4 ms·

Once I started making my own Caesar salad dressing at home, Caesar salads for me at home went from meh to unbelievable... basically what you'd get at a nice res

Once I started making my own Caesar salad dressing at home, Caesar salads for me at home went from meh to unbelievable... basically what you'd get at a nice restaurant. So make your own dressing and never buy the bottled stuff... it's so worth it. I also add fresh cooked bacon (NEVER bacon bits) and capers.

yahoozoo 1y ago
Got a recipe you can provide?
- tptacek 1y ago
  In a 16oz deli (or a measuring cup): A yolk, a tsp of dijon, pepper, little salt, juice half a lemon, couple dashes of Worcestershire, couple anchovy filets, half a garlic clove. Blend homogenous with a stick blender. Then slowly blend in a stream of neutral oil; get it to mayonnaise consistency. Taste and adjust (probably wants pepper). Then: back it out to dressing consistency with water (or lemon juice) a tsp at a time. [†] Knobs (do any/all/none): grate pecorino or parm, just a bit, into the dressing in the first stage. Double, triple, or quadruple the anchovies. Add some white wine vinegar along with the lemon juice. Microplane the garlic (careful, will really amp the garlic). Before thinning back to dressing consistency with water, add some extra virgin. Pinch of MSG. If you're being hardcore (ie date night), before you start the dressing, fill a ziploc with ice and put it in your salad bowl, and put your serving bowls in the freezer. Also hardcore: use half as much garlic, and make up the difference with 2x as much garlic confit. Don't do the thing where you build the dressing on the salad (like, cracking an egg into the bowl or whatever). It's a parlor trick, not a way to dial in the ideal Caesar. Also don't bother with the "rub the garlic into the salad bowl" thing; just makes it harder to dose the garlic. Extra tip: freshly roasted brussels sprouts love Caesar dressing. (Roasted brussels sprouts love any bright high-fat sauce; Caesar is just the platonic ideal.) Keeps about a week in the fridge, but each time you use it, refresh the acid (just a splash or lemon juice or vinegar). (I make a lot of Caesars). Take a step back and see a Caesar as an anchovy vinaigrette, and then you can immediately vary it to different settings --- lime instead of lemon, add some chile (or aji amarillo), tortilla instead of croutons, fresca instead of parm. [†] You can also just blend neutral oil in until you get the dressing consistency you want; theoretically you'll get a better texture and a little more flavor concentration this way, but I think the win is marginal vs. being able to knock this dressing out mechanically without thinking hard about it, and you can just dial up the flavors a bit beforehand if you're worried.
  - Bluestein 1y ago
    This is not a recipe. It's a masterclass!
  - yahoozoo 1y ago
    Cheers!
  - itronitron 1y ago
    I'll have to try that out. My current version substitutes mayonnaise in place of the yolk and oil, and just mixes it with lemon juice, dijon, garlic powder, and pepper.
    - dgacmu 1y ago
      I use mayo as the base also, but: I make my own mayo, which I cannot recommend more highly. The serious eats stick blender recipe changed my mayo life: It's easier to just make some on demand then to keep store-bought stuff on hand, and it's _so_ much better. (And customizable - I usually make mine with a little more garlic. This last time I tried making it with a whole-grai. Mustard and the results were delightful.)
      - what 1y ago
        In what world is it easier to make mayo on demand than to keep a tub in the fridge and scoop some out when you want it?
        tptacek 1y ago
        Once you know how to make it, buying it is a little like buying toast. It's extremely simple. Faster, in fact, than making toast.
        dgacmu 1y ago
        I never have to worry about stocking it and checking to make sure it's still good, etc. I always have eggs, lemon, mustard, garlic, and oil on hand. And then I have a small tub for two weeks. It's literally a three minute recipe that I can autopilot.
- werdnapk 1y ago
  This is my go to: https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/caesar-salad-dressing.html https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/caesar-salad-dressing....
brookst 1y ago
True for dressings in general. A simple vinaigrette with great olive oil, great vinegar, some crushed garlic and a bit of salt is better than the best possible bottled dressing.
- tptacek 1y ago
  I was last-week weeks old when I learned the cool America's Test Kitchen trick for vinaigrettes, which is to make them with a combination of extra virgin and neutral oil so they don't set up (and thus break) in the the fridge. Also: a good reason to get a 3-pack of cheap Oxo squeeze bottles; shake to re-emulsify. Vinaigrette is one of the most useful condiments there is.
  - brookst 1y ago
    They’re so easy and quick I just make fresh for each use, with only EVOO. Takes 30 seconds and one tiny bowl. Also a touch of mustard acts as an emulsifier, and is tasty too (and going gourmet in the mustard is worth it, like Pommery).
randycupertino 1y ago
I'll pop my all-time best Caesar dressing recipe here, from cajun Chef Jack Chaplin (RIP): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT7qYaMgMtA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT7qYaMgMtA Yours sounds great with bacon and capers btw!
- Bluestein 1y ago
  Anchovies also a fav :)
- tptacek 1y ago
  That is a wild amount of raw garlic to add to a salad.
  - randycupertino 1y ago
    I also can't believe how he chops it up with the fork. That was giving me so much anxiety. Use a garlic press, chef!!
    - tptacek 1y ago
      And like 9 egg yolks. I see stuff like this and think about Dave Arnold experimenting and finding that you can emulsify like an oil drum of grapeseed with a single egg.
    - theoriginaldave 1y ago
      Microplane for the win, and get the minced garlic into the oil as fast as possible. Once the crushed garlic is exposed to air it's flavor starts to change quickly. Planing directly into the oil and stirring it in to coat the particles as quickly as possible preserves the bright spicy flavor of the garlic.
      - dofubej 1y ago
        Every time I mince garlic with a microplane it ends up containing what I would call an unhealthy amount of thumb skin. I don’t even know how I still have a fingerprint on my thumb…

yahoozoo 1y ago

Got a recipe you can provide?

