[boar_d_laze]

CAESAR SALAD
4 to 6 appetizer portions, or 1 - 2 meal portions

Ingredients:
1 medium or large head Romaine lettuce
2 cloves garlic, minced and divided
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp anchovy paste (or, two anchovy fillets, minced)
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided
3 or 4 slices (preferably) sourdough (or French) bread
2 lemon halves
1 fresh egg (room temp or coddled)
1/2 cup grated good Parmesan cheese, divided
Fresh, coarsely ground black pepper – to taste.
(Optional) 2 or 3 Parmesan curls (cut with a vegetable peeler) per guest
(Optional) 1 can of anchovy fillets in (preferably olive) oil, or a few salted anchovies, (boned if necessary) and soaked in extra virgin olive oil


Technique:
Note that the dressing will be finished and the salad tossed and served at the table. Do whatever is necessary to make it easy for yourself and to make a good show.

Grab the head of lettuce around the middle with one hand, and with the other grab the first, top inch of soft, dark green leaves. Twist and tear the top off. It neither tastes nor looks good. Discard. Break the romaine leafs off from the base. Tear the leaves, by hand only, into large bite size pieces. Wash and dry them thoroughly. When they are dry, place them in a salad bowl. The lettuce should not be chilled.

Mince the garlic cloves very fine, and place 1-1/2 (about) in a small mixing bowl. Reserve the minced half clove. Add the mustard, the anchovy paste (or minced anchovies), the Worcestershire and the olive oil. Do not mix. Allow to stand for at least five minutes and up to an hour.

Remove the remaining anchovy fillets (if using), and arrange them on a plate in such a way that guests may easily help themselves when the plate is passed.

Meanwhile, prepare the croutons by tearing the bread into bite size croutons. Heat 1/3 cup olive oil to frying temperature in a large skillet or saute pan over medium-high heat. Put the bread in the oil, and start tossing immediately so the pieces are evenly coated in the oil. Continue tossing the bread as it toasts/fries in the pan. So it toasts evenly. When the bread is a light gold, add the reserved garlic and continue tossing. Continue tossing until the bread is GBD, but do not, under any circumstances, allow the garlic to burn. Remove from the pan, and drain briefly on a paper towel. Taste. They’re wonderful. You earned it. Some croutons will be crisp all the way through, while some will still be a bit chewy. Add the croutons to the lettuce while still warm.

Bring the lettuce to the table along with the remaining ingredients.

At the table, mix the dressing with a fork until the mustard is well blended. Scatter a few tablespoons of cheese on the lettuce. Add 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese to the dressing, and reserve the remaining cheese to pass among the guests later. Squeeze the lemon juice from half a lemon into the mixing bowl, then break the egg into the mixing bowl. Mix very well with the fork. Dip the top of the handle of the fork into dressing, and taste. Adjust for lemon (should be very lemony).

Pour the dressing over the lettuce and croutons and toss. Grind black pepper over the salad in an amount consistent with the guest who least likes pepper. Plate the salad, and garnish with Parmesan curls if using. Pass the plates to the guests. Allow the guests to pass the black pepper, the extra cheese, and the anchovies.

Note 1:
Wherever Caesar Salad originated, this is not the “original Caesar Salad as made at Caesar Cardini’s.” This is a “classic” Caesar Salad as became popular in Southern California in the early fifties and then through the U.S. This particular version is an homage and fairly faithful to the salad as it was made at Nickodell’s Restaurant on the corner of Melrose and Gower, next to Paramount and a few other studios. Nickodell’s was very popular with a lot of Hollywood from the mid fifties and into the eighties when it was sold for real estate to Paramount. This version is much better than anything Cardini dreamed. Chop me no teakettles from “original.” I mean it. The fresh croutons as specified here make the salad even better than Nickodell’s.

Note 2:
Caesar Salad dressing is not white, it is not light. It is lemony, cheesy, salty, tan and rich. If it is not lemony, cheesy, salty, tan and rich it is not Caesar Salad dressing.

Note 3:
In this version, cheese is added to the dressing and forms part of the emulsion. This dressing will cling to the leaves better than any other dressing you’ve tried. Guaranteed.

Note 4:
Caesar Salad is not made with whole romaine leaves so the diner is forced to use her knife. That is a Ramsay perversion, I have no idea why he does it. Caesar Salad contains romaine lettuce only. If other lettuce is used, the salad is not a Caesar Salad, but something else with Caesar Salad dressing. You may call it what you will. “Great Caesar’s Ghost” is fine by me.

