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Head Lettuce, Roquefort Dressing
1 solid head lettuce 1/2 cup French dressing 1 segment Roquefort cheese Break up cheese, mash until smooth, add to French dressing. Pour over lettuce which has been cut in fourths and thoroughly washed and crisped.
A wedge salad in three lines. The only real decisions are how much cheese goes into the dressing and how cold and dry the lettuce is when it meets it.
- "1 segment Roquefort"An imprecise measure even at the time — it means a wedge cut from a wheel, not a fixed weight. Figure 1 1/2 to 2 oz of cheese for the half cup of dressing; more than that and it stops pouring.
- French dressing meant vinaigretteIn a book of this period French dressing is oil and vinegar, roughly three to one, with salt and pepper and sometimes a little mustard or paprika. It is not the sweet orange bottled dressing that later took the name.
- Head lettuce means icebergHead lettuce means a firm-headed lettuce -- crisphead (iceberg) or a butterhead such as Boston. Crisphead is what holds up best as a quartered wedge under a heavy dressing. Romaine hearts work; loose-leaf lettuces collapse.
- Mashing the cheeseWork the cheese to a paste with a fork before any liquid goes near it, then beat the dressing in a little at a time. Adding the cheese to a full half cup at once leaves lumps that never break down.
- Crisping the lettuceWash the whole head, shake it out, and refrigerate it wrapped in a towel for an hour or more before cutting. Surface water thins the dressing and keeps it from clinging.
- Substitute cheeseRoquefort is sheep's milk and quite salty. Any firm blue will do, but taste the dressing before you salt it.
- Yield and timingOne head quartered serves four. Dress at the table or immediately before serving; wedges left standing in vinaigrette soften and weep.