Preserved Lettuce Whole
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the lettuce
Trim off the outer leaves of the lettuce heads.
Wash the lettuce in cold water.
Parboil the lettuce in lightly salted water for 10 minutes.
Immerse the lettuce in cold water.
Dry the lettuce on a napkin.
Cook the lettuce
Arrange the lettuce in a flat saucepan.
Moisten the lettuce with enough broth to cover.
Cook the lettuce until tender.
Drain the lettuce on a napkin.
Pack and seal
Cut out the stalks of the lettuce.
Halve the lettuce heads lengthwise.
Lay the tops close together.
Pack the lettuce into square quart tin cans like asparagus.
Cover the contents with lightly salted water.
Solder on the covers.
Boil the cans in a hot water bath for 2 hours.
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
What each ingredient does
- Lettuce heads
- Form the bulk of the preserve and soften into a tender, edible texture during cooking.
- Broth
- Moistens the lettuce during cooking, adding savory flavor and keeping it from drying out.
The step that matters
Boil the cans in a hot water bath for 2 hours. Sealed cans must be heated long enough to bring the contents through the whole process so harmful microbes are destroyed and the food keeps. Too short a bath risks spoilage in the sealed can.
“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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