Caesar salad: Encyclopedia - Caesar salad

Caesar salad

Caesar salad is a traditional salad often prepared tableside. It is sometimes termed the "king" of salads.

It was invented in 1924 by Caesar Cardini or one of his associates. Cardini was an Italian-American restaurateur and chef in Tijuana, Mexico, living in San Diego but working in Tijuana to avoid the restrictions of Prohibition. There are several stories about the specifics of the salad's creation, none of which can be confirmed. The most common is that it resulted from a Fourth of July rush depleting the kitchen's supplies, and Cardini made do with what he had, adding the dramatic flare of table-side tossing. Another is that it was created for a group of Hollywood stars after a long weekend party. Most stories say that Cardini had to whip something up from what he had left in his kitchen, and the Caesar salad was the result. The Hotel César still exists in downtown Tijuana, where the original dish is still served.

A Caesar salad is generally made from the following ingredients:

• romaine lettuce
• croutons
• lemon juice
• olive oil
• parmesan cheese
• raw, coddled or hard-boiled egg yolks
• fresh-ground black pepper
• Worcestershire sauce

The original Caesar salad recipe did not contain anchovies; the slight anchovy flavor came from Worcestershire sauce. Most modern recipes now include anchovies as chopped fillets or in paste form.

Julia Child, in her book, "From Julia Child's Kitchen," describes how she ate a Caesar's salad at Cardini's restaurant as a child in 1924, and many years later she sought out Cardini's daughter, Rosa Cardini, in order to discover the original recipe. Rosa Cardini's recipe differs from those that appears in the links below. In particular, the lettuce is served whole on the plate. It is meant to be lifted by the stem and eaten with the fingers. It calls for coddled eggs but no anchovies.

Some recipes include one or more of mustard, avocado, tomato, bacon bits, garlic cloves, or anchovies. Many restaurants offer a more substantial salad by topping a Caesar salad with grilled chicken, grilled salmon or shrimp.

The Cardini family licensed the original recipe early on, and bottled Cardini Caesar salad dressing is still available, sans anchovies. Many other bottled versions are sold now, as well, including Morgan's and Newman's Own.

Caesar salad - Raw egg and salmonella

Many people are concerned about the safety of Caesar salads due to the potential risk of infection by salmonella bacteria often found in raw eggs. The original recipe incorporated a raw egg, and later versions used briefly-cooked coddled eggs. Even a switch to chopped, hard-boiled eggs has not prevented sporadic outbreaks of salmonella from restaurant-made Caesar salads. Caveat usor. Today, many recipes omit the egg and produce a Caesar vinaigrette.

Caesar salad - Caesar salad humor

Riffing on the popular idea that Caesar salad was invented by or for Julius Caesar, the Canadian comedy duo of Johnny Wayne and Frank Shuster (both now deceased) did at least two versions of a sketch in which Caesar's chef (played by Shuster) prepares the ingredients of a modern Caesar salad, and says, "You shall name this salad, Caesar". After a moment of pondering, Caesar (played by Wayne) replies (in one version of the sketch), "I name it... coleslaw." Brutus offers his knife to the cook when the cook disparages the new name.

Another joke, an atrocious pun is set up by bandits invading Julius Caesar's birthday party seeking lettuce. Caesar shows them a truly beautiful salad. The bandit chief replies, "We come to seize your salad, not to praise it!"

In the video game Civilization IV, Julius Caesar greets the player with the statement "Welcome to Rome, (player name). Care for some salad? I made it myself."

In an episode of the television series Bewitched, Esmeralda (played by Alice Ghostley) attempts to use magic to make a Caesar salad and accidentally conjures Julius Caesar.

See also

• List of foods named after people

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Caesar salad", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki