[Sca-cooks] OOP QUESTION ABOUT LETTUCE

[Philip & Susan Troy]

Seton1355 at aol.com wrote:
> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> Please forgive the OOP question but I am tired of throwing out bags of
> lettuce.
>
> When I buy a bag of premade "salad", well it's mostly cut up lettuce, it goes
> bad so quickly.  And if I buy a head of lettuce, it goes brown quickly.
>
> What can I do to save the lettuce from spoiling too soon?
> Phillipa

Ventilation and drainage are pretty much the key.

First off, you can buy Ziploc bags with tiny little holes in them; they
are specifically made for storing vegetables, and sometimes come in
handy. For lettuce, it's a good idea to wrap your head of lettuce up in
perhaps three squares of paper towel, then bag it either in such a
perforated bag, or else in its original shipping bag from the store
(assuming it came in one).

Pre-cut salad needs to have both drainage and some limited exposure to
air (I used to be a rather upscale-type buffet chef, and saving greens
for more than one day became sort of an obsession of mine). Try a large
tupperware or other plastic container, such as half-gallons of
inexpensive ice cream come in. Line the bottom with a pad made, again,
from dry sheets of paper towel, folded so they'll lie flat. Add your
salad greens. Top completely with a damp (as in, wet but squeezed out)
sheet of paper towel. You can then refrigerate this as is for one night
or so. If, for some reason, you want to keep it for two days, perhaps,
and then use it, some plaswrap on top wouldn't be a bad idea. You could
also use a bowl lined with a colander or strainer (assuming there's a
little space between them) and cover it all with a damp dishtowel. We
used to use perforated hotel pans in restaurant kirchens for this.

Basically, the object is to keep it moist without allowing moisture to
pool at the bottom.

Also, don't store lettuce with either apples or those hard tomatoes from
the supermarket; some of these are artificially ripened with some kind
of gas whose residue messes up your lettuce and other delicate produce
on contact.

HTH

Adamantius
--
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com

"It was so blatant that Roger threw at him.  Clemens gets away with
things that get other people thrown out of games.  As long as they
let him get away with it, it's going  to continue." -- Joe Torre, 9/98