Baked Stuffed Lettuce

Pick, clean, pare and thoroughly wash half a dozen lettuce heads, parboil them for five minutes, drain thoroughly and fill the insides with sausage forcemeat. Tie each head and put them into a stewpan, laying down carefully and adding one gill of Madeira sauce and white broth. Season to taste with salt and pepper, cover with buttered paper and cook in the oven for fifteen minutes. Arrange on a hot dish, untie, pour the sauce over, and serve.

Braised Lettuces

Select some fresh lettuces with firm, white hearts, wash thoroughly in several waters and plunge them into a saucepan of boiling water and boil for five minutes. Take out the lettuces with a skimmer, refresh, then press well with the hands to extract as much of the water as possible. Put some thin slices of bacon at the bottom of a stewpan, fold the lettuces, lay them in, season well and cover with unskimmed broth. Place a sheet of greased paper over the lettuces and braise for an hour and a quarter over a moderate fire with hot ashes on the lid of the stewpan. When the mixture is reduced to a glaze drain the lettuces, put them on a hot dish, pour over some brown sauce or rich gravy, and serve at once.

Stewed Lettuce

Trim off the outside leaves of some lettuce, blanch in boiling water, rinse in cold water and tie together in twos. Line a saucepan with buttered paper, put in the lettuce with some herbs, a few chopped onions, season, cover with stock. When boiling remove the saucepan to the side of the fire and let it simmer for two hours. Take the lettuces out, untie and put on a hot dish; reduce the liquor in which they were cooked, strain through a sieve and pour over. Serve while hot.

Braised Stuffed Lettuces

Select the required quantity of lettuces, trim, wash, blanch and drain them; then cut out the middle leaves carefully, fill the hollow with a fowl and truffle forcemeat and tie the lettuces round with a string; line a stewpan with some pieces of veal, sliced, put in some chopped carrots, onions and a bunch of sweet herbs and the lettuces. Moisten the latter to half their height with stock and braise. Warm some bechamel sauce together with the yolk of an egg, place the lettuces on a hot dish, and serve with the sauce poured over them.