The wedge of iceberg drowning in a thick dressing was replaced with vinaigrette-tossed leaf lettuces (especially romaine) and smaller, more exotic "designer" greens, all more nutritional and more flavorful than the "neutral" iceberg. Quartered, shredded, its leaves pulled off and transformed into cups for canned pears, it knew no rival until the 1970s when Caesar Chavez called for a boycott to protest the working conditions of California lettuce pickers.
Iceberg Lettuce Boycotted? "There once was a time-before the arrival of mesclun, frisee, endive, spring mix, packaged salads, radicchio and arugula-when iceberg lettuce dominated the produce aisle. Before that people had to depend on what you could grow locally and preserve from the gardens. Year around and all the way as far as Maine, as the train pulled into each stop, folks would call out excitedly, "The icebergs are coming, the icebergs are coming!" The name would stick. Using ice they carefully covered the heads of lettuce and shipped them 12 June 2007.How Crisphead lettuce became known as Iceberg lettuceīruce Church founder of Fresh Express, was responsible for popularizing the idea of shipping lettuce across the US continent from Salinas, California to the spots on the East coast. The lettuce was being referred to as Roman lettuce as early as 1577: “The greater which will become crisped and thick (named of divers, the Romane Lettice) that yieldeth white and far bigger leaves… If the owner would possesse faire and white Lettices, he ought to bind the leaves up together with a thread.” - Thomas Hill. The lettuces that the Romans had were still quite bitter compared to ours today, though they did some work on breeding the bitterness out of them. From the Middle East, the lettuce had made its way to Italy, and from there to Europe, thus its name of “Roman” lettuce, or Romaine. That being said, there is no evidence the Romans had the exact Romaine lettuce that we have today, or that it was served in a Caesar salad to Caesar or any other emperor.
The Romans would have had these varieties, and may have introduced them into Britain. Romaine type lettuces are amongst the oldest, and seem to be the upright ones depicted in Egyptian tombs. With the Arabic word for lettuce being “khas”, this is a likelier source of the name “cos.” Romaine was, however, grown quite widely throughout the Middle East before then by the Arabs. Some speculate that, because of one of this lettuce’s alternative names of “Cos”, it may have originated on an island off the coast of Turkey called Kos. In 2011, the Daily Telegraph reported that sales of Cos (Romaine) lettuce were falling in favour of more bitter-tasting leaves such as rocket, radicchio and watercress. Some attributed the growth in sales to the continued increase in popularity of Caesar Salad. In 2007, Jacob Adelman of the Associated Press reported that romaine lettuce acreage was up from 36,450 acres (1998) to 61,000 acres in 2006. Store in fridge unwashed in plastic bag for up to a week. If you need lots of really nice looking small pieces, consider using instead Little Gem Lettuce.ġ pound lettuce = 450g = approx 6 cups tornĨ oz shredded lettuce = 200g = 4 cups Storage Hints To use, break off the leaves that you need, wash, dry, then break them by hand into the sizes that you need for what you are making. Varieties of Red Romaine include Rosaltia and Sweet Valentine.
Red Romaine variety is more dramatic, with the red tinges at its tips, but the leaves are softer and less crisp. Romaine’s most well-known use has been for Caesar salad. Varieties include Darkland, Medallion, Romulus and Signal. When buying, choose bunches with firm leaves that hold tight together. In growing Romaine, producers can face the problem of “lettuce dieback disease” which can wipe out entire fields and to which Romaine is very susceptible. The crunch comes from the ribs in the leaves. Romaine has the crunch of Iceberg Lettuce, but with more flavour. The inside leaves are pale with yellowish ribs and a sweet taste. Romaine Lettuce grows 8 to 9 inches tall (20 to 23 cm), with long, green, crisp leaves that are rounded at the ends.
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