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Cream of Lettuce

A creamy lettuce soup made with butter, rice, milk, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cream of Lettuce

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Wash, drain, and chop two heads of fresh lettuce finely with half a small white onion.

Make the soup

  1. Put the lettuce and onion in a saucepan with two heaping tablespoonfuls of butter.

  2. Cook for about ten minutes, stirring constantly.

  3. Add two heaping tablespoonfuls of rice and a quart of milk.

  4. Let it boil for twenty minutes until the rice is tender.

Strain

  1. Remove from the fire and press the mixture through a puree sieve using a small potato masher.

  2. Strain and press again through a fine hair sieve to make it smooth.

Finish and serve

  1. Season with salt to taste, a dash of cayenne pepper, and a small half teaspoonful of sugar.

  2. In a fresh saucepan, rub together two heaping teaspoonfuls of butter and an even teaspoonful of cornstarch and stir into the soup.

  3. Let it come to the boiling point and remove from the fire.

  4. Add a quarter of a cupful of whipped cream at the last moment.

  5. Serve with or without fried croutons.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

577Calories
14 gProtein
26 gFat
74 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Lettuce (in the method)
Forms the body of the soup and supplies its fresh, green flavour.
Milk
Creates the creamy base and gives a gentle, mild sweetness.
Rice
Starch that thickens the soup as it simmers until tender.
Butter
Fat that carries flavour and gives the soup a rich, smooth texture.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, silky finish when stirred in at the end.

The step that matters

Adding the whipped cream at the last moment. Whipped cream holds air in its fat structure. Prolonged heat deflates it and can make the cream separate, so it should be stirred in off the heat, just before serving.

“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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