It’s worth having the original at Caesar’s in Tijuana. Absolutely delicious.
mikestew · 1h ago
From TFA: While the exact original recipe is no longer offered – today, the dressing uses Worcestershire, anchovies, Tabasco and lemon along with roasted and raw garlic – foodies still flock to Caesar’s Restaurants to get the original tableside show.
fracus · 3h ago
It casts the same spell as pizza. You'd have a hard time finding someone who doesn't really enjoy it. It even works on people who don't generally like salads.
SoftTalker · 3h ago
I really don't care for caesar salad. I like a simple salad with oil and vinegar, and some fresh ground pepper.
hn_throwaway_99 · 19m ago
I don't like it. I like salads that have tasty, fresh, delicious vegetables (and often fruits and/or nuts) where the dressing just adds some pizazz and tartness.
To me caesar salad is just dressing where the lettuce is only there to act as scaffolding.
giraffe_lady · 2h ago
You just have to go to any place where dairy isn't part of the typical diet and people don't usually like either on first exposure. Cheese is an acquired taste for sure, we just live in a place where nearly everyone has acquired it. Not a global norm, however.
ThrowOregonAway · 7h ago
Hint - it existed long before they claim it did. I have found similar recipes for dressing going back hundreds of years.
Also what's with the lazy restauranteurs allowing their employees to serve lettuce without even chopping it? That's a deal breaker for me, if I am expected to chop the lettuce myself I'm ordering tap water only and no food and never ever EVER going back lol.
tptacek · 7h ago
A classic Caesar uses whole leaves; the dish was originally meant to be eaten with hands. You can have whatever preferences you like, but I don't think the attitude you're expressing it with is helpful.
fsckboy · 33m ago
>the dish was originally meant to be eaten with hands
Same energy as complaining their pizza and steak isn’t cut for them.
itronitron · 5h ago
Some people are hungry so they want it cut into more slices.
analog31 · 2h ago
Sure, the enjoyment of food involves etiquette and aesthetics. When I learned to cook (from my mom), she said that a knife should never enter the salad plate, and if it does, the cook should be embarrassed.
Of course I'm influenced by that lesson, even though it's perfectly arbitrary and I don't always follow it myself, nor do I complain if it's not strictly adhered to.
The first chicken Caesar salad I ever had was, I believe, at Metro Grill during the summer of 2006. I was not (and still am not) much of a salad fan, but that was the salad that made me say "maybe I can learn to like salad."
throwawee · 7h ago
Good salad is delicious. I think more people would realize that if they weren't exposed to nothing but iceberg, cheddar, and ranch monstrosities during childhood.
noduerme · 5h ago
Standing up here for iceberg, I think a proper wedge with blue cheese and bacon is delicious. The crispness is refreshing. Not as nutritional as other salads, but sure goes well with a steak and a martini.
tptacek · 5h ago
I took that comment to refer to "iceberg, cheeese, and ranch" as a unit. Iceberg is great, the official lettuce of the greatest sandwich in the world.
spudlyo · 1h ago
The greatest, and the most American sandwich in the world. The BLT is incredibly balanced, I feel like all three elements are stars in their own right.
Some years ago tried Caesar salad many
times and settled on the recipe below.
The Caesar dressing is in the family of
oil and vinegar mixtures with flavorings
and emulsifiers.
The salad also has croutons (pieces of
toast flavored with some of the dressing)
and grated hard, dry cheese, Parmesan or
Pecorino Romano (and I prefer the second).
The lettuce is Romaine. If separate the
leaves, rinse them, shake dry, wrap in
some clean kitchen towels, refrigerate for
several hours, then the lettuce usually
will be crisp, which is desirable. Just
before combining all the ingredients to
make the actual salad, tear the leaves
into irregular pieces.
For the egg, boil it the 10 seconds not to
cook the egg but to sterilize the
outside before cracking the egg.
=====
Note:
This oil/vinegar mixture has close to the
usual (by volume) 3 parts of the oil to 1
part of vinegar. For a brighter flavor,
might use more vinegar, maybe as high as a
ratio of 3 to 2.
