North America · Volume 34, The Hollow, the Ridge and the Mill Town
Killed Lettuce Salad
Appalachia, United States
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 10 minutes
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
As tradition built it
Killed Lettuce Salad
Serves 4. About 10 minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 large head leaf lettuce, torn
- 150g bacon, diced
- 2 tbsp vinegar
- 1 tsp sugar
- several, sliced sliced green onion, to finish
Method
- Fry the bacon until crisp, then remove with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat in the pan.
- Stir the vinegar and sugar into the hot bacon fat and bring briefly to a bubble.
- Pour the hot dressing straight over the torn lettuce in a bowl, tossing quickly so the leaves wilt but do not fully collapse.
- Scatter over the crisp bacon and green onion, and serve at once, while the leaves are still warm at the edges and crisp at the centre.
What a modern chef changes
The same shock of hot fat on cold leaf, controlled rather than eyeballed.
Rung uncited, a direct-heat contrast technique.
Method
- Render the bacon fat separately and hold it at a precise 90°C, hot enough to wilt the leaf's surface on contact without cooking it through, giving a consistent, repeatable result rather than whatever the pan happens to be at.
- Dress only the outer third of each leaf, leaving the heart raw and cold, so a single plate carries both textures the traditional version gives across a whole bowl by chance.