Note 5:
Anchovies are always a concern. People who, under no circumstances, eat anchovies will not have any problem with the anchovy paste in the dressing – as long as you don’t tell them until they ask for the recipe. However, you may substitute a tsp of kosher salt for the anchovies at the loss of some flavor.

Note 6:
Whether coddled or just plain raw, the egg for this salad dressing is substantially raw. Reasonably fresh eggs are not a danger to people outside of the “four ‘very’ categories.” The four “verys” are: The very young, the very old, the very sick, and the otherwise very susceptible (allergies, for instance). The egg may be omitted, but the salad is much poorer for it. There is no substitute.

[teamfat]

What?? A Ceasar salad without sundried tomatoes, slow-roasted goat cheese curds and balsamic braised chicken? Blasphemy!

Thanks for the recipe, it reminded me how simple this salad can be, it has been a while since I've made it true to style. RealSoonNow. We may be having guests over sunday night...


A couple of notes from my perspective. When BDL says 'tear the bread' that is exactly what he means. Cutting it with a knife will leave you with flat, uniform, boring edges on the croutons. After bouncing the bread bits around in your fry pan, you want them to be like fingerprints and snowflakes - no two alike.

There have been times I've used a teaspoon or so of mashed capers instead of anchovies. Hard to believe, but there are times when there are no anchovies to be found in my pantry. Life happens. And in my opinion, capers are just vegetarian anchovies, nothing but carriers for the salt and oil

And a request for clarification. At one point the recipe as written says:

Scatter a few tablespoons of cheese on the lettuce. Add 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

I'm assuming you meant to add the 1/4 cup to the dressing, and not put some cheese on the lettuce, then put some more cheese on it. Not that there's anything wrong with that, mind you!

mjb.

[boar_d_laze]

Team,

Edited and corrected the dangling Parmesan. Nice catch. Thanks. I've never thought of using capers. Great idea. Thanks again.

BDL

[teamfat]

Capers are not one of the classic caesar ingredients, so I never thought of using them. Until that one time a few years back we were counting down the minutes before the guests were due to arrive, and I swore I had some anchovies on hand. But capers do play well with lemon, so in they went as a last minute substitute. It worked out well.

I'm still wanting to find a recipe in one of my old magazines for shrimp with a sauce of capers, anchovies, lemon and butter, can't remember the herbs. I made it once, my wife didn't care for it all, I thought it was great. It was a sweet, pungent, tangy concoction, sort of an Italian curry.

I'll be quiet now, don't want to sidetrack another discussion.

mjb.

[siduri]

looks really good, bdl. No grilled chicken. Phew.

I wanted to know a detail. In most of the american cookbooks (but no doubt reflecting the french mentality?) lettuce is always torn by hand rather than cut. Heaven forfend if you cut it with a knife. When i came to italy, it was ALWAYS cut, at home and in restaurants. I always felt that tearing lettuce bruises the leaves, and that cutting it, provided you eat it right away, ruins the leaves less.
Curious what your position on this is. Why is it torn. I can see the knife, esp a non stainless knife, might (maybe?) makew the leaves brown at the edge - though not sure of this - but not if you're eating it in a half an hour.

oh, and a french guy i knew, not a snob but grew up in a very snobby and intellectual world, was sent to study in england and had to learn to "roll the lettuce" on his fork because the leaves were whole and it was anathema to cut them. Not sure what relevance this has, but it does seem to be a bit fetishistic.

[KYHeirloomer]

FWIW, the way I was taught is similar to BDL's, but with several differences. Only two of them are significant:

The most important, I think, is that Ceasar is always made in a wooden bowl, and the garlic is rubbed over the surface of the bowl, rather than chopped in.

My feeling is that was part of the show, and I rarely bother with it.

The other significant difference is in the egg. I was taught to use only the yolk. Does it make a difference? Probably not, and I no longer bother separating them.

Implied by BDL, but not stated implicitly, is the fact that anchovies as a condiment are used as a salt element in foods, not as a fish element.

[shel]

I learned to make Caeser salad by using a wooden bowl and rubbing the garlic over the surface. The garlic flavor is then quite a bit more subtle, something that I often prefer. However, there are a few other ways to make the garlic flavor more subtle, and using the garlic rubbed wooden bowl is probably as much showmanship as true culinary technique. Many a good Caeser has been ruined by too much garlic, IMO.