And the other measurements here are also
subject to change.
One issue is, some of the ingredients,
e.g., basil, oregano, parsley, fresh
versus dried, can vary in flavor by a lot.
Some garlic is mild and some very strong.
And the flavors of the red wine vinegar
and olive oil vary.
So, the results tend to vary, between two
cooks a lot and even between two trials by
one cook.
So for each trial, it's good to have good
notes on what did so that can repeat the
trial if it was good or adjust the trial
if it was not.
So, the notes here are from some trials
that seemed good but are subject to
adjustment.
=====
Abbreviations (common in the US)
T -- tablespoon
t -- teaspoon
C -- cup
=====
Good to have three bowls, 1 quart plastic
or stainless, 5 quart stainless, ~3 quart
wooden.
The wooden bowl is for style and the
serving, and the large volume of the 5
quart bowl is to ease tossing the
croutons and lettuce to coat them with the
Caesar dressing.
=====
Caesar Dressing.
In a one quart bowl, combine
1 egg boiled 10 seconds
1 T Worcestershire sauce
2/3 C red wine vinegar (what you pay
for wine vinegar can vary
significantly)
1 1/2 T finely minced garlic
3 T Dijon mustard (what you pay for
the mustard can vary significantly)
1/2 T basil (fresh or dried)
1/2 T oregano (fresh or dried)
2 T parsley (fresh or dried)
1/2 t salt
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
One 2 ounce can flat anchovies packed
in oil, minced, with the oil
2 C olive oil (what you pay for olive
oil can vary significantly)
Combine all but the olive oil. Whip to
start the emulsification of the oil and
vinegar with the egg and mustard
emulsifiers.
Add olive oil slowly with whipping. Seek
good emulsification of the oil with the
vinegar and the rest.
Makes about 3 C.
=====
Grated Cheese.
Grate some solid Parmesan or Pecorino
Romano hard, dry cheese to yield ~1 C of
grated cheese.
=====
Toast for Croutons.
Toast four slices of bread (might use some
bread other than US lunch box white
bread). Stack the four slices and cut in
two parallel cuts, rotate 90 degrees and
repeat so cut each slice of toast into 9
pieces.
=====
Dress the Lettuce.
In 5 quart stainless steel bowl, tear
three Romaine hearts into irregular
pieces.
Add 3/4 C of the dressing (right, will
have plenty of dressing left over for more
salads).
Toss.
Goal is to flavor the lettuce with the
dressing but still keep the lettuce crisp,
not wet or 'soggy'; so try to use the
least dressing for the needed flavor.
Notes:
A nice way to present and serve is with a
stylish wooden salad bowl full of the
salad with croutons and grated cheese on
top.
Thus the stylish wooden bowl is too small
for tossing; use the 5 quart bowl for
tossing and the wooden bowl for presenting
and serving.
For the serving, might also use some
stylish wooden salad tongs or fork and
spoon.
=====
Toss Croutons.
Add the cut toast to the 5 quart bowl and
toss with some of the salad dressing.
Goal is just to flavor the toast but keep
it crisp, not soft or soaked.
Add the toast on top of the dressed
lettuce in the wooden salad bowl.
=====
Sprinkle the grated cheese over the toast.
=====
Serve.
=====
With the egg, bread, cheese, and oil, it's
filling.
werdnapk · 7h ago
Once I started making my own Caesar salad dressing at home, Caesar salads for me at home went from meh to unbelievable... basically what you'd get at a nice restaurant. So make your own dressing and never buy the bottled stuff... it's so worth it.
I also add fresh cooked bacon (NEVER bacon bits) and capers.
That is a wild amount of raw garlic to add to a salad.
randycupertino · 4h ago
I also can't believe how he chops it up with the fork. That was giving me so much anxiety. Use a garlic press, chef!!
tptacek · 42m ago
And like 9 egg yolks. I see stuff like this and think about Dave Arnold experimenting and finding that you can emulsify like an oil drum of grapeseed with a single egg.
