How to cook lettuce
Information for lettuce in our free cooking ingredients collection.
Lettuce
Lettuce is a salad green that grows in forms ranging from tightly compacted heads to loose leaves, depending on the variety. The leaves are pale to dark green or green with red edges, crisp, and mild to pungent.
Family - Asteraceae
Scientific name - Lactuca sativa
Common name - lettuce
Depending on the variety, lettuce can be a good source of folate and a good to excellent source of vitamin C
Varieties
Four basic types of lettuce are grown: head lettuce, loose leaf, butterhead, and romaine. The most common, popular variety is iceberg, a compact head lettuce that is pale green and has a delicate flavor. Loose leaf lettuce forms rosettes of crisp, curly leaves 8 to 12 inches long and includes the red-edged varieties. The mild butterhead lettuce, including the Boston and Bibb varieties, has a softly compressed head, 8 to 12 inches across, of grass-green leaves that fade to a lighter yellowish green in the interior. Romaine lettuce forms a dark-green, tightly compressed head of leaves about 10 inches long and has a stronger, more pungent flavor than the other varieties.
Origin and botanical facts
The cultivation of lettuce dates back more than 2,500 years. From early Rome, where many varieties were developed, its popularity spread throughout Europe and Asia. In 1885, an American agricultural report listed 87 varieties, considerably more than the 4 commonly available in today’s markets. In the United States, lettuce ranks a close second to potatoes as the most popular fresh vegetable. The four leading American producers are California, Arizona, Florida, and Colorado.
Lettuce is cultivated by direct seeding into fields or by seedling transplantation into raised beds. Loose leaf lettuce matures about 6 weeks after seeds are sown; other types take longer to mature. Romaine takes the longest (up to 12 weeks). Head lettuce is harvested when the heads reach about 2 pounds. Because lettuce is very perishable, harvesting is done by hand, and the crop is packed directly into boxes in the field. Head lettuce, which is the hardiest, can be shipped long distances without damage, but leaf lettuce is more fragile and usually is grown for local and regional markets.
How to cook lettuce
Lettuce should be used as soon after purchase as possible, but if it must be stored, leaves that are wilting should be removed. Unwashed lettuce can be kept 3 to 4 days at most in a perforated plastic bag in the vegetable crisper of the refrigerator. Lettuce is most often eaten raw in salads and sandwiches. Iceberg, leaf, or romaine works well in Greek salad; romaine is often used for Caesar salad. Combinations of lettuce varieties make for tastier and more nutritious salads. A salad spinner improves the quality of salads by drying the greens quickly and completely. In addition to being used in salads, lettuce leaves can be used to hold cooked vegetables, sandwich fillings, and condiments.
Nutrient composition
Romaine and loose leaf lettuce contain five to six times the vitamin C and five to ten times the vitamin A of iceberg. Romaine and butterhead lettuce are good sources of folate.
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