I also learned to use only the yolk, but many a great Caesar has been made using the whole egg, and over the last dozen or so years I've been using whole eggs. I prefer a raw egg, but coddled is also acceptable, especially when the salad is being made for guests.

Worcestershire sauce contains anchovies, and some may say that using both the sauce and anchovies is a bit of overkill, but that's a personal taste. I prefer some Worcestershire sauce and either no anchovies or maybe only one or a half of one, but lately I've not been using the Worcestershire sauce, and just using anchovies. If using oil cured anchovies, removing the excess oil from the filets seems to reduce the anchovy influence in the salad. Salt packed anchovies work very well in this salad.

Generally I prefer to use whole, inside leaves of the romaine (the hearts), providing that they are not bitter, as sometimes can be the case. Cutting the larger leaves is my preference, and removing the tops of the outer leaves, if used, is also a preference.

scb

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer

FWIW, the way I was taught is similar to BDL's, but with several differences. Only two of them are significant:

The most important, I think, is that Ceasar is always made in a wooden bowl, and the garlic is rubbed over the surface of the bowl, rather than chopped in.

My feeling is that was part of the show, and I rarely bother with it.

The other significant difference is in the egg. I was taught to use only the yolk. Does it make a difference? Probably not, and I no longer bother separating them.

Implied by BDL, but not stated implicitly, is the fact that anchovies as a condiment are used as a salt element in foods, not as a fish element.

[boar_d_laze]

Originally Posted by siduri

looks really good, bdl. No grilled chicken. Phew.

I wanted to know a detail. In most of the american cookbooks (but no doubt reflecting the french mentality?) lettuce is always torn by hand rather than cut. Heaven forfend if you cut it with a knife. When i came to italy, it was ALWAYS cut, at home and in restaurants. I always felt that tearing lettuce bruises the leaves, and that cutting it, provided you eat it right away, ruins the leaves less.
Curious what your position on this is. Why is it torn. I can see the knife, esp a non stainless knife, might (maybe?) makew the leaves brown at the edge - though not sure of this - but not if you're eating it in a half an hour.

oh, and a french guy i knew, not a snob but grew up in a very snobby and intellectual world, was sent to study in england and had to learn to "roll the lettuce" on his fork because the leaves were whole and it was anathema to cut them. Not sure what relevance this has, but it does seem to be a bit fetishistic.

Have you ever noticed that you can cut a lot more onions with a very sharp knife without crying, then with a dull one? All but the sharpest knives, crush rather than cut cleanly through the fibers. You're crushing the fibers and spreading the volatile oils into the atmosphere, rather than keeping them with the food, where they belong. Same thing with lettuce. Torn lettuce tastes (and looks) better. The discoloration (oxidation) results from crushing, and is not a function of carbon vs. stainless knives.

BDL

[DC Sunshine]

Originally Posted by boar_d_laze

Have you ever noticed that you can cut a lot more onions with a very sharp knife without crying, then with a dull one? All but the sharpest knives, crush rather than cut cleanly through the fibers. You're crushing the fibers and spreading the volatile oils into the atmosphere, rather than keeping them with the food, where they belong. Same thing with lettuce. Torn lettuce tastes (and looks) better. The discoloration (oxidation) results from crushing, and is not a function of carbon vs. stainless knives.

BDL

What about Ceramic blades - will they have the same effect on the lettuce?

Love the recipe - love the salad. I prefer my egg raw, and love the anchovy & parmesan combination. Haven't had a good one in a long time, last one I had was obviously not freshly made and on its last legs - blecch. Not going back there.

[boar_d_laze]

Originally Posted by DC Sunshine

What about Ceramic blades - will they have the same effect on the lettuce?

Yes, unless incredibly sharp.

Love the recipe - love the salad. I prefer my egg raw, and love the anchovy & parmesan combination. Haven't had a good one in a long time, last one I had was obviously not freshly made and on its last legs - blecch. Not going back there.

Don't blame you. It's hard to get a real Caesar Salad anymore, too "old timey." Everyone's done variations. At best they replace the beauty of the original with something almost as good; but, not to put too fine a point on it, usually they suck. At least now you can do your own.

BDL

[boar_d_laze]

Originally Posted by KYHeirloomer

FWIW, the way I was taught is similar to BDL's, but with several differences. Only two of them are significant:

The most important, I think, is that Ceasar is always made in a wooden bowl, and the garlic is rubbed over the surface of the bowl, rather than chopped in.

