Lettuce With Consomme (Garbure)

Gratinated Crusts With Lettuce

No. 825. - Trim one dozen heads of Lettuce, wash them well in cold water and then parboil them for ten minutes. Then immerse them in cold water and press them dry in the hands. Arrange the leaves nicely and tie them so they will keep their shape. Now prepare a deep, fiat saucepan lined with thin slices of fat pork, some trimmings of veal, four sliced carrots and one sliced onion. Then put the Lettuce in and add a faggot of parsley garnished with one bay leaf and three cloves. Cover it all with thin slices of fat pork and moisten with enough broth to cover it. Set it on the fire to boil. Then cover the saucepan and set it on one side to cook slowly until tender. Then take them out carefully, place them on a clean board, take off the strings and cut them in two or three parts, lengthwise. Put in a deep baking dish some thin slices of toasted bread, then a layer of Lettuce, and continue this way until the dish is full. Season with salt and pepper. Then strain off the gravy that they were cooked in, and pour it over the Lettuce and toast to cover it. Then set the dish in an oven to cook slowly until nicely browned. Before serving, take off the grease and serve with a soup tureen of consomme.

Lettuce Water For Invalids

No. 826. - Wash and clean three heads of Lettuce, and soak them in one quart of boiling water for one hour. Then strain it through a napkin. Season with a little sugar, and take a cupful one hour before each meal for several days. It is recommended for those whose stomachs are deranged and also for those afflicted with nervousness.

Preserved Lettuce Whole

No 827. - Select three dozen fresh picked heads of Lettuce and trim off the outer leaves. Wash them well in cold water, and then parboil them for ten minutes in water lightly salted. Then immerse them in cold water and dry them on a napkin. Then arrange them in a flat saucepan and moisten them with enough broth to cover them. Let them cook until tender, and then drain them on a napkin. Cut out the stalks, and then cut the heads of Lettuce in half, lengthwise, laying the tops over in the middle close together, so they will not curl outward. Then put them in square quart tin cans, the same way that you would arrange asparagus. Cover them with water lightly salted, solder on the covers and boil the tin cans in a hot water bath for two hours.

Preserved Lettuce, In Cans

No. 828. - Prepare them as endives are prepared. See Article LXXXVII, No. 828.

Lettuce When Used In Vegetable Soups

No. 829. - Use the green tender leaves and wash them well to keep them green. Then cut them in shreds or with a cutter and put them in boiling water to cook for a few minutes. After this immerse them in cold water, then drain them and put them in soup when ready to serve.