[Sca-cooks] Caesar salad

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

Also sprach Huette von Ahrens:
>--- "Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius"
><adamantius.magister at verizon.net> wrote:
>>  Also sprach Huette von Ahrens:
>>  >According to the Oxford Companion to Food,
>>  Caesar
>>  >Salad was invented by Caesar Cardini in
>>  Tijuana,
>>  >Mexico in 1924.  The original six ingredients
>>  >were:  romainne lettuce, garlic, olive oil,
>>  >croutons, parmesan cheese and Worchestershire
>>  >sauce.  Anchovy was added later and without
>>  >Cardini's approval, as he thought the anchovy
>>  >from the Worchestershire sauce was sufficient.
>>
>>  That part is true: the anchovy was added by
>>  Caesar's brother Alex (as
>>  well as the first named version, "Aviator's
>>  Salad"). Does the Oxford
>>  Companion not mention the coddled egg or lemon?
>>  Most sources seem to
>>  agree that they were there from the get-go, so
>>  the concept of the
>>  "six original ingredients" may be a
>>  contradiction in terms.
>>
>>  Adamantius
>
>No, it doesn't.  The mention is under the heading
>of "salads" and is quoting John Mariani in his
>book "The Dictionary of American Food and Drink".

Okay. Mariani may be wrong, or at least have been imprecise, when he 
wrote of "the six original ingredients", since while there were 
ingredients (anchovies) added later, Caesar Cardini himself claimed 
more than six ingredients (although, as mentioned, anchovy wasn't one 
of them; he considered them redundant in combination with 
Worcestershire sauce).

In digging around for info on this, I ran across a claim that Cardini 
used to use whole leaves from Romaine hearts, arranged in a sort of 
wheel shape on a platter, stem end out, rib on the bottom, so the 
salad could be eaten with the fingers; this is something I'd never 
seen before. It seems like that might be an interesting hors d'ouvre 
presentation, if you could make sure they were eaten quickly...

Adamantius