A few years ago I remember a tai chi friend telling me that she was going to go shopping for lettuce which she would wash all at once and store in her refrigerator for the week. I wondered if it would last that long.
I often buy green leaf lettuce and even if it's a little wilted, will perk up beautifully if I slice a sliver off the bottom stem and dunk it in water for about 15 minutes.
I got lazy a while back and started buying already washed salad from Sam's Club. The salad usually lasts about three days before seeing signs of spoilage. But then there was that incident where I found that wasp at the bottom of the salad. It must have been sitting there for 3 days in the fridge and was still alive.
Since then, I've gone back to buying green leaf lettuce for salads. I first break off the leaves and dunk them in water for about 20 minutes or longer.
After soaking I rinse them in a little running water and stick them in my salad spinner.
The funny thing is, if I can't wash the lettuce right away I take off the wire band from the lettuce bunch, put the stem side on a slightly damp half sheet of paper towel, stick it back in the plastic bag and store it in the fridge.
I always find this red stain where the stem was cut. There's nothing red on the lettuce, so it must be some kind of reaction.
I wonder why.
All the half sheets I use are dried and Art uses them later to clean the glass top on the stove and whatever else needs cleaning.
Also.... I find that green leaf lettuce lasts much longer than red leaf lettuce.
I'll bet I could cut my carbs by a lot if I just eat lettuce wraps for lunch. It's a thought.
It's good that Art helps you so much. I have some green plastic bags that I use to keep my bananas from ripening too fast. I put the bananas in there with with a dry paper towel and they stay eatable for 6 days. I buy six at a time. Those little green bags do a good job of keeping them from over ripening.
ReplyDeleteI still buy my greens by the bag, I like the mix and being single they're just the right size--but I never forgot that wasp in your bag, that's for sure! Ever since you shared that, I shake the bag and examine it closely in the store. Thank you Kay!
ReplyDeleteMy hairdresser’s late wife said wrapping lettuce in paper towels extends its freshness it is true! I even wrap fresh herbs like that too, and green onions.
ReplyDeleteI read about a method that works wonders for me.Buy romaine lettuce, remove from plastic bag from supermarket. I don't wash it. I don't put water on fresh lettuce until minutes before using it for a meal. Wrap it completely in long paper towel of about five-6 paper towels. Put it in a Hefty, zip lock jumbo plastic bag. Store in the bottom of fridge. Just before using the lettuce for a meal, take it from the zip lock bag, unwrap it enough to remove 3-4 leaves or however many you plan to use for that meal. Wrap the unused lettuce back in the paper towel wrap, return it to the zip lock bag, and store again in the fridge. Only wash the few leaves that you need for a single meal, either drain in a drainer, or pat dry with paper towels. This works for romaine lettuce or ice berg lettuce. Eventually, all of the head of lettuce will be used but I do not pre-wash stored lettuce. It will last for weeks in the fridge if it is not washed until just before needed. If a leaf gets a dark edge, pinch it off, and discard. If paper towel wrap starts to feel too damp, discard those paper towels, and wrap again in fresh, dry paper towels to store again in the fridge. I buy one head of romaine for a month.
ReplyDeleteWell that wasp did not look tasty at all!
ReplyDeleteI haven't had a green salad in more than a year because of the high number of recalls they are always having on lettuce for salmonella and e. coli here in Missouri. I never trusted that the companies washed the lettuce well enough for me, so I always did wash it. I used to rinse it very well first, and then let it soak in water for 15 minutes or so, and then I would drain it and spray it with the faucet sprayer so that I got every piece really well, then I would rinse it a couple of more times. I usually ended up storing some of the lettuce in a gallon zip lock bag lined with paper towels. It really kept well that way.
