Ceasar Salad

[ChocolateFrosting]

I might be putting this on the wrong board (sorry if so) but I went to a restaurant recently and ordered ceasar salad.

It would have been nice - apart from the anchovies!
Now it might just be me, but since when did ceasar salad have anchovies in it?! My friend mercilessly mocked me saying that ALL ceasar salad has anchovies in.

Is this true? I looked online and only found recipes without, so am I missing some universal truth that 'ceasar salad always has anchovies' or is my friend in the wrong?

Thanks in advance all!

[binny]

Traditionally no, the bastardized one that everyone uses yes oh and the caesar sauce has anchovies in it btw.

[Snip 13]

Yes the dressing has anchovies in it.

[ChocolateFrosting]

See, I knew the dressing had anchovies but these were full-fish-layered-on-my-chicken-breast anchovies, gave me quite a scare lifting a lettuce leaf to see them staring at me!

Haha, I knew the little critters weren't meant to be in there!! I shall go gloat

Thank you xx

[Selkie]

No, it's not true, anchovies are not a key ingredient for the original Caesar Salad.

The salad's creation is generally attributed to chef Caesar Cardini, an Italian-born Mexican. He was living in San Diego on July 4, 1924 when it's said he invented his salad. Julia Child claimed to have eaten a Caesar salad at Cardini's restaurant when she was a child in the 1920s, however the earliest contemporary documentation of Caesar Salad is a 1946 Los Angeles restaurant menu, twenty years after the 1924 origin asserted by the Cardinis.

The original Caesar salad recipe did not contain pieces of anchovy. The slight anchovy flavor comes from the Worcestershire sauce. Cardini was opposed to using anchovies in his salad.

Just a bit of culinary history.

Ingredients, according to the Hotel Caesar's recipe from about 2006:

• romaine lettuce
• olive oil
• fresh crushed garlic – often in olive oil
• salt to taste
• fresh-ground black pepper
• wine vinegar
• lemon juice or lime juice - fresh squeezed
• Worcestershire Sauce
• raw or coddled egg yolks
• freshly grated Parmesan cheese
• freshly prepared croutons

[ChocolateFrosting]

Originally Posted by Selkie

No, it's not true, anchovies are not a key ingredient for the original Caesar Salad.

The salad's creation is generally attributed to chef Caesar Cardini, an Italian-born Mexican. He was living in San Diego on July 4, 1924 when it's said he invented his salad. Julia Child claimed to have eaten a Caesar salad at Cardini's restaurant when she was a child in the 1920s, however the earliest contemporary documentation of Caesar Salad is a 1946 Los Angeles restaurant menu, twenty years after the 1924 origin asserted by the Cardinis.

The original Caesar salad recipe did not contain pieces of anchovy. The slight anchovy flavor comes from the Worcestershire sauce. Cardini was opposed to using anchovies in his salad.

Just a bit of culinary history.

Thanks Selkie, that's fantastic! I'm now educated and vindicated in my surprise

[ChefJune]

Originally Posted by ChocolateFrosting

I might be putting this on the wrong board (sorry if so) but I went to a restaurant recently and ordered ceasar salad.

It would have been nice - apart from the anchovies!
Now it might just be me, but since when did ceasar salad have anchovies in it?! My friend mercilessly mocked me saying that ALL ceasar salad has anchovies in.

Is this true? I looked online and only found recipes without, so am I missing some universal truth that 'ceasar salad always has anchovies' or is my friend in the wrong?

Thanks in advance all!

Caesar Salad is traditionally made entirely in the salad bowl. First rub the bowl with a garlic clove that's been halved. Then, mash in several anchovies. Fresh lemon juice mixes in with that, and olive oil is stirred in in dribbles. This makes the emulsion that dresses the romaine lettuce leaves. Traditionally there is no "sauce" to pour on, you make the dressing first. But yes, there ARE anchovies in Caesar Salad. Just not set on top to scare the bejeezus out of you!

[Dawgluver]

I had a similar experience years ago in Florida. Whole anchovies :shudder::cringe:

[babetoo]

l love anchovies anyway i can get them. ceasar salad is unfinished without them. either whole or mashed in the dressing. i love pizza with them. my body doesn't. sucks up liquid big time. however i always ask for them and eat them anyway.

[Snip 13]

I would have eaten the scary anchovies for you if I were there lol! I love them, would eat them straight from the jar!