Subject: Sunset Magazine Caesar Salad Dressing —from the 1970s
From: Hillary
Date: 2/10/2021, 3:38 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com
On 2/9/2021 10:37 PM, Hillary wrote:
Dear Uncle Phaedrus:
I hope you can help me find a recipe for Caesar Salad dressing published
in Sunset Magazine in the early 1970s. It is the first thing I learned to
cook at the age of 10 and used to prepare it tableside for my parents and
other guests (side trip down memory lane). It might have had the word
“blender” in the title as the preparation method was to use a blender.
I remember most (but not all) of the ingredients and some of the preparation
steps. I don’t remember quantities. I tried to recreate it a year or so ago
and it was a disaster. But it’s the best Caesar dressing I’ve had and I
would be over joyed to find it.
To help identify it, it has (among other things) oil, red wine vinegar,
anchovies and Dijon mustard. It may have garlic (I don’t remember).
Notably (to help in identifying it) it calls for a coddled egg and provides
instruction for how to do it. It is also one of the only recipes I’ve seen,
that calls for squeezing fresh lemon on the Romaine lettuce.
I just found your site and hope you can help. I will be browsing other
requests in hopes I can pay this forward to someone else.
Kindest regards,
Hillary
Hi Hillary,
There are a lot of Sunset Magazine recipes on the web, including several different
Caesar Salad recipes. I looked at all of them that I could find. However, I cannot
find one that matches your description exactly.
I will post this for reader input. Perhaps one of my readers has a collection of
Sunset Magazine issues or has one or more of the many Sunset Magazine Cookbooks
that have been issued. It might be in one of those.
However, I did find a recipe that is very close. It has olive oil, red wine
vinegar, anchovy paste, Dijon mustard, garlic, a coddled egg, and lemon juice.
What it does not have are instructions to use a blender, instructions for coddling
the egg and directions to squeeze lemon juice on the Romaine lettuce and it does
not give Sunset Magazine as a source.
It is so close, however, that perhaps it will work for you. You can always choose
to use a blender.
Phaed
Caesar Salad Dressing
1 teaspoon anchovy paste
1 large clove garlic, pressed
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 coddled egg
juice of 1 lemon
splash Tabasco sauce
splash Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup olive oil
In a bowl, whisk together anchovy paste, pressed garlic,
vinegar, egg, lemon juice, Tabasco, Worcestershire, and
grated Parmesan. While whisking continuously, drizzle
oil into mixture until well incorporated and thickened.
---------------------------------------------------------
Dear Uncle Phaedrus:
Thank you so much for your diligent research. I appreciate it very much.
I'll give this one a try as it seems as though the flavor profile should
be very similar. I am excited to have found your website. I'm looking
forward to dropping in every so often!
Regards,
Hillary