Years ago I would add a very tiny bit of bleach to the first water I put it in before rinsing multiple times, but then I read that the bleach could soak into the lettuce cells. I don't think it would have been enough to harm us, but I stopped doing it. I had heard the tip of doing that when I was young from the neighbor's grandma who was 100 years old and still helping her family in the kitchen.She said that is how they cleaned lettuce in the very well known restaurant she worked in for years and years. It must not have harmed her. She lived to be 101.
Several years ago, a good friend of mine was dating a Mexican man. They had gone out to a restaurant and when she ordered salad from the menu, he kept saying no, no don't get that at a restaurant. She did not get the salad. She didn't understand what the big deal was about salad. Finally he was able to explain to her that he used to work in the fields picking lettuce, and another job he once had was working in a restaurant. He worried the salad may not be clean enough to eat, unless a person cleaned it themselves at home.
You made me curious about the wasp and couldn't remember what you did with him so I hunted that post. I was hoping you had released him after the ordeal he had been through but understand why you didn't.
ReplyDeleteYour post made me realize how I have missed lettuce and salads. I can't have leafy greens while on blood thinners. Phooey.
We buy the ready made salads in a bag. So convenient to shake the contents into individual bowls, pour dressing on top, and then eat it. So far, no bugs.
ReplyDeleteMy guess on the red is some sort of preservative spray they use to enhance the life of the lettuce.
ReplyDeleteLike someone above, I never buy prepackaged/washed lettuce due to the e.coli scares. Mostly if I eat lettuce, I buy iceberg lettuce and discard the outer layer of leaves. Occasionally I will get bunch lettuce like what you show in your pictures but I make sure of the source, i.e. grown regionally to me.
I use a clean cotton hand towel to wrap my lettuce in. I have a slew of them that I bought at IKEA and they are great for all things that you would use a paper towel for. They seem to keep my lettuce fresher. If I know I'm not going to use it all right away, I will take the lettuce and lay it out on the towel and then roll it up and put in the plastic bag I brought it home in. It seems to last longer like that. I don't wash it till I'm ready to use it.
ReplyDeleteI usually buy the Romaine lettuce and wash/soak it in a bowl of water with a very generous addition of vinegar in it. Supposedly it can kill those nasty e-coli germs on lettuce. When I wash washable produce (apples, etc.) with dish soap, I rinse those with a spray of straight vinegar to be sure to remove all the dish soap, and then rinse the vinegar off with more water.
ReplyDeleteI always like visiting here where I learn so much!
ReplyDeleteYes, I should do that too.
ReplyDeletePractical tips! I reuse paper towels to clean too, Art
ReplyDeleteA wasp?? That's a nightmare. I like the way you have this organized. Those bag salads last no where near as long as they say they will.
ReplyDeleteI am very lazy about washing produce. If I buy unwrapped heads of romaine or leaf lettuce, I swish rinse the separated leaves, spin them, then roll them up in a cotton dish cloth and seal them in a plastic bag. I don't wash the iceberg lettuce or the romaine hearts that come in a bag.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if the red spot is from some chemical they dab on it at the cutting level. Or, it leeches out when damp. Many ways to keep lettuce longer! Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteI remember that my mother would have to go through lettuce relatively quickly.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised that you don't grow your own lettuce - or ask your mom to grow them for you. We grow them but are usually too lazy to pick and they get bigger and go to seed and get too tough to eat. Red lettuce does very well in the garden. I really should eat more fresh produce.
ReplyDeleteI used to do that, use the lettuce for bread. Worked great.
ReplyDeleteYou've made me hungry for a green salad right now! Waspless, that is.
ReplyDeleteI don't buy a lot of lettuce. Instead, we eat spinach (which I buy at Costco), cabbage, and whatever variety of bok choy the Asian market happens to have on sale.
ReplyDeleteOh my. A wasp! I'm not fond of prewashed lettuce. You have such great ideas here.
ReplyDeleteLettuce can become more crisp if droopy, so wash, dry and then refrigerate as you say. Wrap plastic wrap around the top part of the stem of a group of bananas and they’ll not ripen as fast.
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