Food for Thought

Mark R. Vogel
epicure1@optonline.net

Hail Caesar!

Few dishes have origins so embroiled in controversy as Caesar salad.  The most widely accepted tale is that Caesar Cardini, a restaurant owner and chef in Tijuana Mexico, whipped up a salad from scratch with leftover ingredients for a gathering of hungry Hollywood notables, sometime in the 1920’s, (1924 being the most often quoted year).  Other yarns credit his aunt or brother for it’s creation, and claim that it was made for a group of Cardini’s old aviator buddies instead of Hollywood dignitaries.  There’s even discrepancy about whether anchovies were included in the original recipe.  The more you probe into this enigma, the more you need a drink instead of a salad.

Suffice it to say that the “original” ingredients appear to be romaine lettuce, coddled eggs, (we’ll get to those in a moment), Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, parmesan cheese, croutons, salt, and pepper.  Despite its dubious history, Caesar salad is delicious and can successfully be combined with such accompaniments as grilled chicken, steak, and shrimp.  Here’s the recipe I use:

Interestingly, some of the ingredients are as controversial as the salad’s heritage.  First and foremost is the egg. To make a coddled egg, place it in the shell in boiling water for one minute and no more.  Immediately plunge it into ice water to stop the cooking and then separate out the white.  The egg adds flavor and is the primary emulsifying agent in the dressing, the mustard coming in second. 

The egg is not cooked to a high enough internal temperature to kill salmonella, if it is present.  Not all chickens are infected with salmonella and not all strains of salmonella can permeate the egg.  Amongst contaminated birds, it is estimated that only one in ten thousand eggs will also contain the bacteria.  Furthermore, it depends on how much of it present.  Healthy immune systems can fend off small doses but time allows the bacteria to multiply.  If you use very fresh eggs, (grades AA or A), that were bought the same day, make the dressing IMMEDIATELY before serving it, and forgo any leftovers, you are quite unlikely to develop illness.  If you eat eggs over easy, you’re already taking the same risk.  Nevertheless, the standard recommendation is that young children, the elderly, pregnant or nursing mothers, and individuals with compromised immune systems avoid raw or partially cooked eggs.  If you need to eliminate the egg, use extra mustard instead.

Next problem.  The anchovies.  One of those foods that people either love or hate.  All I can say is people I know who don’t like anchovies still loved the salad.  They get mixed in with all the other ingredients to create a tasty homogenized flavor quite different than eating them straight.  But, you can skip them if you wish. 

Employ a high quality extra virgin olive oil.  Considering it is the base of the dressing, it will make a dramatic difference.  Same with the Parmesan cheese.  Don’t even think of using that old tin of processed grated cheese in your fridge.  Procure a chunk of Parmigiano-Reggiano and grate it yourself.

Ah, stop.  I see you reaching for that imitation lemon juice.  Yuk.  Buy a lemon and squeeze two tablespoons out of it.  If you eliminated the anchovies I would increase the lemon juice, and the salt for that matter. And I don’t have to mention that you should grind whole peppercorns instead of using that tasteless ground powder that’s been sitting on your counter for months, right?

Lastly, I did not include Worcestershire sauce.  If you like it, by all means add it.  Employ one tablespoon.  Mix it in with the beginning ingredients before adding the oil.  If you’re skipping the anchovies but adding the Worcestershire you may not need to increase the salt.  (Anchovies are used to make Worcestershire by the way).