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Gratinated Crusts with Lettuce

A gratin of lettuce, pork, veal, carrots, and onions topped with toasted bread and baked until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,451 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Gratinated Crusts with Lettuce

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the lettuce

  1. Trim the lettuce, then wash it in cold water.

  2. Parboil the lettuce for 10 minutes, then immerse it in cold water.

  3. Press the lettuce dry.

  4. Arrange the lettuce leaves and tie them to keep their shape.

Braise

  1. Line a deep saucepan with fat pork, veal trimmings, carrots, and onion.

  2. Add the lettuce, a faggot of parsley, bay leaf, and cloves.

  3. Cover the pot with more fat pork.

  4. Moisten with broth and boil the contents.

  5. Cover and cook slowly until tender.

  6. Remove the lettuce.

  7. Cut the lettuce lengthwise.

  8. Strain the cooking gravy.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the lettuce in a deep baking dish with layers of toasted bread.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Pour the gravy over the lettuce and toast.

  4. Bake in the oven at 300°F (150°C) until nicely browned.

  5. Remove excess grease before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Lettuce + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together976 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Lettuce
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender and soft as it braises.
Fat pork
Adds fat and savoury flavour that enriches the braising liquid and keeps the lettuce moist.
Veal trimmings
Contribute gelatine and meaty flavour to the broth and gravy.
Broth
Provides the liquid that braises the lettuce and forms the gravy.
Toasted bread
Soaks up gravy and browns on top, adding texture to the gratin.

The step that matters

Press the lettuce dry. Excess water left on the leaves dilutes the gravy and can make the gratin soggy, so the leaves should be squeezed dry before they are tied and braised.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lettuce, pork, veal, carrot, onion, bread, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lettuce, pork, veal, carrot, onion, bread, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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