tptacek 1y ago
In a 16oz deli (or a measuring cup): A yolk, a tsp of dijon, pepper, little salt, juice half a lemon, couple dashes of Worcestershire, couple anchovy filets, half a garlic clove. Blend homogenous with a stick blender. Then slowly blend in a stream of neutral oil; get it to mayonnaise consistency. Taste and adjust (probably wants pepper). Then: back it out to dressing consistency with water (or lemon juice) a tsp at a time. [†] Knobs (do any/all/none): grate pecorino or parm, just a bit, into the dressing in the first stage. Double, triple, or quadruple the anchovies. Add some white wine vinegar along with the lemon juice. Microplane the garlic (careful, will really amp the garlic). Before thinning back to dressing consistency with water, add some extra virgin. Pinch of MSG. If you're being hardcore (ie date night), before you start the dressing, fill a ziploc with ice and put it in your salad bowl, and put your serving bowls in the freezer. Also hardcore: use half as much garlic, and make up the difference with 2x as much garlic confit. Don't do the thing where you build the dressing on the salad (like, cracking an egg into the bowl or whatever). It's a parlor trick, not a way to dial in the ideal Caesar. Also don't bother with the "rub the garlic into the salad bowl" thing; just makes it harder to dose the garlic. Extra tip: freshly roasted brussels sprouts love Caesar dressing. (Roasted brussels sprouts love any bright high-fat sauce; Caesar is just the platonic ideal.) Keeps about a week in the fridge, but each time you use it, refresh the acid (just a splash or lemon juice or vinegar). (I make a lot of Caesars). Take a step back and see a Caesar as an anchovy vinaigrette, and then you can immediately vary it to different settings --- lime instead of lemon, add some chile (or aji amarillo), tortilla instead of croutons, fresca instead of parm. [†] You can also just blend neutral oil in until you get the dressing consistency you want; theoretically you'll get a better texture and a little more flavor concentration this way, but I think the win is marginal vs. being able to knock this dressing out mechanically without thinking hard about it, and you can just dial up the flavors a bit beforehand if you're worried.
- Bluestein 1y ago
  This is not a recipe. It's a masterclass!
- yahoozoo 1y ago
  Cheers!
- itronitron 1y ago
  I'll have to try that out. My current version substitutes mayonnaise in place of the yolk and oil, and just mixes it with lemon juice, dijon, garlic powder, and pepper.
  - dgacmu 1y ago
    I use mayo as the base also, but: I make my own mayo, which I cannot recommend more highly. The serious eats stick blender recipe changed my mayo life: It's easier to just make some on demand then to keep store-bought stuff on hand, and it's _so_ much better. (And customizable - I usually make mine with a little more garlic. This last time I tried making it with a whole-grai. Mustard and the results were delightful.)
    - what 1y ago
      In what world is it easier to make mayo on demand than to keep a tub in the fridge and scoop some out when you want it?
      - tptacek 1y ago
        Once you know how to make it, buying it is a little like buying toast. It's extremely simple. Faster, in fact, than making toast.
      - dgacmu 1y ago
        I never have to worry about stocking it and checking to make sure it's still good, etc. I always have eggs, lemon, mustard, garlic, and oil on hand. And then I have a small tub for two weeks. It's literally a three minute recipe that I can autopilot.
werdnapk 1y ago
This is my go to: https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/caesar-salad-dressing.html https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/caesar-salad-dressing....

brookst 1y ago

True for dressings in general. A simple vinaigrette with great olive oil, great vinegar, some crushed garlic and a bit of salt is better than the best possible bottled dressing.

tptacek 1y ago
I was last-week weeks old when I learned the cool America's Test Kitchen trick for vinaigrettes, which is to make them with a combination of extra virgin and neutral oil so they don't set up (and thus break) in the the fridge. Also: a good reason to get a 3-pack of cheap Oxo squeeze bottles; shake to re-emulsify. Vinaigrette is one of the most useful condiments there is.
- brookst 1y ago
  They’re so easy and quick I just make fresh for each use, with only EVOO. Takes 30 seconds and one tiny bowl. Also a touch of mustard acts as an emulsifier, and is tasty too (and going gourmet in the mustard is worth it, like Pommery).

randycupertino 1y ago

I'll pop my all-time best Caesar dressing recipe here, from cajun Chef Jack Chaplin (RIP): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT7qYaMgMtA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT7qYaMgMtA Yours sounds great with bacon and capers btw!

Bluestein 1y ago
Anchovies also a fav :)
tptacek 1y ago
That is a wild amount of raw garlic to add to a salad.
- randycupertino 1y ago
  I also can't believe how he chops it up with the fork. That was giving me so much anxiety. Use a garlic press, chef!!
  - tptacek 1y ago
    And like 9 egg yolks. I see stuff like this and think about Dave Arnold experimenting and finding that you can emulsify like an oil drum of grapeseed with a single egg.
  - theoriginaldave 1y ago
    Microplane for the win, and get the minced garlic into the oil as fast as possible. Once the crushed garlic is exposed to air it's flavor starts to change quickly. Planing directly into the oil and stirring it in to coat the particles as quickly as possible preserves the bright spicy flavor of the garlic.
    - dofubej 1y ago
      Every time I mince garlic with a microplane it ends up containing what I would call an unhealthy amount of thumb skin. I don’t even know how I still have a fingerprint on my thumb…