Bluestein · 7h ago
Anchovies also a fav :)
brookst · 7h ago
True for dressings in general.
A simple vinaigrette with great olive oil, great vinegar, some crushed garlic and a bit of salt is better than the best possible bottled dressing.
tptacek · 6h ago
I was last-week weeks old when I learned the cool America's Test Kitchen trick for vinaigrettes, which is to make them with a combination of extra virgin and neutral oil so they don't set up (and thus break) in the the fridge. Also: a good reason to get a 3-pack of cheap Oxo squeeze bottles; shake to re-emulsify. Vinaigrette is one of the most useful condiments there is.
yahoozoo · 7h ago
Got a recipe you can provide?
tptacek · 7h ago
In a 16oz deli (or a measuring cup):
A yolk, a tsp of dijon, pepper, little salt, juice half a lemon, couple dashes of Worcestershire, couple anchovy filets, half a garlic clove.
Blend homogenous with a stick blender. Then slowly blend in a stream of neutral oil; get it to mayonnaise consistency. Taste and adjust (probably wants pepper). Then: back it out to dressing consistency with water (or lemon juice) a tsp at a time. [†]
Knobs (do any/all/none): grate pecorino or parm, just a bit, into the dressing in the first stage. Double, triple, or quadruple the anchovies. Add some white wine vinegar along with the lemon juice. Microplane the garlic (careful, will really amp the garlic). Before thinning back to dressing consistency with water, add some extra virgin. Pinch of MSG.
If you're being hardcore (ie date night), before you start the dressing, fill a ziploc with ice and put it in your salad bowl, and put your serving bowls in the freezer. Also hardcore: use half as much garlic, and make up the difference with 2x as much garlic confit.
Don't do the thing where you build the dressing on the salad (like, cracking an egg into the bowl or whatever). It's a parlor trick, not a way to dial in the ideal Caesar. Also don't bother with the "rub the garlic into the salad bowl" thing; just makes it harder to dose the garlic.
Extra tip: freshly roasted brussels sprouts love Caesar dressing. (Roasted brussels sprouts love any bright high-fat sauce; Caesar is just the platonic ideal.)
Keeps about a week in the fridge, but each time you use it, refresh the acid (just a splash or lemon juice or vinegar).
(I make a lot of Caesars).
Take a step back and see a Caesar as an anchovy vinaigrette, and then you can immediately vary it to different settings --- lime instead of lemon, add some chile (or aji amarillo), tortilla instead of croutons, fresca instead of parm.
[†] You can also just blend neutral oil in until you get the dressing consistency you want; theoretically you'll get a better texture and a little more flavor concentration this way, but I think the win is marginal vs. being able to knock this dressing out mechanically without thinking hard about it, and you can just dial up the flavors a bit beforehand if you're worried.
itronitron · 5h ago
I'll have to try that out. My current version substitutes mayonnaise in place of the yolk and oil, and just mixes it with lemon juice, dijon, garlic powder, and pepper.
dgacmu · 4h ago
I use mayo as the base also, but: I make my own mayo, which I cannot recommend more highly. The serious eats stick blender recipe changed my mayo life: It's easier to just make some on demand then to keep store-bought stuff on hand, and it's _so_ much better.
(And customizable - I usually make mine with a little more garlic. This last time I tried making it with a whole-grai. Mustard and the results were delightful.)
what · 1h ago
In what world is it easier to make mayo on demand than to keep a tub in the fridge and scoop some out when you want it?
tptacek · 1h ago
Once you know how to make it, buying it is a little like buying toast. It's extremely simple. Faster, in fact, than making toast.
noduerme · 5h ago
Do you shock the lettuce in icewater?
