What is the best solution for wilted lettuce leaves?

Soak your sad, droopy greens in hot—not cool, definitely not cold—water and watch them resurrect like a time-lapse video in reverse. Try it for yourself. Fill a large bowl with very hot tap water (around 120°F) and plunge your wilted greens. Let them soak for 10–30 minutes, then drain.

What happens when you put wilted lettuce in cold water?

If you place the wilted produce in ice water, the cells can begin to absorb water and replenish the parched cells .

How long to soak wilted lettuce?

Submerge your wilted greens, and let them soak until they perk up, anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes . Then, drain them and cool them off again. If you're using them immediately, use an ice-water bath.

Does oil or vinegar wilt lettuce?

But oil clings to its waxy surface, quickly seeping into cracks, entering the air pockets between cells, and making the leaf darken and wilt. Vinegar will also damage lettuce leaves eventually, but because it is water-soluble it takes much longer than oil to get past the waxy coating.

Can you revive a wilted lettuce to bring back its freshness?

Bringing lettuce back to life If your lettuce has wilted, this tip will help to revive it: Simply soak the lettuce in ice water for 15 minutes (or up to an hour, depending on how wilted your lettuce is) , and its crispness will be restored.

How do restaurants make their lettuce so crisp?

The Keys to Crisp Lettuce Lettuce actually needs a good amount of airflow, in addition to a bit of moisture (but not too much!), in order to stay crisp. That's why restaurants store their lettuce in special perforated bins that allow for air circulation while it's held in the fridge .

Will placing wilted lettuce in cold water make it crisp again?

When the wilted leaves are placed in cold water then, it acts as a hypotonic solution. This leads to the inward diffusion of water molecules into the lettuce leaves. The leaves will become turgid and crisp due to the process of endosmosis .

What does the saying "wet lettuce" mean?

From the Urban Dictionary: wet lettuce. Phrase commonly used in the North of England to describe a person who acts like a fanny or in a manner betraying his male gender .

Why soak lettuce in salt water?

Soak in salt water One of the best ways to wash fruits and vegetables to help avoid bugs and pesticides is by soaking them in salt water. We recommend using Himalayan salt or sea salt and soaking your produce for at least 20 minutes before rinsing off with running water. Then they're clean and ready to eat!

How do you know if lettuce has gone bad?

Look for brown or black leaves that indicate rotting . Discolored lettuce often feels slimy and smells bad as well. Small brown spots usually aren't harmful if you eat them. You can also cut around them if the rest of the lettuce leaf is still healthy.

Can you leave lettuce soaking in water?

At a neighbor`s suggestion, we remove the core, tear up the lettuce and submerge it in water in a bowl in the refrigerator. This keeps it quite fresh until we are ready to use it.

Can you eat lettuce that is a little wilted?

Before eating, sort through your leaves and remove anything soggy, discolored, slimy or wilted, to be on the safe side. Avoid eating anything with an unpleasant or sour odor.

How do you revive wilted leaves?

submerge leaves and stems in cold water , making sure that any cut ends are fully submerged. if you're in a hurry, try adding some ice cubes to the water. soak for at least 30 minutes. Note that heavy and extremely wilted leaves may take more time.

Wilted Lettuce Recipe - These Old Cookbooks (2024)

August 23, 2022March 27, 2023

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Grandma’s Wilted Lettuce Recipe is the perfect summer side dish to take you back to your childhood. Old Fashioned Wilted Lettuce has a hot bacon dressing made with bacon grease, vinegar and sugar.

Table of Contents

Grandma’s Wilted Lettuce Recipe

If there’s one aroma that I associate with my Grandma during the summer months, it would be that of wilted lettuce. It’s the particular aroma that arises when the vinegar hits the hot pan, and the the tanginess combined with the sweetness of the sugar gets up in your nose. It actually almost burns my nose.

It’s at this very moment, every single time, that I think fondly of her.

I love her and miss her so much. It almost makes me a bit weepy as I’m standing over the stove stirring my wilted lettuce dressing. At least, I can blame it on the vinegar if anyone walks in and finds me crying.

Old Fashioned Wilted Lettuce

Just in case you didn’t grow up eating wilted lettuce like I did, let me explain.

Wilted Lettuce is an old fashioned dish, often considered German or Pennsylvania Dutch in origin. It consists of a hot dressing made quickly out of bacon grease, sugar and vinegar. The hot bacon dressing gets tossed over leaf lettuce where it lightly wilts down from the heat of the dressing.

Depending on how you were raised, Wilted Lettuce salad sometimes includes bacon chopped up in pieces and/or hard boiled eggs.

My Grandma was a purist. She rarely put the bacon bits in the salad; for her, I imagine, it was just a great use of bacon grease. She never, ever, ever wasted anything.

Wilted Lettuce Salad with Bacon

The dressing is the perfect melody of tangy from the vinegar and sweet from the sugar. And then, bacon drippings always packs a punch of flavor.

It should be noted that this salad must be eaten right away. As the lettuce sits in the hot bacon dressing, it continues to wilt and wilt and wilt to the point of no return.

