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Gratinated Crusts with Lettuce

A gratin of lettuce, pork, veal, carrots, and onions topped with toasted bread and served with consommé.

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 and wash the lettuce in cold water, then parboil for 10 minutes.

  2. Immerse in cold water and press dry.

  3. Arrange and tie the leaves to keep their shape.

Braise

  1. In a deep, flat saucepan, layer with fat pork, veal trimmings, carrots, and onion.

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

  3. Cover with more fat pork and moisten with broth.

  4. Bring to a boil, then cover and cook slowly until tender.

Bake and serve

  1. Carefully remove the lettuce, cut into 2 or 3 parts lengthwise.

  2. In a deep baking dish, layer toasted bread and lettuce until full.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Strain the cooking gravy and pour over the lettuce and toast.

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

  6. Remove excess grease before serving with consommé.

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 body of the dish, becoming tender and absorbing the flavours of the braising liquid.
Fat pork
Adds fat that enriches the braising liquid and keeps the lettuce moist during slow cooking.
Veal trimmings
Contribute savoury meaty flavour and gelatin to the braising gravy.
Broth
Provides the liquid that gently cooks the lettuce and forms the gravy poured over the dish.
Thin slices of toasted bread
Soak up the strained gravy, adding body and a toasted base layer.

The step that matters

Cook slowly until tender. Gentle simmering breaks down the lettuce's tough fibres and collagen in the meat without boiling it to mush, and keeps the leaves intact and moist.

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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