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Salad Greens | Butterhead, Crisphead and Leaf

The followng is a list of the most utilized lettuces on the market today. Hopefully, it will make you aware of the rich diversity of color, flavor and texture available for use in your salads. Some of these greens are slightly sweet. Some are very bitter. Some are very delicate. Some can be braised. All of them have the opportunity to be a component in your well thought out salad.

To keep it simple, the list is broken down into catageories: Butterhead, Crisp Heads, Leaf Lettuce, Romaine, Chicory and Endive and Various Greens. Various Greens includes items like Spinach, Watercress, Dandelion, etc.

BUTTERHEAD

Boston and Bibb lettuces are the two most popular butterhead lettuces. Boston lettuce can be easily identified by its loosely formed head. Its leaves have a soft buttery texture and possess a slightly sweet flavor. It is used as a base or background green in salads or appetizers, as well as used as a single green with a specialty dressing. Boston lettuce also balances out the flavor and texture of a mixed salad when added to a group of lettuces which are varied in texture and flavor.

Bibb lettuce, also known as limestone, was developed by a man named John Bibb in Frankfort, Kentucky. It forms a tighter head than Boston and has slightly darker and crisper leaves which still possess a buttery texture. Bibb lettuce has a slightly nutty flavor. Bibb can be utilized in the same manner as Boston.

Baby Green Butter Lettuce and Baby Red Butter Lettuces are both smaller versions of Boston lettuce. The Baby Red has leaves which have rust colored tips, where as the Baby Green matches Boston in color. Both baby lettuces have a clean, fresh flavor and buttery textured leaves. These greens can be used on their own, combined with other greens or used as a garnish. Their clean, fresh flavor combines well with citrus vinaigrettes.

CRISPHEAD
There are a few varieties of crisphead lettuces in the United States. Great Lakes, Imperial, Vangaurd and Western are some that are found, but Iceburg lettuce is the most popular. Iceburg can be identified by its large, round, uniform, tightly packed heads of pale green leaves. It is very bland in flavor, high in moisture and has a pleasant crunchy texture.This lettuce is the result of a need by farmers to be able to produce a crop that would be able to withstand the journey from farm to big city. Farmers needed a lettuce that was pest resistant, tolerant of temperature change and uniform in size. After surviving the journey, it also had to have a long shelf life. Long enough to be displayed in a food market and be purchased and taken home by a customer. Research and development came up with Iceburg lettuce. It became so popular with the public as well as with the purveyors that by the 1950s it completely dominated the lettuce sections of most food markets. Though still popular today, Iceburg has to share the spotlight with other lettuces that provide people with diversity in their diets. Iceburg is not very nutritious. It offers 1/4 as much Iron as Bibb and 1/9 as much Vitamin A as Romaine. Romaine also has three times as much calcium as Iceburg. It should be used as one of many lettuces in mixed greens or cut in a chiffonade and used as a base for appetizers.

LEAF LETTUCE
Leaf is a name given to lettuce whose leaves grow loosely in a bunch from a single stalk, rather than forming a tight head. The leaves of this group are generally more flavorful than those of the butterhead group. The most popular varieties include Red Leaf, Green Leaf, Baby Red Oak, Baby Green Oak and Lolla Rossa.

Red Leaf lettuce has red ruffled leaves while the Green Leaf leaves are light green with a more frilly edge. Both lettuces have a mild sweet flavor and crisp but tender texture.

Baby Oak Leaf lettuces are a sturdy pair of baby greens which are notched like an oak leaf with long, graceful, slender fingers. Red Oak ranges from earthy brown to tips of dark red, while Green Oak is green throughout.

Lolla Rossa is a beautiful loose leaf baby green that has a crinkled edge on its leaves. This edge lends itself very well to holding vinaigrettes. The color of the leaves start out green at the base and change to warm shades of red at the tips.

Any of these lettuces can be added to other greens as a mixed salad or used as a garnish. They are not very often served individually or on their own, as Boston lettuce might be.

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