My feeling is that was part of the show, and I rarely bother with it.

It was a way of using garlic without using it. The aromatic oils left on the bowl, scented the salad but added none of the sharpness of raw garlic. At the time the salad first became popular a significant portion of Americans were very reticent about garlic. Fortunately, we're past that because garlic. The charm of this salad is it's powerful and elemental nature. Nothing subtle about it.

The other significant difference is in the egg. I was taught to use only the yolk. Does it make a difference? Probably not, and I no longer bother separating them.

Implied by BDL, but not stated implicitly, is the fact that anchovies as a condiment are used as a salt element in foods, not as a fish element.

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

You can use salt instead of minced anchovies or anchovy paste -- but it will lack the depth. As I wrote in the recipe, people who don't like anchovies won't notice them in the dressing if you don't tell them. However, you'll note their absence.

Perhaps the thing that makes this particular recipe so special is mixing part of the parmesan in with the dressing. The dressing clings like nobody's business and its texture is special.

BDL

[teamfat]

Originally Posted by DC Sunshine

What about Ceramic blades - will they have the same effect on the lettuce?

For the most part, yes. The lettuce leaf is composed of a mesh or matrix of individual lettuce leaf cells, so to speak. Tearing the leaf tends to seperate it along the cell boundries, leaving them intact. Using a knife ignores the cell boundries and cuts or crushes with reckless abandon along whatever path the cook steers the edge. A duller knife will crush a wider swath, lots of collateral damage to neighboring cells, a sharper knife will limit cell wall ruptures.

If you are making a salad to be eaten right away, the oxidation and subsequent brown discoloration of the broken cell edges will not be evident, tear or cut, whatever you prefer. As I may have mentioned once or twice, maybe 30 years or so ago I was a sandwich and salad guy at a restaurant here in Salt Lake. If I carefully hand tore each and every lettuce leaf into bite sized pieces, it would have taken me 36 hours to prepare 24 hours worth of salad. Not a profitable choice. I cut, I cut a lot. I used a knife with a *good* edge. Wish I still had that blade, drat. A spray bottle of water with a few teaspoons or so of lemon juice mixed in, then spritzed over the lettuce goes a long way to keep the brown edges of knife-hacked lettuce at bay.

mjb.

[DC Sunshine]

Teamfat,
Thank you for that info. As I don't cook as a profession, I do tend to make salads at last minute at home, especially those with lettuce - that gets added to whatever other ingredients, tossed, dressed, on the table.

Tearing, apart from anything else, is lots more fun. But in a professional kitchen I can see that cutting would be more time productive.

I sharpen my knives once a week, as I use lots of onion and garlic, which for whatever reason seem to blunt the edge. They're not the world's best knives, but they do the job - if they are sharp.

[teamfat]

Speaking on a basic, universal type level, the cell structure of lettuce is really not much different than the structure of anything that has ever lived. The same sort of things come into play when slicing an onion, for example. The duller the knife, the more you'll cry due to more onion cells getting bludgeoned and releasing their sulfuric defense aromas. If you keep poking that steak on the grill with a fork, or cutting a wee slit to check for doneness, you're going to lose some flavor and moisture by rupturing some of the cellular structure.

Gee, kind of straying off the original topic here. I'm planning on smoking some spares and a beef chuck sunday, maybe I'll fix a real caesar salad to go with it. Not exactly a traditional barbecue side, but ....

mjb.

[boar_d_laze]

Originally Posted by DC Sunshine

I sharpen my knives once a week, as I use lots of onion and garlic, which for whatever reason seem to blunt the edge. They're not the world's best knives, but they do the job - if they are sharp.

DC,

What kind of knife (knives)? How do you sharpen? A home cook shouldn't need to sharpen once a week -- unless by sharpening you mean steeling -- which probably is "honing" and "roughing up," more than sharpening. From your description, I'm guessing your knives are very dull, but the steel or pull through sharpener you use puts just enough tooth on them to do the job for a few onions. Before committing myself to the conclusion, I'd like to hear more from you about your knives.

Look at it this way: I'm a home cook now, enough of a knife guy to prefer my knives incredibly sharp, cook often, and only sharpen my primary knives every four to six weeks. While I own good knives, they don't 'hold an edge" for a particularly long time by today's standards. You should not have to sharpen four times as frequently. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.

BDL