Not wrong, it’s just not a true ceasar salad. A true ceasar has just 7 ingredients - romaine, garlic, parmesan, eggs, Worcestershire sauce, croutons, and lemon juice (and salt and pepper, of course, but they don’t really count as ingredients).
Adding the anchovies is just a common variation - like chicken ceasar salad. Nothing wrong with it.
Cite, please?
I realize the anchovy was a later addition to the salad but every recipe I’ve looked up in the last 30 minutes makes reference to anchovy being common in the salad today. Not like chicken.
#1[/COLOR]](Classic Caesar Salad - The Reluctant Gourmet](http://www.culinaryarts.com/Recipes/recipefiles/Caesar.htm#3](http://fp.enter.net/~rburk/salads/caesarsalad/almostca.txt#4](http://fp.enter.net/~rburk/salads/caesarsalad/brucesfa.txt#5](http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/17/Caesar_Salad2145.shtml[COLOR=Navy).
Just curious. 
Your first four links are broken.
I’ve never in my life seen an anchovy served in a Casesar salad. And I order a LOT of Caesar salads; it’s one of my bellweather orders to test a restaurant. However, a true Caesar dressing has anchovy paste in it.
And bacon bits. Maybe it’s a Canadian thing, but a proper Caesar salad has bacon bits.
And the plate should be chilled.
Mmmmm. Caesar salad… (drooling)
Anchovies? I’ve never heard of anchovies on a Caesar (which I adore!)! Bacon bits, yes. But not anchovies!
I have no comment on the Ceasar salad since I can’t stand Ceasar dressing, but you wondered why they put the ranch on there.
The reason is because everyone seems to think that everyone wants ranch all the time.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve ordered salad and asked for italian or french and gotten ranch.
I usually ask for either creamy garlic or creamy italian, which is never at a place and the response is, “well we have ranch” as if that was a worthwhile substitute.
(See many earlier rants against ranch dressing)
Yeah, I too find it surprising how many people have never heard of anchovy on Caesar Salad. Most of the recipes for plain ol’ Caesar Salad I found on Epicurious.com also contain anchovy filets. From recipes as far back as 1956 to as recent as 1994, anchovies are de rigueur.
Now, bacon bits? That’s a travesty on a Caesar.
I’m in the camp that thought anchovies were part of the classic Caesar. That’s the way it usually comes in New York restaurants, but hey, I’m willing to accept that it’s a regional thing.
What confuses me, though, is what’s in Caesar dressiing. I’m a raw egg gal myself – but I understand not everyone likes to eat/can eat raw eggs. I’ve always avoided Caesars that aren’t dressed with raw egg.
Anyway, this is how I make a Caesar salad:
romaine lettuce
croutons toasted with garlic and olive oil
raw egg (although I would accept coddled if I had to)
grated Parm
Worcestershire sauce
anchovies or anchovy paste
salt and pepper
So when everything gets tossed, it’s the egg, Worcestershire, cheese, anchovies, and garllic and oil flavor from the croutons that make the dressing. What comes in the Caesar dressing that’s in a bottle?
Xanthan gum, propylene glycol alginate, potassium sorbate and (shudders) sodium benzoate.
[quote]
As printed on the back of the Caesar’s Bar business card…
[ul]1 dash of Worcestershire sauce
[li]1 pinch of salt and pepper[/li][li]1/3 cup of grapeseed oil (tasteless) or Extra Virgin Olive oil[/li][li]1-2 tablespoons of Vinegar[/li][li]Juice of 1 1/2 Lemons[/li][li]1 raw Egg[/li][li]3 medium heads of Romaine lettuce (chilled, dry, crisp)[/li][li]1 cup of Croutons[/li][li]grated Parmesan cheese[/ul][/li][/quote]
No anchovies.
Bacon bits?? That’s just WACK.
I find myself reassured by all of these responses, yet cheated by my so-far complete deprivation of coddled egg and anchovies. 
As for sending the offending “salad” back . . . well, this just really isn’t the kind of place where anybody bothers to send food back unless there’s a bug in it or something. And I didn’t feel like making a big stink.
This is why we do our pleasure dining in other municipalities. 
I suspect that if I knew, I would never eat one again. :eek:
“Caesar’s Bar” business card? From where?
As I already said, Caesar Cardini didn’t but the nasty fish parts in his salad. BUT, since then it has become a commonly accepted part of the salad. PROVE ME WRONG. I already gave multiple cites to support my point. Where are yours? And your local Hardee’s salad bar doesn’t count. oooh, that was kinda nasty. OK. Tell me what CITE you can offer, that will state that anchovy is not and never is part of this salad. Hmmm?
Well, it’s certainly not NEVER part of the salad, as it is now an accepted variation for those who want even more shudder fish taste, but the snopes link given a while back does support the “no fish in the original recipe” theory. So, since that was the first caesar, it was the original, so an original caesar salad, or one trying to be as close to it as possible, does not have anchovies. Thank God, too, ro I would never eat them (if I ever get it at a restaurant, I ask if they use anchovies.) And jsut because it is commonly accepted doesn’t mean it’s “right.” “Nucular” seems to be the common way of saying Nuclear, does that mean we should change Websters?
My recipe (which I’m making sometime this week, incidentally) has anchovies in the dressing somehow - not really sure how (because I haven’t made it yet). Anyway, Rachel Ray seems to think that when you cook anchovies, they melt away into the pan. I haven’t made any of her anchovy-related recipes yet (tho’ I do have the anchovies in the pantry), so I don’t really know if they do that or not. But perhaps that’s where they are, for those of you that swear there’s never any anchovies in the salad.
Some of the places 'round here will use shavings of parmesan instead of freshly grated. That’s a very nice variation. As another, I’ve also had salmon added to a caesar salad, which is also nice.
Yeah, they do. I have a couple of tomato-saucy recipes with anchovies in them, and they just pretty much dissolve and add their flavor to the dish. Which I find yummy, BTW.
http://www.recipesource.com/fgv/salads/ceasar2.html
http://recipes.chef2chef.net/recipe-archive/00/000627.shtml
All off the first half page of Google.
The original caeser salad, as made by Caeser Cardini contained exactly the following ingredients:
1 salad bowl, rubbed with garlic.
cos or romaine lettuce(dried!) added to the bowl
a small dash of olive oil, tossed so it just coats the leaves.
1 coddled egg (simmer egg for 2 - 3 minutes) added, and then tossed so the egg mixes with the oil
more oil added until you form a creamy emulsion.
A few sprinkles of worstershire sauce, some salt and pepper.
Finally some garlic croutons are added and tossed lightly.
The salad is then plated and parmesan is shaved on top (never grated).
The most important thing, however, is that the dish is arranged tableside. To me, the whole point of a good ceaser is the magic of the presentation when so many different ingredients are transformed with such simple actions.
For those of you who make Caesar salads at home (whether you put anchovies in it or save it to top your chocolate cake! ;)), and prefer not to have a brick of Parmesan around to shred/shave, may I note that Kraft has two products out in the same sort of dispensers as their grated Italian cheeses: a shredded Parmesan, and a shredded three-cheese including Parmesan, Romano, and Asiago. My experience is that it keeps quite well in the refrigerator.