Your Opinion/Experience: What's in a "Caesar salad"?

[Arwin]

I love Ceasar Salads and they’ve varied through the few decades that I’ve been aware of eating them. Since I’ve disliked fish about as much as I liked Ceasar Salads, the in my parts (Amsterdam) recent trend of topping them with ansjovis filet came as a bit of a shock. I remember exactly when and where I first had this happen to me for the first time and since then every single Ceasar salad I’ve seen was exactly like this, right up to last weekend. Thankfully, I was with someone who got rid of the ansjovis for me. I’m discovering I can stand some raw fish these days, but ansjovis … no thanks.

[Ephemera]

@bouv

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?

Actually, if you’re going to use the dictionary as an example, because it’s commonly accepted *does *make it right else we’d still be spelling color with a U and center with the -er reversed. The original isn’t always “right” either.

[Cliffy]

Romaine lettuce
Croutons
Parmesan cheese
Ceasar dressing (creamy, made with anchiovies)
They sometimes come with anchovies, and any place worth eating at will add them at request.

–Cliffy

[Gangster_Octopus]

@Shalmanese

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.

The Edendale Grill in Los Angeles does it EXACTLY like this and it is the best Caeser Salad I have ever had. It is also $18 for two people. Ontheir website they say “The original recipe from the ‘Hotel Caeser’ in Tijuana, prepared tableside for two.”

[kaylasdad99]

@Aesiron

The original isn’t always “right” either.

Perhaps not, but it’s probably reasonable to insist on the original always being “The Original.”

Unless it’s the other way around, and “The Original” needs to be the original.

[Skott]

@Kolak of Twilo

“Caesar’s Bar” business card? From where?

I already provide my cite from Wikibook’s Cookbook. Where they got it from, I have no idea. In other words, I can’t trace it back to the source

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.

Oh, I don’t want to do that; I had thought (apparently mistakenly) that someone was claiming anchovies were part of the original recipe. I know at least by 1968, the recipe from BH&G, anchovies are listed as optional. Myself, I like having a little anchovy paste added to the dressing. Much more than that overpowers the flavor for me. Once place served their version with about twelve anchovy fillets on top of the salad. Removing the fillets left suffient flavor.

Oh, and Scarlett67? That cookbook entry appears to have been written by someone who’s had your same experience.

@Wikibooks

Unfortunately in recent years the popularity of the salad has caused very poor imitations, often using tasteless prepared and bottled sauces, to appear at many medium quality restaurants, particularly chain restaurants in the United States. It is recommended by some that one must carefully interrogate one’s server to ensure an actual Caesar will appear at the table and not a poor imitation.

[Kozmik]

@Scarlett67

I’ve never been much of a tossed-salad eater, especially those made by other people or in restaurants, because I’m not overly fond of a lot of the raw veggies that tend to go into those things: cabbage, onions, tomato, cucumber, etc. But I do like a nice Caesar salad. In my experience and to my best knowledge, here’s what goes into a traditional Caesar salad:

• Romaine lettuce
• shredded or shaved Parmesan
• croutons
• Caesar dressing (a creamy, garlicky affair with black pepper), lightly coating the entire salad rather than served on the side or glopped on top
• optional: cracked pepper, cooked chicken

Yesterday, Mr. S and I stopped in to the local diner, which, while not a four-star establishment by any means, usually does a tolerable impression of most foods and has a wide selection. You can get Mexican, pasta, steak, fish, breakfast, meatloaf, etc. Yes, they use those awful frozen and/or canned vegetables, all the chicken-based soups are that horrible food-service yellow-green color, and the waitresses all call you “hon.” But there’s generally good service and decent food, and since our burg doesn’t really offer much else besides fast food and supper clubs, we usually go there when we’re too lazy to cook.

So anyway, yesterday I notice on the specials board that they’re now offering a “Caesar salad.” Cool! So I order it. The first thing the waitress (not one of our “usuals”) asks is if I want ranch dressing with it. Uh-oh. As Mr. S pointed out later, this should have been my first clue. But I pressed on. “Um, do you have a Caesar dressing for it?” So she calls over to the owner, who’s sitting in the booth behind us, and he tells her that “they have it in the kitchen, it comes out all ready.” Oh, OK. So she puts a cup of ranch dressing in front of me anyway (I have no idea why) and we wait for our meals.

The “Caesar salad” comes.

Well, it had croutons, anyway.

First of all, it was on a HOT plate. Who serves a salad on a hot plate? Second, the lettuce was the usual iceberg, bad enough in itself, but it was also mostly that horrid CORE of the iceberg, the yellow, bitter part, which I despise. Third, it had carrots and red cabbage liberally distributed throughout, in addition to the croutons. Fourth, not only was the dressing most definitely NOT Caesar (my best guess is some sort of creamy Italian), but it was so thickly applied as to be almost soupy and extremely unappetizing. And fifth, no cheese whatsoever.

The only salads I eat are Caesar salads. Besides the ingredients listed, I specifially ask for Ranch dressing. I prefer traditonal Caesar dressing and Ranch because it makes for a mild creamy blend. You have my sympathies with your complaint over the yellow lettuce. I believe a Caesar salad should have only the freshest, greenest Romaine lettuce.