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Aren't we foodies a funny bunch?

It was not that long ago when baby field greens came into our sightline. What a revelation they were to people like us!

The mesclun salad was born and it stormed our palates. It made all the other types of lettuce seem brutish. But now I look at those emaciated, limp little leaves and I find myself thinking. Is that all there is?

These greens were exciting when they were new. They were difficult to find too far from the fields of which they were harvested. That's because they were difficult to store & transport.

We loved them and we let them take over our salad plates. Not just because they were new, but also because by their very nature they had to be eaten at their freshest and most flavorful.

But now, thanks to new fangled processing methods these greens can be shipped in special bags in which the oxygen has been removed and replaced with nitrogen. This unnatural environment helps retain their fresh green color. But that's about all that remains fresh. Because I have noticed the taste has deteriorated. Sure the process has made these mixes available at the supermarket, though it often consists of inferior greens mixed with radicchio, which is strictly added for color, and does not belong anywhere near delicate flavored baby field greens.

So what are we foodies to do until the next leafy green food fad comes along?

I say, let's look backwards! Today I am bringing you a retro-style Iceberg Wedge Salad with Creamy Buttermilk Dressing.

That's right. I said Iceberg.

Remember Iceberg lettuce? It was the lettuce of your childhood: A big, round ball wrapped in cellophane, ready to be torn apart to adorn a juicy burger, or sliced thin and snuggled inside crunchy tacos, or best yet, smothered under a thick and creamy salad dressing.

In truth iceberg never really went away. It remains the nation's dominant lettuce, but we foodies have given it the cold shoulder lately. In 2006, 174,600 acres of iceberg lettuce were harvested in the United States, down from 198,500 acres in 1998. That's our fault. Yours and mine.

Iceberg lettuce, formerly known as Crisphead lettuce, got its "new" name from the ice-filled train cars in which it was shipped from California to the rest of the lettuce-deprived world in the 1930s. At that time, Iceberg was the only variety of lettuce hearty enough to survive the trip without being damaged by the ice in which it was packed.

The poor quality mesclun that has dominated my life lately has made a convert of me. Because I've found myself making salads made with Iceberg lettuce. It's no longer my nemesis! I have given it a mental makeover. I have even convinced myself I have I always loved it! "We are at war with Eurasia and we have always been at war with Eurasia." (Orwell 1984)

So when I love a certain food. I read up on it. I research it. I learned that James Beard, the father of American gastronomy, was a fan. He defended Iceberg by saying: "Many people damn it, but it adds good flavor and a wonderfully crisp texture to a salad." Well, then my conversion become rock solid.

So I went and clicked my keyboard on over to Food Timeline. 

It is a great resource when you want to learn how the foods we enjoy today evolved. It is the resource for the great recipes I am presenting below.

Despite the great research,  in the end I let a few of my more modern sensibilities take over and came up with an updated version. I made my wedge salad with a simple (slightly) lighter buttermilk dressing, though it's still creamy and retro chic. My recipe for an Iceberg Wedge Salad with Creamy Buttermilk Dressing can be found here.

Still, there were some pretty great earlier versions dating all the way back to 1914. Since my simple recipe owes homage to these recipes (and others) I have included (some) of them here.

Lettuce Salad and Roquefort Dressing

• Lettuce hearts
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/4 teaspoonful dry mustard
• 1 saltspoonful salt
• 1 saltspoonful paprika
• 3 tablespoonfuls vinegar
• Olive oil
• 3 tablespoonfuls Roquefort cheese
• 2 hard-cooked eggs

Place the lettuce hearts in a salad bowl, which has been rubbed over with the cut clove of garlic. Mix together the mustard, salt, paprika, vinegar, and beat in olive oil until thick; then gradually add the cheese and the hard-cooked yolks of eggs rubbed through a sieve. Pour over the lettuce and serve garnished with the whites of eggs.

---Salads, Sandwiches and Chafing Dish Recipes, Marion Harris Neil, published in 1914 (p. 214)

Heart of Lettuce Salad

Form cups from better outer leaves of iceberg lettuce. Cut head into 4 to 6 wedge shaped pieces, then arrange a wedge in each cup of lettuce. Make one to two lengthwise, then cross-wise cuts almost through the wedge to make cutting of salad with fork easier. Garnish with strip of pimento, celery curl and carrot strips. Top with favorite dressing.

---"Salads," Chicago Defender, December 10, 1949 (p. 20)

Lettuce Salad with Roquefort Dressing

• 1 head lettuce
• 1 tablespoon chopped chives
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• French Roquefort dressing

Remove outside leaves and core from lettuce; wash and drain.

Cut lengthwise into quarters; arrange each on a salad plate; sprinkle with chives and parsley, and serve with dressing. Serves 4.

Instead of Roquefort Dressing use: Avocado Dressing, Cottage Cheese Dressing, Frozen Tomato Mayonnaise.

--- Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook , Ruth Berolzheimer editor published in 1950 (p. 537)

Salade Subversive

Lettuce, Tomato, Russian Dressing

1. Cut lettuce into wedges

2. Cut tomato into quarters

3. Arrange thusly, wedge in the middle of the plate, tomato quarter on each side

4. Pour over Russian dressing--serve

--- The New Wolf in Chef's Clothing: The Picture Cook and Drink Book for Men, Robert H. Loeb, Jr. Published in 1950, reprinted1958 (p. 53)

"Head lettuce, or Iceberg lettuce, or Simpson lettuce is the most familiar of lettuces. It is the firm, tight, compact head of light-green leaves. Separated, the leaves make a lettuce cup as a container for potato salad, fruit salad, and so on. Cut in wedges, it is a favorite of men, particularly those who like to pour blue-cheese dressing over it."

--- McCall's Cook Book,  published in 1963 (p. 490)

SERIOUS FUN FOOD
Greg Henry
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