Caesar Salad

Variations

• Chicken Caesar: Add grilled chicken breast to make it a meal.
• Caesar wrap: Roll it up in a tortilla.
• No anchovy: Sub Worcestershire or fish sauce for the umami.
• Kale Caesar: Use kale instead of romaine for a heartier salad.

Tips

• Tossing is the constraint the whole salad is built around. Salade niçoise draws the line directly: "the opposite of caesar salad — there the whole point is tossing, so every leaf carries dressing; here the whole point is not tossing." Once a salad is turned in a heavy dressing the leaf becomes structural. Romaine is the answer because of the thick midrib running up each leaf, which takes that weight; the kale in the variations is the same requirement pushed a step further, and a soft butterhead would be pulp. It is also a clock — niçoise warns that left standing "the lettuce pickles in the vinegar and collapses", which is what "toss just before serving" below is actually about.
• Which is why the dressing has to be an emulsion rather than a good vinaigrette. Carottes râpées states the failure: an unemulsified dressing splits, "the oil and vinegar slide off and all of it pools in the bottom of the bowl". An emulsion is one liquid with body, so it coats at the rate a leaf can carry it. Why sauces split ranks egg yolk's lecithin the strongest emulsifier there is. The drying line below is the other half of the same point: water left on a leaf is a film the dressing cannot displace.
• So mayonnaise is a fair substitution, with one stated cost. Patatas bravas puts it exactly: "mayonnaise brings egg yolk, the strongest emulsifier there is, so it cannot split — at the cost of tasting of egg rather than of garlic." The same trade applies here. A jar arrives already acidified and sweetened, carrying its own balance, so the lemon and the anchovy have to be pushed to be heard over it.
• The anchovy is there to disappear; the crouton is there to resist. Bagnun makes that first point about this dish among others: salt curing has already broken the protein down, "which is why it melts", and an anchovy succeeding means it is no longer there. So "a little isn't fishy" is a description of what cured anchovy is, not reassurance. The crouton is the one element allowed the opposite — fattoush says of its own bread that it "is here to resist, not to drink", toasted hard and added at the last moment for exactly that reason.
• Dry the romaine completely so the dressing clings.
• Anchovy is the key to the umami — don't skip it; a little isn't fishy.
• The classic uses raw egg yolk, but mayonnaise is easy and safe.
• Add croutons fresh and crisp, and toss the dressing just before serving.
• Fun fact: Caesar salad was invented in Tijuana, Mexico in 1924 (Caesar Cardini).