The Washington herald., 1911-10-09
MUCH LETTUCE GOES
TO WASTE IN FALL
Because Housekeepers Do Not
Know Its Uses.

There is a great deal of good lettuce
going to waste in kitchen gardens in
these days paca lse 1t is considered a
| little old for a green salad. There is d
great deal of lettuce wasted the year
! around. for that matter, for even the
coarsest of the outside leaves of a head
of lettuce or romaine can be stewed
making an agreeable green if rightly
| treated, or a cooked lettuce salad. The
French use these leaves in their vegeta-
BILE purees, If they do not utilize them IN
some other manner.
/ The blancned part of lettuce does not
make a pretty looking food boiled, and
| il is a waste to treat it thus, since II
makes the most desirable of green salads;
! but the outside leaves of almost any
lettuce, including the curly leaved en-
dive or chicory, should not be thrown
away, as they almost universally are
The coarse midrib of the romaine must
be stripped and discarded, but otherwise
the coarser parts are usable.
Lettuce leaves have a strange way OF
willing If on ,op of hot water, so it is
best before putting them on to cook to
tie them in bundles heavy enough to stay
under water, or to press them down with
a plate.
Lettuce Green.
Nearly or quite all OF the very/numer-
Gus varieties of lettuce may be cooked
as greens. The French use the chicory
or curly leaved lettuce or endive raw,
picked. fried, or boiled. There is consid-
cradle difference of opinion as to whether
this lettuce shall be called endive at all,
but some French people give 1t that
name, so do the gardening books, and
haN done
many of them now say chicory since the
real French endive is being so largely
imported every winter.
Lettuce greens MAJ be treated pre-
cisely like spinach, or, in order TO give
them a more decided flavor, they may
be fixed up with some strong condiment.
They are really very good with butter
simply if the eater likes greens OF almost
any sort.
Lettuce really has more uses than is
commonly supposed. 1t was formerly
eaten after dinner instead of with it, TO
cure drunkenness. In the eighteenth CEN
tury, or even before, il was evidently
used in the manufacture of a wine, for
the poet Pope says: IF your wish be
rest, lettuce and cowslip wine probatum
est"
The following is an old recipe for
'stewed lettuces:" Strip out the outer
the lettuces with exceeding nicely, and
throw them into water salted as for all
green vegetables. When they are quite
tender, which will be in from twenty to
thirty minutes, according to their age,
! lift them out and press the water thor
oughly from them; chop them little
and heat them in clean saucepan with
a seasoning Of salt and pepper and
small slice of butter; then dredge in a
49,. r-,1T a
small cup of broth or gravy, boil them
quickly until they are tolerably dry, then
str - a little pale vinegar or lemon
juic, ,ri serve them as hot as possible
with friend sippets around them.
Lettuce a la MiIanO.
Boil as for spinach. run through a
coarse strainer, and finish with flour,
butter, and a little milk and sugar. the
same as for spinach. Garnish with small
triangles of toast.
Dutched lettuces English recipc).-
Wash a couple of lettuces, separate the
leaves, and tear each leaf into two or
three pieces. Cut up a quarter of a
pound of bacon into dice and fry till
brown and while hot add two teaspoons
Of vinegar. Beat an egg till light and
put to it two tablespoons of sour cream.
Mix it with the bacon. and stir over the
fire a minute until it thickens. Pour
this boiling hot over the lettuce, mix
well, and serve quickly.
There are many variations of this last
way of treating lettuce. Bacon may be
fried broken up in small pieces. and
scattered over lettuce, and eaten with a
French dressing. or bacon drippings may
be combined with vinegar and salt and
pepper and poured hot over the lettuce.
which methods result in what is called
"wilted lettuce"