad was prepared and served tableside.

History

The salad's creation is generally attributed to the restaurateur Caesar Cardini, an Italian immigrant who operated restaurants in Mexico and the United States. His daughter Rosa recounted that her father invented the salad at his Prohibition-era restaurant in Tijuana, Mexico when a Fourth of July rush in 1924 depleted the kitchen's supplies. (Cardini lived in San Diego but ran the family restaurant in Tijuana to attract American customers seeking to circumvent the restrictions of the Prohibition.) Cardini made do with what he had, adding the dramatic flair of the table-side tossing "by the chef." A number of Cardini's staff have said that they invented the dish.In , D. Grant quotes Aviator's salad and more (2007)


Julia Child said that she had eaten a Caesar salad at Cardini's restaurant when she was a child in the 1920s. In 1946, the newspaper columnist Dorothy Kilgallen wrote of a Caesar containing anchovies, differing from Cardini's version:

The big food rage in Hollywood—the Caesar salad—will be introduced to New Yorkers by Gilmore's Steak House. It's an intricate concoction that takes ages to prepare and contains (zowie!) lots of garlic, raw or slightly coddled eggs, croutons, romaine, anchovies, parmeasan 'sic''cheese, olive oil, vinegar and plenty of black pepper.

In the 1970s, Cardini's daughter said that the original recipe included whole lettuce leaves, which were meant to be lifted by the stem and eaten with the fingers; coddled eggs; and garlic infused olive oil. Everyone makes the dressing a little differently and anchovy paste is sometimes added with Worcestershire sauce, dry mustard and garlic to enhance the flavor of the olive oil. Several sources have testified that the original recipe used only Worcestershire sauce without any anchovies, which Cardini considered too bold in flavor.

Although the original recipe does not contain anchovies, modern recipes typically include anchovies as a key ingredient, which frequently is emulsified in bottled versions. Bottled Caesar dressings are now produced and marketed by many companies.

The trademark brands "Cardini's", "Caesar Cardini's" and "The Original Caesar Dressing" are all claimed to date to February 1950, although they were only registered decades later, and more than a dozen varieties of bottled ''Cardini's'' dressing are available today, with various ingredients.

As the salad moved North to the U.S, a key ingredient changed within the recipe. Lemon juice is commonly used, despite the original Caesar salad opting for lime.

Common ingredients

Common ingredients in many recipes:
:* romaine or cos lettuce
:* olive oil
:* crushed garlic
:* salt
:* Dijon mustard
:* black pepper
:* lemon juice
:* Worcestershire sauce
:* anchovies
:* raw or coddled eggs
:* grated Parmesan cheese
:* croutons

Variations include varying the leaf, adding meat such as grilled chicken or bacon, or omitting ingredients such as anchovies and eggs.

Vegan versions may substitute capers for anchovies, and replace eggs with tahini.

Health concerns

There is inherent risk of infection by salmonella bacteria occasionally found in raw egg from cracked or improperly handled eggshells where the protective cuticle is damaged. Updated recipes recommend eggs that are briefly heated to 160 degrees or pasteurized eggs. Some variations of the dressing may use other substitutions for egg.

See also

* List of salads

References

Bibliography

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Further reading

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External links

History of salads

{{Salads

1924 in Mexico
California culture
Cuisine of the Western United States
Mexican cuisine
Salad dressings
Vegetable dishes
American salads