The Cobb
The 1937 midnight invention: Robert Cobb, the Brown Derby, a hungry studio boss, and a refrigerator raid that became an American institution. The Cobb is not a tossed salad and never was — it is a striped platter, rows of ready ingredients over chopped lettuce, dressed at the table. The rows are the recipe; the file's craft is cooking four small components and plating them in the order that reads.
| Active time | 35 minutes |
| Hands-off time | 20 minutes (eggs, bacon, chicken) |
| Difficulty | Easy — four tiny techniques, one plating law |
| Key techniques | 10-minute eggs, bacon render, 74 °C chicken poach, the row build |
| Make-ahead | components hold 1 day; assembled, dress at service only |
The Cobb
Prep: 35 minutes · Cook: 20 minutes · Total: 55 minutes · 2 as a main, 4 as a side
Ingredients
The foundation
- 400 g (2 hearts) romaine, chopped fine
- 30 g (1 cup) watercress or extra romaine, chopped — the Derby's original ran both
The rows
- 2 large eggs (about 100 g), boiled exactly 10 minutes
- 200 g (7 oz) chicken breast, poached (about 150 g cooked)
- 8 slices bacon (about 150 g), rendered crisp
- 2 avocados (about 400 g), cubed
- 2 tomatoes (about 300 g), seeded and diced
- 100 g (1 cup) crumbled blue cheese — roquefort in the original telling, gorgonzola runs gentler
- 3 scallions (about 60 g), sliced thin
The dressing
- One batch red wine vinaigrette (#6), or the lemon-worcestershire version below
- 1 tsp (5 ml) Worcestershire sauce and the juice of half a lemon (about 20 ml) — whisked into the #6 batch, which is the Derby-faithful move
- 1/4 tsp (0.5 g) finely grated lemon zest, optional but right
Instructions
- Cook the eggs, exactly 10 minutes. Lower the eggs into boiling water and set a timer for 10 minutes — the fully-set yolk a Cobb wants, no jammy center, no green ring (the ring is overcooking's iron-sulfide signature, and 10 minutes in actively boiling water stays just inside the line). Plunge into ice water, then peel. Checkpoint — the yolk is uniform pale gold to its center with no gray rim; the white is tender, not bouncy.
- Render the bacon, 10–12 minutes at medium-low. Lay the strips in a cold pan, turn the heat to medium-low, and cook, turning every few minutes, until the bubbles turn fine and the strips are evenly crisp-shy. They finish crisping on the residual heat out of the pan. Checkpoint — the fat has run clear, the meat reads brick-red rather than gray, and a strip bent with tongs starts to snap, not fold. Drain on paper towels and pour off the fat — the Cobb's dressing carries its richness already.
- Poach the chicken to 74 °C. Bring a pan of water with a pinch of salt to a bare simmer — bubbles just whispering at 85 °C on the pan floor — slide in the chicken breast, cover, and hold 12–15 minutes, until the thickest point reads 74 °C on an instant-read thermometer. Checkpoint — 74 °C at the center, the flesh opaque to the bone of the breast with no pink, and the fibers parting with light pressure. Rest 5 minutes, then cut a small dice. The gentle poach keeps the breast moist through the chill.
- Assemble the rows. The plating law: chopped romaine and watercress spread as the lawn, then ingredients in rows across it — eggs, chicken, bacon, avocado, tomato, blue cheese, scallions — each in its own stripe, touching neighbors but not mixing. The rows are not decoration; they are the serving logic that keeps every ingredient at full strength until the fork does the mixing. Checkpoint — look at the platter from above: seven distinct rows of roughly equal width, none buried under another. If two rows merge, rebuild that stretch — the geometry is the dish.
- Dress at the table. Whisk the Worcestershire and lemon into the #6 vinaigrette, pour it over in a generous zigzag, crack pepper over everything, and serve immediately. Guests fork across the rows to build their own bites, or you toss the whole platter at the table for the family-style collapse. Checkpoint — eating test: a good cross-rows bite carries lettuce crunch, egg richness, bacon salt, avocado fat, tomato acid, and blue cheese funk in one mouthful. That assembly is the Cobb's whole argument — the rows exist to make it repeatable, bite after bite.
- All four cooked components can be made a day ahead and refrigerated (4 °C): the eggs, the bacon, the chicken, even the vinaigrette. Cold components on cold greens is the Cobb's correct temperature — this is a chilled-platter salad by design.
- Set up the plating line before cooking: a wide platter or baking sheet, the ingredients in bowls in plating order. The rows go fast once they start.
- Chicken from a rotisserie is an honest substitute for the poach and the file's weeknight permission.
Doneness & Quality Checkpoints
- Eggs at 10 minutes: set yolk, no green ring
- Bacon crisp-shy out of the pan, crisp on the plate
- Chicken 74 °C at center, rested before the dice
- Seven distinct rows of even width on a cold platter
- Dressed at the table, never in the kitchen
Finish & Plate
A wide platter, not a bowl — the rows need a horizon. The zigzag of dressing at the table, pepper over, serving forks laid across. The Cobb pairs with the #119-style French 75 or just iced tea; it is a meal, and the side-of-four portioning assumes the platter follows a dinner rather than replaces one.
Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Cause | Fix |
|---|---|---|
| Rows slump into a tossed salad | Over-dressed or plated warm | Cold components, dressing at the table only |
| Egg yolk gray-rimmed | Boiled past 10 minutes or slow-cooled | Exact timer, ice bath immediately |
| Chicken dry in the row | Over-poached or sliced before resting | Pull at 74 °C, rest 5 minutes |
| Platter watery | Unseeded tomatoes | Seed them — the gel is 90% of tomato water |
Storage, Make-Ahead & Variations
- Components keep 1 day refrigerated (4 °C) in separate containers; the assembled platter keeps 30 minutes before the avocado and tomato begin their decline. Bacon re-crisps 5 minutes in a 180 °C oven. - Variations: the shrimp Cobb (the poach swaps to 60–63 °C shrimp, 2 minutes); the #31 full-classic seat on this site carries the larding and ribbon details; a vegetarian Cobb with hard cheese and egg running the protein rows.