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| Course | Hors d'œuvre |
|---|---|
| Place of origin | Mexico |
| Region or state | Tijuana |
| Created by | Cesare Cardini |
| Serving temperature | Chilled or Room Temperature |
| Main ingredients | Romaine Lettuce Croutons Lemon Juice Olive Oil Egg Worcestershire Sauce Black Pepper |
| Variations | Multiple |
A Caesar salad has romaine lettuce and croutons dressed with parmesan cheese, lemon juice, olive oil, egg, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper. It may be prepared tableside.
History
The salad's history is unclear. Contrary to popular belief it is probably not named after Julius Caesar. It probably was created by Caesar Cardini (an Italian-born Mexican). Cardini was living in San Diego but also working in Tijuana where he avoided the restrictions of Prohibition. As his daughter Rosa (1928–2003) reported, her father invented the dish when a Fourth of July 1924 rush depleted the kitchen's supplies. Cardini made do with what he had, adding the dramatic flair of the table-side tossing "by the chef".
Another story is that the salad was created for Hollywood stars after a weekend party. Others suggest Caesar's brother Alex created it as "Aviator's salad" for San Diego aviator comrades who were in a hurry, and the dish was renamed later, when Alex was a partner of his brother. A few fellows among Cardini's personnel claimed the authorship, but without success.
There is no direct documentary reference to it until the mid-1940s— twenty years after the 1924 origin asserted by the Cardinis. It appeared on a Los Angeles restaurant menu in October 1946.
Recipe
The original Caesar's salad recipe (unlike Alex's Aviator's salad) did not contain pieces of anchovy; the slight anchovy flavor comes from the Worcestershire sauce. Cardini was opposed to using anchovies in his salad.
In the book From Julia Child's Kitchen, Julia Child describes how she ate a Caesar's salad at Cardini's restaurant when she was a child in 1920s, and some 50 years later she called Cardini's daughter, in order to discover the original recipe. In this recipe, lettuce leaves are served whole on the plate, because they are meant to be lifted by the stem and eaten with the fingers. It also calls for coddled eggs and Italian olive oil.
The Cardini family trademarked the original recipe in 1948, and more than a dozen varieties of bottled Cardini's dressing are available today. Some recipes include one or more of mustard, avocado, tomato, bacon bits, or garlic cloves. Rochelle Low is credited with the creation of the "nouveau-Caesar" style by adding the hotly contested ingredient of anchovies to the dressing recipe. This style is found in fancy restaurants with the anchovies served on the side. Cardini's Brand original Caesar dressing is somewhat different from Rosa's version.
Many restaurants offer a more substantial salad by topping a Caesar salad with grilled chicken, steak, salmon or shrimp. Certain Mexican restaurants even improvise on items such as substituting tortilla strips for croutons and Cotija cheese for the Parmesan, or the addition of tomatoes in the Letchworth salad.
Ingredients
- Ingredients according to the Hotel Caesar's recipe from about 2006:
- romaine lettuce
- olive oil
- fresh crushed garlic - often in olive oil
- salt
- 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
- Variations:
- mayonnaise
- variations of lettuce
- chicken
- capers
- Romano cheese
- anchovies
- shrimp
- salmon
Raw egg and salmonella
There is potential risk of infection by salmonella bacteria occasionally found in raw eggs. This is a concern with many similar dressings like mayonnaise, though generally the pH level is thought to be acidic enough to kill those bacteria. Nevertheless, later versions of the recipe call at least for briefly-cooked coddled eggs or pasteurized eggs. Recipes may omit the egg and produce a "Caesar vinaigrette". Yogurt is sometimes substituted for the eggs to maintain a creamy texture.
References
- "Caesar Cardini, Creator of Salad, Dies at 60". Los Angeles Times. November 5, 1956.
Caesar Cardini, 60, credited with the invention of the Caesar salad, died
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - 1987 interview with Rosa Cardini, for Mailpac Magazine, LA.
- In "Hail Caesar", D. Grant quotes Aviator's salad and more (2007)
- 1998 notes on claims:
"Paul Maggiora, a partner of the Cardini's, claimed to have tossed the first Caesar's salad in 1927 for American airmen from San Diego and called it "Aviator's Salad. Caesar's brother Alex had claimed to have developed the salad (he too allegedly called it "aviator's salad"). Livio Santini claimed he made the salad from a recipe of his mother, in the kitchen of Caesar's restaurant when he was 18 years old, in 1925, and that Caesar took the recipe from him. - "Garden Room at the Town House" restaurant, Los Angeles, menu dated October 8, 1946: "Salads ... Caesar ... 1.50."
- above quoted D. Grant, → 'AVIATOR'S SALAD'
- "My father always used Lea and Perrins Worcestershire sauce, and anchovies are one of its ingredients. He meant this to be a subtle salad, and anchovies can be overwhelming." (Above quoted 1987 interview with Rosa Cardini)
- "Rosa Cardini". Telegraph. September 21, 2003. Retrieved 2007-07-21.
Rosa Cardini, who has died in California aged 75, turned the salad dressing created by her father, Caesar, into a staple of modern dining and a million-dollar business. Although the origin of the Caesar Salad is a topic hotly debated by epicures, the generally accepted version is that it was first popularised in the United States in the late 1920s by an Italian immigrant, born Cesare Cardini. He and his brother Alessandro moved to San Diego from Milan after the Great War and then decided to open a restaurant just across the border in Tijuana, Mexico, to attract Americans frustrated by Prohibition.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - Review on Caesar Salad, by "The Grumpy Gourmet," Doral Chenoweth, quote:
"Today the nearest to Cardini's recipe is a commercial Caesar dressing prepared and marketed by the Marzetti Co." - Marzetti's(R) "Cardini's(R) Original Caesar dressing" is made with soy oil and anchovies, and gluten free, by now— Information on ingredients given by manufacturer
- Doral Chenoweth on this:
"In my reviewing career I have found alleged Caesar salads in this country prepared with . It was there that I decided to take up the cause."
"I walked from the border to Caesar's Bar & Grill, 5th and Main streets. The second floor ballroom was the salad restaurant. Two chefs were treating tourists to technique. They still use Cardini's preferred wooden bowls. My conversation with one of the chefs went like this:
- Q - Where does the Romaine come from?
A - Da states. - Q - Where does the grated Parmesan come from?
A - Da states. - Q - Where do you get the eggs?
A - From da chickens.
Those answers were satisfying. I recrossed the border vowing to defend Caesar Cardini."
- Q - Where does the Romaine come from?
- See "The original Caesar's salad" (JPG), as obtained by Doral Chenoweth
- The Rosa Cardini recipe does not call for this. As there hardly will be found an Italian salad recipe of that time without any vinegar at all, this might be just an omission.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service Fact Sheet on Egg Products and Food Safety
Books
- Child, Julia. From Julia Child's Kitchen, 1975. ISBN 0-517-20712-5
- Greenfield, Terry D. In Search of Caesar - The Ultimate Caesar Salad Book, Tjicknor & Fields, 1983.
- Mariani, John F. The Dictionary of American Food & Drink, Ticknor & Fields, 1983.
- Stradley, Linda. What's Cooking America, Chehalem Publishing, 1997.
- Trager, James. The Food Chronology, Henry Holt and Company, 1995.
External links
- History of Salads
- Narrative and original recipe from From Julia Child's Kitchen
- Caesar Salad from BigOven.com
- Caesar Salad Video from Hotel Caesar in Tijuana, B.C., Mexico