Bluestein · 7h ago
This is not a recipe. It's a masterclass!
yahoozoo · 5h ago
Cheers!
jiggawatts · 6h ago
This reminds me of a surprisingly good buffet lunch at a tourist spot in New Zealand's south island where the chef would prepare the Caesar salad right in front of you. You could pick and choose your ingredients, which was nice, but the really unique approach was that the chef mixed the salad in a "bowl" cut into a wheel of Parmesan cheese. This thoroughly coated every leaf with cheesy goodness. Best salad I've ever had in my life!
yahoozoo · 8h ago
I love Caesar salads. Surprisingly, one of the best ones I have found is at Carrabba’s.
randycupertino · 7h ago
Are you in the Bay Area? Nicks in Pacifica makes an incredible caesar with anchovies and garlic croutons.
Obscurity4340 · 6h ago
Anchovy-less "caesar" vinaigrettes and marinades are far better than any fish-ful caesar dressing
tptacek · 6h ago
You can dial back (or away) anchovies and dial up Worcestershire, but Worcestershire is just British fish sauce. There's a long-running message board thing about whether anchovies are "authentic" to the original Caesar; for me, anchovies are basically the point of a Caesar (not whole filets on top of the leaves, just blitzed into the dressing).
Obscurity4340 · 6h ago
What tradition is that though, like when you omit the fish content?
Ive had good salad dressings like this where they actually list worschestchire sauce and then in the parenthetical ingredients to that it doesnt have any anchovy or fish given and also not in the usualy summation of various allergenic food categories. I just worry its hidden in the Natural Flavor bullcrap
To me caesar salad is just dressing where the lettuce is only there to act as scaffolding.
Also what's with the lazy restauranteurs allowing their employees to serve lettuce without even chopping it? That's a deal breaker for me, if I am expected to chop the lettuce myself I'm ordering tap water only and no food and never ever EVER going back lol.
research in our historical archives backs up your claim https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNc4EszNWn8
Of course I'm influenced by that lesson, even though it's perfectly arbitrary and I don't always follow it myself, nor do I complain if it's not strictly adhered to.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEBMPGxxn_t/
- https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15424333
The Caesar dressing is in the family of oil and vinegar mixtures with flavorings and emulsifiers.
The salad also has croutons (pieces of toast flavored with some of the dressing) and grated hard, dry cheese, Parmesan or Pecorino Romano (and I prefer the second).
The lettuce is Romaine. If separate the leaves, rinse them, shake dry, wrap in some clean kitchen towels, refrigerate for several hours, then the lettuce usually will be crisp, which is desirable. Just before combining all the ingredients to make the actual salad, tear the leaves into irregular pieces.
For the egg, boil it the 10 seconds not to cook the egg but to sterilize the outside before cracking the egg.
=====
Note:
This oil/vinegar mixture has close to the usual (by volume) 3 parts of the oil to 1 part of vinegar. For a brighter flavor, might use more vinegar, maybe as high as a ratio of 3 to 2.
And the other measurements here are also subject to change.
One issue is, some of the ingredients, e.g., basil, oregano, parsley, fresh versus dried, can vary in flavor by a lot. Some garlic is mild and some very strong. And the flavors of the red wine vinegar and olive oil vary.
So, the results tend to vary, between two cooks a lot and even between two trials by one cook.
So for each trial, it's good to have good notes on what did so that can repeat the trial if it was good or adjust the trial if it was not.
So, the notes here are from some trials that seemed good but are subject to adjustment.
=====
Abbreviations (common in the US)
=====Good to have three bowls, 1 quart plastic or stainless, 5 quart stainless, ~3 quart wooden.
The wooden bowl is for style and the serving, and the large volume of the 5 quart bowl is to ease tossing the croutons and lettuce to coat them with the Caesar dressing.
=====
Caesar Dressing.
In a one quart bowl, combine
Combine all but the olive oil. Whip to start the emulsification of the oil and vinegar with the egg and mustard emulsifiers.Add olive oil slowly with whipping. Seek good emulsification of the oil with the vinegar and the rest.
Makes about 3 C.
=====
Grated Cheese.
Grate some solid Parmesan or Pecorino Romano hard, dry cheese to yield ~1 C of grated cheese.
