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Lettuce, Boiled
Wash four or five lettuces thoroughly, cut away the thick bitter stalks, but retain all the sound leaves, whether green or white. Boil them ten or fifteen minutes in plenty of salted water, then throw them for a minute into cold water, strain, and chop them lightly. Put them into a stewpan with a pint of good white sauce. Season them with salt, pepper, and a quarter of a nutmeg, grated, and simmer gently until quite hot. Draw the saucepan to the side for a minute, and stir among the lettuces the well-beaten yolks of two eggs. Probable cost, 1s. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A Victorian way with lettuce that treats it as a hot vegetable rather than salad. Nothing here is difficult, but two steps decide whether it comes out silky or watery and curdled.
- The hinge: the yolk liaisonOnce the beaten yolks go in, the sauce must not boil or it will scramble into grains. Pull the pan off the heat entirely, stir the yolks in, and if it needs more warmth return it to the lowest possible flame for under a minute.
- Squeeze the lettuce dryThe recipe says strain, but strained boiled lettuce still holds a great deal of water that will thin the sauce to soup. Press it hard in a sieve or wring it in a clean towel before chopping.
- Which lettuceThe recipe does not name a variety, but cos (romaine) suits it best: firm ribs, leaves that hold shape in water. Modern soft butterheads and bagged leaf lettuce collapse to nothing.
- Ten to fifteen minutes is longTen to fifteen minutes is long by modern standards -- with today's tenderer heads, 4 to 6 minutes in well-salted water is likely to be enough; they are then cooked, not disintegrated.
- A pint of white sauceAn imperial pint, so 20 fl oz, near enough 2 1/2 US cups. "Good white sauce" here means béchamel made with a proper roux and infused milk, not a thin flour-and-water binding.
- A quarter of a nutmegGrated whole, that is roughly half to three-quarters of a teaspoon of ground nutmeg, enough to dominate the dish for many modern palates. A quarter teaspoon, tasted and adjusted, is nearer current practice.
- The cold-water dipThrowing the leaves into cold water sets the colour and stops the cooking. Have a bowl of iced water ready before the lettuce goes into the pot.
- ServingEnough for four or five as a vegetable course alongside roast or boiled meat. It is not a salad and not a main dish; serve it hot, in a warmed dish, straight after the yolks go in.
Boiled and braised lettuce was ordinary vegetable cookery in Britain and France long before salad became lettuce's only job. Cos varieties, grown tall and tied to blanch their hearts, gave kitchen gardens more lettuce than any household could eat raw in high summer, and cooking it was plausibly the sensible answer to a glut. Cassell's places the dish among the general vegetable entries of a book aimed at middle-class households running on a kitchen garden and a cook, and the finish here is the classic French liaison: a white sauce enriched off the heat with egg yolks, the same technique behind a blanquette or a fricassee. The costing of one shilling, given as a matter of course, is a reminder that these dictionaries were budgeting tools as much as cookbooks; the mistress of the house is often said to have checked the day's expenditure against the page.