How important are anchovies in a Caesar Salad?

The original recipe for Caesar Salad did not have anchovies, so there is no need to use them. The taste of anchovy came from the Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce. If you have some of that, you could add a tiny amount. If not, don't worry about it.

Some people use anchovy paste, or some substitute with bacon crumbled in the salad.

Julia Child had an episode about Caesar salad on her show, and she referred to the inventor's daughter, Rosa Cardini. Here is Julia's advice about the salad, along with the original recipe method (no anchovies):

Caesar Dressing Recipe No Anchovies

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Depends on your audience - I personally don't miss the anchoives - and I 'like' anchovies.

You may be able to find anchovy paste at the grocery that will work just fine in a pinch if you decide to go all in on the salad. Comes in a little squeeze tube.

Other things that may work well enough. Fish oil gel caps (just poke a hole the cap and add a little fish oil and salt.

Thai Fish sauce - just a little (already salty).

As long as I wasn't catering the dish (ie getting paid to deliver genuine ceasar salad) I would skip the anchovies. Friends and family won't care.

Mine wouldn't have any anchovies in it at all by the time I picked them out. I really hate anchovies. Why not simply serve a green salad for Christmas? It's very good with Romaine lettuce, baby spinach, & spring green with such things as dandelion greens. You can add a creamy goddess type dressing, a spoonful of tahini, a dollop of hummus, & a spicy peach salsa. yum, yum.

Just forget those awful anchovies. Not everybody likes them anyway, & some will even cringe at the thought. No ham, bacon, or other meat in it either, or the vegetarians will have to pass up the salad, too. Some people use baby shrimp, but I would try to pick around them, the shrimp that is. Then I suppose that it would be the host's cat who would get them.

Substitute anchovy paste. Whole anchovies are rarely used in restaurants anymore.

Both packed anchovies and anchovy paste are readily available in grocery stores, usually near the canned tuna.

Really won't make too much difference in flavor. A bit of Vegemite or Marmite will give the umami flavor

Caesar dressing always had anchovies in their recipes. It was only until recently that manufacturers started taking them out to save $. I add my own anchovies to bottled dressing so as to get authentic taste I crave. No anchovies makes it taste more like a doughnut glaze than a salad dressing - bleech!

Anchovies are tiny saltwater fish, about 7.5cm/3inches long and are related to the Herring belonging to the family Clupeidae. They can be cooked fresh but are not always easy to get hold of and are usually sold packed in salt, tinned in oil, as a paste in jars or tubes, or as a sauce. They are also popularly used as a stuffing for olives. Origins The true anchovy is to be found in the Mediterranean and southern European coastlines and are regularly caught off the coasts of Sicily, Italy, France and Spain. The range of the species also extends along the Atlantic coast of Europe to the south of Norway and in winter , it's common off Devon and Cornwall in the UK. Having said that, there are many other fish known as "anchovy" to be found the world over.

Not important enough to risk spoiling the salad by adding some sort of substitute, either have the anchovies,or not.

I actually never add anchovies to a Caesar salad - I don't think they are particularly important.

You could add small bits of bacon instead to give it a little extra (or prosciutto ham)