=====
Toast for Croutons.
Toast four slices of bread (might use some bread other than US lunch box white bread). Stack the four slices and cut in two parallel cuts, rotate 90 degrees and repeat so cut each slice of toast into 9 pieces.
=====
Dress the Lettuce.
In 5 quart stainless steel bowl, tear three Romaine hearts into irregular pieces.
Add 3/4 C of the dressing (right, will have plenty of dressing left over for more salads).
Toss.
Goal is to flavor the lettuce with the dressing but still keep the lettuce crisp, not wet or 'soggy'; so try to use the least dressing for the needed flavor.
Notes:
A nice way to present and serve is with a stylish wooden salad bowl full of the salad with croutons and grated cheese on top.
Thus the stylish wooden bowl is too small for tossing; use the 5 quart bowl for tossing and the wooden bowl for presenting and serving.
For the serving, might also use some stylish wooden salad tongs or fork and spoon.
=====
Toss Croutons.
Add the cut toast to the 5 quart bowl and toss with some of the salad dressing.
Goal is just to flavor the toast but keep it crisp, not soft or soaked.
Add the toast on top of the dressed lettuce in the wooden salad bowl.
=====
Sprinkle the grated cheese over the toast.
=====
Serve.
=====
With the egg, bread, cheese, and oil, it's filling.
I also add fresh cooked bacon (NEVER bacon bits) and capers.
Yours sounds great with bacon and capers btw!
A simple vinaigrette with great olive oil, great vinegar, some crushed garlic and a bit of salt is better than the best possible bottled dressing.
A yolk, a tsp of dijon, pepper, little salt, juice half a lemon, couple dashes of Worcestershire, couple anchovy filets, half a garlic clove.
Blend homogenous with a stick blender. Then slowly blend in a stream of neutral oil; get it to mayonnaise consistency. Taste and adjust (probably wants pepper). Then: back it out to dressing consistency with water (or lemon juice) a tsp at a time. [†]
Knobs (do any/all/none): grate pecorino or parm, just a bit, into the dressing in the first stage. Double, triple, or quadruple the anchovies. Add some white wine vinegar along with the lemon juice. Microplane the garlic (careful, will really amp the garlic). Before thinning back to dressing consistency with water, add some extra virgin. Pinch of MSG.
If you're being hardcore (ie date night), before you start the dressing, fill a ziploc with ice and put it in your salad bowl, and put your serving bowls in the freezer. Also hardcore: use half as much garlic, and make up the difference with 2x as much garlic confit.
Don't do the thing where you build the dressing on the salad (like, cracking an egg into the bowl or whatever). It's a parlor trick, not a way to dial in the ideal Caesar. Also don't bother with the "rub the garlic into the salad bowl" thing; just makes it harder to dose the garlic.
Extra tip: freshly roasted brussels sprouts love Caesar dressing. (Roasted brussels sprouts love any bright high-fat sauce; Caesar is just the platonic ideal.)
Keeps about a week in the fridge, but each time you use it, refresh the acid (just a splash or lemon juice or vinegar).
(I make a lot of Caesars).
Take a step back and see a Caesar as an anchovy vinaigrette, and then you can immediately vary it to different settings --- lime instead of lemon, add some chile (or aji amarillo), tortilla instead of croutons, fresca instead of parm.
[†] You can also just blend neutral oil in until you get the dressing consistency you want; theoretically you'll get a better texture and a little more flavor concentration this way, but I think the win is marginal vs. being able to knock this dressing out mechanically without thinking hard about it, and you can just dial up the flavors a bit beforehand if you're worried.
(And customizable - I usually make mine with a little more garlic. This last time I tried making it with a whole-grai. Mustard and the results were delightful.)
Ive had good salad dressings like this where they actually list worschestchire sauce and then in the parenthetical ingredients to that it doesnt have any anchovy or fish given and also not in the usualy summation of various allergenic food categories. I just worry its hidden in the Natural Flavor bullcrap