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I've never made Caesar Salad Dressing before........so I have the recipe and I'm wondering.........do I have to use the coddled egg.....just wondering if it's necessary for flavor or what? and also if I do use the coddled egg, can I make the dressing a day ahead of time or is that a bad idea to let a coddled egg sit overnite in oil and other things in the fridge?

Caesar Salad 1 medium head romaine lettuce 1/2 cup * Toasted Croutons 1 /4 cup Parmesan cheese Salt Fresh crushed black pepper 1 clove of chopped garlic 7 anchovies fillets 1/2 lemon (juice only) 1/8 teaspoon dry mustard 1 teaspoon wine vinegar 3 tablespoons olive oil Dashes Worcestershire sauce 1 coddled egg Ground pepper, to taste.

Separate leaves, wash, and drain, pat dry with paper towel. Remove stems and break across the length into bite size pieces. Place in large bowl and add * Toasted Croutons, cheese and chill.

Place 1-egg in cup. Add boiling water let stand.

Start the dressing by blending salt, fresh crushed pepper, garlic, and anchovies and lemon juice. Mash with wooden spoon so that the anchovies are unrecognizable. Add mustard, vinegar, lemon and Worcestershire. Crack and add egg, blend. Add dressing to romaine and toss. Season with ground pepper Parmesan if desired.

I've never used a coddled egg. Just a fresh one. Hmmmm...interesting.

I think that's the orginal recipe, not what we think of as Caesar dressing now. But I also only make vinegrette (sp).

My mom always uses a coddled egg... has for more than 30 years.. but doesn't make any of it the day before, and it looks like almost the exact same recipe.

The coddled egg adds texture and thickness to the salad dressing and helps it stick to the lettuce..

Fun stuff...I found this interesting history of Caesar Salad Dressing from Chef James who worked at Blue Heaven in Key West until 2001.

He now has this cooking web site.
http://www.foodreference.com/index.html

Here is a section just on Key West too.
http://www.foodreference.com/html/keywe ... ation.html
Blue Heaven
http://www.foodreference.com/html/kblue ... urant.html


CAESAR SALAD
This wondrous salad, with all its tableside showmanship by waiters, became a sensation in America soon after its invention. To many, including myself, this is the king of salads. It was probably the first 'main course' salad, and topped with chicken or fish is truly a main course.

Created in the 1920s, it has not only outlasted other 'classics' from the period but has grown in popularity ever since. The most likely, and most accepted, story of its creation has Caesar (Cesar) Cardini, a restaurant owner and chef in Tijuana, Mexico (sometimes referred to as an Italian immigrant) preparing it for a group of Hollywood movie stars, after a long weekend party in the 1920s. (Some have pinpointed it to 1924; at least one story says is was a group traveling with the Prince of Wales on his tour of North America). Their departure was delayed by morning rain, supplies at the restaurant were running low after the weekend, and he had to whip up a meal for the group before their return to Hollywood (or it was late one night as some stories go).

Created on the spur of the moment with leftover ingredients. (Although several California restaurants claim to have invented it, few give credit to their stories).

The original contained Romaine (Cos) lettuce, coddled eggs, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, lemon juice, olive oil, freshly grated Parmesan cheese, croutons, salt and pepper. No anchovies. Almost everyone agrees on this. No one really knows when the anchovies got in, but I feel the salad is a little flat without them. The anchovies should be mashed in as the dressing is made, so even those who dislike anchovies will enjoy this salad. (Dry or Dijon mustard and wine vinegar [red or white] are also frequently added ingredients).

Caesar salad is best when made fresh: freshly squeezed lemon juice, freshly mashed garlic cloves, freshly ground black pepper, fresh garlic croutons, and freshly grated cheese. The egg should be coddled, but a raw egg can be used. Our slight variation here at Blue Heaven Restaurant is to use key lime juice instead of lemon juice.

An acceptable dressing can also be made using tofu instead of the raw or coddled egg, if you have concern about salmonella. This should be made in a food processor to completely incorporate the tofu.

In the late 1990's, Caesar salads were made illegal in California, by a new health law banning the sale of any food that used raw eggs as an ingredient. Presumably there was a black market for the contraband salad. The law was soon revised and the situation remedied in 1998.

Wow.....thanks everyone for all your help.........I had made the dressing about an hour before dinner last nite.......when I started receiving calls that " I won't be home for dinner"......so we didn't use it, and it looked kinda wierd today......so I threw it out before dinner tonite........wasn't going to chance it. Thanks again.

I <heart> Caesar salad! Good luck with your adventure! Great Caesar dressing is hard to find!

Paul Newman makes a wonderful Ceaser's dressing.....

ToplessRideFL wrote:Paul Newman makes a wonderful Ceaser's dressing.....

Yes yes yes!!

We almost exclusively buy Paul Newman dressings!