When the only lettuce was iceberg
During Thanksgiving week I usually make turkey sandwiches with leftovers, and this time I bought some iceberg lettuce for that purpose. I cannot remember the last time I bought iceberg lettuce, but it may have been about forty years ago. I bought it this time because I remembered that it used to be good in sandwiches, having a bit more heft than a lot of the other kinds of lettuce.
Yesterday I made some salad with the remainder of the lettuce, and eating it reminded me that I really prefer other kinds of lettuce these days. But it got me to thinking about the times when iceberg lettuce was just generic lettuce, and I didn’t know there was any other kind.
In my home, when I was growing up, we used to have salad with dinner most nights, and that salad was iceberg lettuce and a few tomatoes and cucumbers. With Wishbone dressing. There was no thought of any other kind of salad until years later.
Life was simpler and choices were much simpler. Iceberg lettuce, or no lettuce.
The only sneakers were Keds, and Converse for basketball.
The girls all wore penny loafers and and circle pins. At least, for a while.
I don’t recall any foreign cars, either, except VWs. We had Chryslers, Chevrolets, and Fords. Maybe I’m wrong about that because cars were not really on my particular radar screen, but that’s what I remember.
There was meat and there was potatoes and there was a veggie such as green beans. In our house, we rarely had dessert, but if we did it tended to be a Sara Lee cake.
Broadway shows cost a few dollars, and you didn’t have to take out a loan to go to Disneyland.
I’m pretty sure today’s lettuces are repurposed weeds.
Those were the days my friend…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8l1Gw_7JfI&list=RDa8l1Gw_7JfI&start_radio=1
Yes, lots of iceberg lettuce on sandwiches. I like Caesar salads, but some of these various lettuces are like what I call “green colored paper.” You can eat it, but why?
My mom grew up in a farm family of ten kids, and she was tasked with helping her mother cook. She was a good baker, and we usually had plenty of freshly made cookies, and cakes, and pies. And she made little fruit and veggie plates for us kids too, so it wasn’t all junky.
Cars are more of a thing for young boys. I used to commute to high school and back. Before I got my driver’s license, my cousin used to drive me back in a classic Corvair. That would be a collector’s item now.
My high school friend used to navigate with his father for rally racing in a Fiat 850 Spyder. I always wanted an X1/9, but never got one. And I noticed the occasional Jaguar XK/E or a Porsche Speedster or an early 911, usually the E or T version. In college, lots of people out east had BMW 2002 cars, which I thought were cool. Just 18 years ago, blocks from my house, there was a street intersection where all 4 homes on the 4 corners each had an old BMW 2002 waiting to be restored. Not sure what happened to them.
When the only lettuce was iceberg
A childhood friend—and family friend, I talked w his mother a week before she died at age 95—worked one summer as the cook at the Kennedy’s Hyannisport compound.
One day Ethel came storming into the kitchen.
“What’s with this lettuce you’re buying? It’s (unmentionable).”
“I purchased Romaine lettuce, because it’s Union lettuce. Iceberg lettuce is not Union lettuce.”
“WELL!”
And Ethel stomped off.
After that he purchased Iceberg lettuce, and didn’t hear a peep from Ethel.
I’ll say no more about his summer. Like Tom Leher sang, “I’ll leave this out just to be on the safe side…in my hometown.”
My Hometown.
For only having iceberg growing up somewhere decades ago switched to romaine. By chance this past week have iceberg, which once in a Blue moon get for usually no reason.
And the only imported items found in most households were coffee and bananas.
My mother was a fabulous cook, but I don’t recall ever having anything other than iceberg lettuce at her table — with an occasional Caesar salad with Romaine. My wife does not like iceberg lettuce, believing that green leaf tastes better. I, OTOH, think green leaf has no taste at all. I would eat Romain all day every day if I could, and really like Caesar dressing with it. There again, my wife does not much care for Caesar dressing.
But I never expected to see a post on this topic, and further, I never expected to divulge in public the difference in lettuce/dressing tastes for me and my wife.
Will this end up in our social media personality register?
And as a post scriptum, I had a friend who wrote a hilarious essay for a newsletter about what a delicious treat he would make with a head of iceberg lettuce:
He would cut it in half, and holding one half in his hand, over a kitchen sink, he would cover the open side of the head of lettuce with catsup and devour it by the bite, adding new catsup when he had taken a bite.
