Caesar Dressing Recipe
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Traditionally Caesar Salad was made tableside by dressing romaine leaves with the whole egg, cheese, and garlic all at once. We’ve made the process a little bit easier, and a lot less dramatic, by combining the dressing ingredients first, allowing you to have the salad-topper on hand any time you please.
Game plan: This recipe calls for raw eggs. While it’s perfectly safe for healthy adults to consume raw eggs, the elderly, pregnant women, or anyone with a delicate immune system should not.
INGREDIENTS
- 2 anchovy fillets, rinsed and finely chopped
- 2 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 large egg
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 dash Worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 cup olive oil
INSTRUCTIONS
- Place anchovies and garlic on a cutting board and make a paste by dragging the side of a chef’s knife across them at a 15-degree angle about 10 times or until a smooth paste forms. Place in a medium bowl.
- Whisk the whole egg, egg yolk, lemon juice, and Worcestershire into the anchovy mixture until smooth. Slowly add the oil, whisking constantly until the vinaigrette is emulsified. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
You definitely need the egg yolk for the oil emulsification - I question adding the egg white portion of the whole egg....I don't feel that you want that in the dressing. We always added a bit of dijon mustard to the mixture and separated the yolk from the coddled egg at the tableside. We also used red wine vinegar in addition to the lemon juice.
I've tried it at home the "original" way, and it is just not as good. Maybe because the worcestershire that we get now is only a facsimile of what might have been available at the time. Maybe also because lemons were different in Tijuana in the 20s than the grocery store version of today.
I just like the combination of actual anchovies, the egg-yolk emulsion with quality oil, the tartness of the lemon, the bite of the dijon mustard and fresh garlic, good parm, and coarse ground pepper. But that combo misses some of the worcestershire elements. In an attempt to emulate the original recipe, but improve it, I've tried adding a little sweetness to the equation (tamarind juice, present in worcestershire sauce) and a small pinch of red chile flakes.
I like my ceasar to kick my ass around a bit. This gives you all five taste sensations. The goal is to not taste any one thing. Maybe not authentic, or original, but at least I put some thought into it!
@belovedofgd: Without the egg there is no emulsification, i.e. your dressing is runny.
anchovies were not in chef caesers origonal recipe in the 1920's
Any flavor boosting suggestions for vegetarians? I'm sure the anchovies add great flavor, but that goes against my way.
leave out the egg, but NOT the anchovies!!! And lots of garlic :)
Caesar salad always has anchovies and egg yolks. ALWAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It always makes me laugh when the one thing people leave out of Ceasar Salad is the anchovies. Without them what are you left with?
Caesar salad DOES NOT have anchovies in it!
diamond46 is right on target. That's how I have been making my Caesar dressing for years and have had countless requests for the recipe. Big and bold. Not wimpy. I also make it in my mini food processor. Comes out great.
Homogenized eggs often contain non-egg ingredients like sodium phosphate, citric acid and nisin. If you are afraid of food-borne pathogens from eggs, try pasteurized eggs.
Try using "homogenized eggs" in little cartons, if you are afraid of raw eggs.
what a wimpy recipe~ too few anchovies, recipe for 6 6 anchovies and no dijon!...what about a few dashs of tobasco as well, and besides the lemon juice a tsp of red wine vinegar! now thats a BIG FLAVOR caesar!
i like to add kapers and parmesan cheese to the dressing....
As a few others have mentioned, coddling the egg is traditional, and may placate any 'raw egg' fears, though coddling really doesn't cook it at all.
Also, Alton Brown says that anchovies are NOT an ingredient of caesar salad; they are a component of worchestershire, which IS traditional, therefore people made the assumption that anchovies were an ingredient.
Here's an episode of good eats where he builds a caesar salad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zF1j_...
I like to add a tiny bit (1/2 tsp) of dijon mustard to egg mixture to help emulsification. Plus adds a nice zing to it :)
A blender works well for this. Call me lazy, but I like simplified emulsification. I usually increase the number of anchovies - I keep about two fillets out of a small tin for snacking and use the rest. I also drain most of the oil out of the tin and use it in place of extra olive oil. I don't add Worcestershire.
Funny this recipe came up once again in conversation and just what is the true recipe so thanks Shamela and lakelady I appreciate the comments I always have an argument amongst my fellow cooks about the true recipe and not the everything in it style. Unfortunately this recipe has been bashed to death just like a lot of other classics and when I used to send it out customers would complain of no croutons or bacon. Cheers.
I believe the coddled egg, in that original presentation, was the only egg used in the salad (was that the case?) whereas now we generally include the egg in the dressing. The change probably evolved along with the increasing squeamishness over the issue of consuming raw eggs. If the raw egg is mixed into the dressing, it's much more palatable than tossing it as the final , visible ingredient at a tableside presentation.
The true Ceasar Salad, from Caesar Cardena's restaurant in Tiajuana Mexico, had a coddled egg and no croutons. NEVER bacon! If you really are a purist, leave out the breakfast meat!
The appreciation of the dressing and snobbish insistence upon the croutons sounds so purist; all the more bizarre that bacon and eggs are mentioned in regard to a caesar salad. Shocking! Has anybody else heard of such things being part of a true caesar?
The dressing is wonderful and classic, but where is the crispy bacon on the salad, and the eggs? [either coddled or hardboiled], and if you don't have time to make the croutons, don't bother with the salad. di45