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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.
A classic French braise of lettuce, written for a coal range with ash-banked lids. It transfers cleanly to a low oven, and the technique hinges on getting the water out of the leaves before they go into the pan.
- Choose the right lettuce"Firm, white hearts" means a dense head — romaine hearts, Little Gem or a tight iceberg-type — not loose leaf or butterhead, which collapse to nothing. Allow one head per person if small, half a large romaine each.
- Refresh means shockAfter the five-minute blanch, drop the heads into ice water to stop the cooking and set the colour. Then squeeze them firmly between your palms or in a towel; residual water dilutes the braise and prevents the glaze from forming.
- Unskimmed brothStock with its fat left on, which is doing the work of added butter here. A good homemade chicken or veal stock, unstrained of fat, is right; if using commercial low-fat stock, add a tablespoon of butter per cup.
- BaconPeriod bacon was often saltier and more heavily smoked than most supermarket streaky. Blanch the slices briefly in water first if yours is aggressively cured, or use unsmoked pancetta, so the reduced glaze does not turn harsh.
- The greased paperA cartouche — parchment cut to the pan diameter and buttered on the underside — laid directly on the lettuces. It keeps them submerged and stops the tops drying while liquid reduces. Worth doing rather than substituting a lid alone.
- Ashes on the lid means a low ovenAshes on the lid means all-round heat -- Hot ashes above and a moderate fire below give gentle heat from every side; a covered dish in a moderate oven is the nearest modern equivalent. The recipe gives no temperature, so treat any figure as an approximation. An hour and a quarter is not excessive for whole heads, but check at 45 minutes.
- Reduced to a glazeIf liquid remains when the lettuces are tender, lift them out and boil the braising liquid down hard until it coats a spoon. That reduction is the flavour of the dish, and it can stand in for the brown sauce if you have none.
- ServingFolded lettuce heads are traditionally served as a vegetable course or beside roast veal, lamb or poultry. Two heads make a side for four.
Braised lettuce is a French kitchen staple — laitues brais\one one for any firm, watery vegetable: blanch, press, then braise slowly on a bed of pork fat with stock, so the vegetable takes on the flavour of the meat rather than the other way round. The instruction about hot ashes on the lid of the stewpan places the text in the era of hearth and range cookery, when a cook created top heat by banking embers onto a flat pot lid. That lettuce should be cooked at all surprises modern readers.