Be sure to use only the amount of lettuce that you’ll eat at that meal.

Ingredient List for Grandma’s Wilted Lettuce

Bacon Grease
Bacon (optional)
Sugar
White Vinegar
Head of Leaf Lettuce (washed and dried in a colander or salad spinner)

How to Make Wilted Lettuce with Bacon Grease

Step By Step Instructions

Chop up bacon into bite-sized pieces; fry in a large skillet until crispy. Remove bacon to a paper towel-lined plate, leaving the bacon grease in the pan. (This step can be omitted if you are starting with reserved bacon grease. In that case, add bacon grease to the skillet, and heat over medium heat.)
Add sugar, and immediately whisk until the sugar is dissolved. Turn off heat.
Pour in white vinegar to the sugar mixture, stirring the entire time. Be careful, it will send up a flume of vinegar steam that gets in your nose.
Pour the warm dressing over chopped lettuce, toss it to lightly wilt.
Add in crumbled bacon pieces (optional), and eat immediately.

For the full ingredient amounts and recipe steps for Wilted Lettuce Salad with Bacon Grease, scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post.

Recipe FAQs

Fried bacon pieces are optional if you’d rather use reserved bacon grease from breakfast. This is what my Grandma did.
Start with approximately 4 Tablespoons bacon grease.
Only use as much lettuce as you’ll eat in one meal; wilted lettuce does not save. The lettuce gets too wilted and becomes inedible.
Hard boiled eggs are a great addition to old fashioned wilted lettuce salad. Or, sauté onions in the bacon grease for added flavor.
I’ve seen this classic recipe with hard-boiled eggs added too.
Try using leaf lettuce from the farmers’ market in the summer. It works perfectly for Grandma’s Wilted Lettuce with bacon.
This recipe is super fast to make. Make it after all your other food is done cooking to ensure it is perfectly wilted, not soggy!
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Recipe Variations

Use different lettuces such as romaine lettuce, iceberg lettuce or spinach.
Add hard boiled eggs.
Omit the bacon, using olive oil in place of the bacon drippings.
Green onions are a delicious additions.
Use apple cider vinegar instead of white vinegar.

Grandma’s Best Garden Recipes

Old Fashioned Stewed Tomatoes

Grandma’s Rhubarb Pie

Easy Pan Fried Zucchini

Old Fashioned Pickled Beets

Simple Sour Cream Cucumbers

Easy Salad Recipes

Salads are a great side dish, but we love when a few extra ingredients are added to make salads the main course. Here are some of our favorite easy salad recipes:

Spinach Salad with Bacon and Hard Boiled Eggs
Lehua Salad
Lucious Lettuce Salad in a Jar
French Dinner Salad with Cottage Cheese Dressing
Broccoli Salad

Print Recipe

5 from 5 votes

Grandma’s Wilted Lettuce Recipe – Old Fashioned Wilted Lettuce

Grandma's Wilted Lettuce Recipe is the perfect summer side dish to take you back to your childhood. Old Fashioned Wilted Lettuce has a hot bacon dressing made with bacon grease, vinegar and sugar.

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time5 minutes mins

Total Time10 minutes mins

Course: Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine: American

Keyword: german wilted lettuce, grandma’s wilted lettuce, old fashioned wilted lettuce, wilted lettuce with bacon, wilted lettuce with bacon grease

Servings: 4 servings

Calories: 67kcal

Author: Barbara

Ingredients

4 – 6 slices bacon (see instructions or notes)
2 Tablespoons white sugar
1/4 cup white vinegar
4 – 6 cups leaf lettuce

Instructions

Chop bacon in small pieces, crisp up in a skillet. Remove bacon onto paper towel-lined plate, leaving bacon grease in pan. (If you want to start with reserved bacon grease, add 4 tablespoons bacon grease to a skillet, and heat).
Add sugar to the hot bacon grease, whisking until dissolved.
Turn off heat; add vinegar and whisk immediately. Be careful of the flume of vinegar steam that arises from the pan.
Pour over leaf lettuce in a bowl, tossing until coated and lightly wilted.
If desired, stir in fried bacon pieces. Season with salt and pepper.

Notes

Fried bacon pieces are optional if you’d rather use reserved bacon grease from breakfast. This is what my Grandma did.
Start with approximately 4 tablespoons bacon grease.
Only use as much lettuce as you’ll eat in one meal; wilted lettuce does not save. The lettuce gets too wilted and becomes inedible.
Hard boiled eggs are a great addition to old fashioned wilted lettuce salad. Or, sauté onions in the bacon grease for added flavor.
Try using leaf lettuce from the farmers’ market in the summer. It works perfectly for Grandma’s Wilted Lettuce with bacon.
This recipe is super fast to make. Make it after all your other food is done cooking to ensure it is perfectly wilted, not soggy!
Love easy side dishes? TrySoy Cucumber Salad.
The carb counts, calorie counts and nutritional information below is auto-calculated and can vary depending on the products used. These should not be used for specific dietary needs.

Nutrition