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Lettuce, Stewed

A simple stew of boiled lettuce with butter, gravy, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lettuce and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,037 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Lettuce, Stewed

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lettuce

  1. Trim the outer leaves and bitter stalks from the lettuces and wash them carefully.

  2. Boil the lettuces in plenty of salted water until tender.

  3. Lift them into a colander, squeeze out the water, then chop slightly.

Make the stew

  1. In a clean saucepan, combine the chopped lettuces with pepper, salt, and butter.

  2. Dredge a little flour over the mixture and pour in the gravy.

  3. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring continuously.

Serve

  1. Squeeze vinegar or lemon juice over the dish and serve hot with fried sippets.

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. Lettuce + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,037 recipes

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

  2. Lettuce + flourtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,236 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Pepper + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Lettuce + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,370 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Lettuces
Form the bulk of the dish and, once cooked, soften into a tender, spoonable texture.
Butter
Adds richness and a silky mouthfeel to the stewed lettuce.
Flour
Lightly thickens the gravy and liquid so the stew clings to the lettuce.
Gravy
Provides savoury, meaty flavour and the cooking liquid for the stew.
Vinegar or lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich, savoury stew just before serving.

The step that matters

Simmer gently while stirring. Flour thickens the gravy only as it heats, and it can settle and scorch on the pan base if the heat is high or stirring stops. Gentle, constant stirring keeps the sauce smooth and evenly thickened.

Swap the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, butter, vinegar, flour):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, butter, vinegar, flour. 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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