Cookbook:Caesar Salad

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Cookbook | Recipes | California cuisine | Salad

The Caesar salad is a traditional salad served in American restaurants, often prepared tableside. It is referred to by some as the "king" of salads.

Its origin is largely credited to Italian immigrant Caesar Cardini, a restaurateur and chef in Tijuana, Baja California del Norte, Mexico. Cardini reportedly tossed the first such salad tableside at his restaurant on July 4, 1924.

[edit] Ingredients:

1 small head of Romaine lettuce, torn into small bits
Garlic croutons
3 large cloves of Garlic
1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon of Lemon juice
1/4 cup Olive oil
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1 Egg yolk

[edit] Procedure

Combine all ingredients, except for lettuce and croutons, in a blender. Blend to an even consistency. Combine lettuce and croutons in a large clean salad bowl. Add bacon bits if desired. Add dressing and mix well. Add pepper to taste.

[edit] Caesar's Salad

Serves 8

[edit] Ingredients

[edit] Dressing

2 dashes of Worcestershire sauce

large pinches of salt and fresh ground pepper
2/3 cup of olive oil
2 tablespoons of wine vinegar
Juice of 3 lemons
2 raw eggs

[edit] Salad and garnish

2 large heads of Romaine lettuce (chilled, dry, crisp)
2 cup of garlic croutons
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

[edit] Procedure

[edit] Dressing

Start with boiling eggs for one minute to coddle. Open eggs and add to mixing bowl. Whisk alone until uniform and bubbly (optional to add hot water to slightly cook more). Whisk in Worcestershire sauce, vinegar, lemon juice. Slowly pour in olive oil and whisk thoroughly until emulsified. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

[edit] Service

(make 4 servings; hold four in reserve) In another mixing bowl holding one of the two heads of lettuce, pour in enough dressing to coat all leaves and mix gently. Reserve rest of dressing for second head of lettuce. Plate the dressing-coated lettuce. Add half the croutons and grated parmesan.

Rosa Cardini describes her father's original recipe

Julia Child, "From Julia's Kitchen." Julia Child asked Caesar Cardini's daughter, Rosa, for the recipe.

On our television show I didn't have time to do the croutons Caesar's way, and you may want to follow Rosa's directions for them: cut homemade type unsweetened white bread into half-inch dice and dry out in the oven, basting them as they brown with olive oil in which you have steeped fresh crushed garlic for several days. Except for the croutons, the following recipe duplicates Rosa Cardini's instructions for her father's salad, as she repeated them to me.

2 large crisp heads romaine lettuce
2 large cloves garlic and a garlic press
Salt
3 cups best-quality olive oil
2 cups best-quality plain unseasoned toasted croutons
1 lemon
2 eggs
1/2 cup (1 ounce) genuine imported real Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
Peppercorns in a grinder
Worcestershire sauce

The romaine. You want 6 to 8 whole unblemished leaves of romaine, between 3 and 7 inches long, per person. Strip the leaves carefully from the stalks, refrigerate rejects in a plastic bag and reserve for another salad. Wash your Caesar leaves gently, to keep them from breaking, shake dry, roll loosely in clean towels. Refrigerate until serving time.

The croutons. Purée the garlic into a small heavy bowl, and mash to a paste with a pestle or spoon, adding 1/4 teaspoon salt and dribbling in 3 tablespoons of the oil. Strain into a medium-sized frying pan and heat to just warm, add the croutons, toss for about a minute over moderate heat and turn into a nice serving bowl.

Other preliminaries. Shortly before serving, squeeze the lemon into a pitcher, boil the eggs exactly 1 minute, grate the cheese into another nice little bowl, and arrange all of these on a tray along with the rest of the olive oil, the croutons, pepper grinder, salt, and Worcestershire. Have large dinner plates chilled, arrange the romaine in the largest salad bowl you can find, and you are ready to go.

Mixing the salad. Prepare to use large rather slow and dramatic gestures for everything you do, as though you were Caesar himself. First pour 4 tablespoons of oil over the romaine and give the leaves 2 rolling tosses — hold salad fork in one hand, spoon in the other, and scoop under the leaves at each side of the bowl, bringing the implements around the edge to meet each other opposite you, then scoop them up toward you in a slow roll, bringing the salad leaves over upon themselves like a large wave breaking toward you; this is to prevent them from bruising as you season them. Sprinkle on 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 8 grinds of pepper, 2 more spoonfuls of oil, and give another toss. Pour on the lemon juice, 6 drops of Worcestershire, and break in the eggs. Toss twice, sprinkle on the cheese. Toss once, then sprinkle on the croutons and give 2 final tosses.

Serving. Arrange the salad rapidly but stylishly leaf by leaf on each large plate, stems facing outward, and a sprinkling of croutons at the side. Guests may eat the salad with their fingers, in the approved and original Caesar manner, or may use knives and forks — which they will need anyway for the croutons.