I think it loses something in translation.
This brings back some memories. We had iceberg lettuce growing up in the 60s, but my parents were devout union supporters, and I’m remembering some boycott of iceberg lettuce connected with the UFW and Cesar Chavez, so that item disappeared from our house for a while. We also didn’t have grapes in our house for around four years because of Chavez.
DeSoto, Buick, Kaiser, Mercury, Olds, Pontiac, and I am sure others. My first car in 1963 was a very used Opel, from Germany.
Iceberg lettuce lasts longer in the fridge than Romain. Even at that, some usually gets thrown away.
Try Bok Choy.
F,
Catsup? I rarely see that spelling. Is it a regional thing?
Marisa,
I don’t think it’s regional because I was born in PA, raised in CA, and lived all over the world. I guess I use both based on nothing in particular. In this case I actually did consider spelling it ketchup.
And my wife is not fond of it, no matter how you spell it, so we have a bottle in our refrigerator that has probably passed its us-by date.
Iceberg lettuce may have to change its name in major cities and blue states.
Then there’s this “just another “Biden” grift”…
“Generational Betrayal: HUD Reveals Biden Gave Illegal Aliens FHA-Backed Mortgages”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/generational-betrayal-hud-reveals-biden-gave-illegal-aliens-fha-backed-mortgages
Should be pretty clear now that Tim Walz’s massive Somali fraud “program” is essentially a “pilot project” that the Democrats intended to expand to the rest of the country.**
(No wonder DJT’s not their best bud. Ditto Elon Musk.)
To be sure, in quite a few (blue) locations that pilot project—or some variation of it—has already been successfully implemented.
** Might his vast experience in this particular grift be the main reason for his having been selected as VP candidate? (It sure couldn’t have been his natural charisma or innate intelligence…)
I sort of skipped over the lettuce part; although I do identify with iceberg for the most part.
I got caught up in thoughts of the times that Neo recalled. A lot could be said about that. Most young people would think, how inconvenient life was. Others of us, in retrospect would think, how refreshingly simple.
My Dad was involved with Chrysler dealerships and my brand loyalty persisted long past a sensible cutoff date. But, looking at the list, reminds me that any self respecting American boy could instantly identify an auto’s make by the hood ornament. I often
comment that California driver’s don’t think beyond their hood ornament. The fact that there are no hood ornaments emphasizes my point..
A colleague visited from the UK back in the 80s. She loved the “crunchy” iceberg lettuce, which she couldn’t get back home. On the other hand, we Americans were just getting exposed to green leaf lettuce and were disdainful of iceberg.
A colleague visited from the UK back in the 80s. We were just getting exposed to green leaf lettuce, and had started to look down on iceberg. But she just loved the “crunchy” iceberg lettuce, which she couldn’t get back home.
Life was good, then.
Life is good, now. Arguably better. As consumers, our menu of everything has gotten bigger, including our menu of political crises !
My mother didn’t like iceberg, so we never had it. Even when she was opposing the boycott, she wouldn’t buy iceberg. I think she used a combination of Romaine and Spinach. And the dressing was always Italian, though sometimes with crumbled bleu cheese. She also liked to make desserts, which was actually by far what she was best at cooking. Especially where chocolate was involved.
BTW, back in the 60s, I remember watching the Match Game, and the question was “spell ketchup”.
I still like iceberg on sandwiches and as a salad with my favorite dressing.
I agree with some of the other commenters that some lettuces are like green paper etc. What I do with romaine and “artisan lettuce” (small heads of different purple and green varieties) is steam them for about 7-8 minutes and serve them hot (like spinach) with a vinaigrette dressing or just squeezed lemon. To me that improves both the flavor and the texture.
F & Maria. It’s Hunts Catsup and Heinz Ketchup.
@ TexasYankee — “Heinz says to-may-to, and Hunt’s says to-mah-to….”
F,
We have the same source of marital strife in my household. For me, iceberg IS lettuce and I’m not sure my wife had ever even had it until I brought it home one day when she asked me to buy lettuce, early in our marriage. Whenever lettuce comes up as a topic she mocks my preference for iceberg.
Although the only salad I recall my mother making had no lettuce, but plenty of jello and mini marshmallows. We had lettuce at home, but it was for sandwiches, and always iceberg.
I’m not a huge salad guy, but eat them if presented. However, I’ll often opt for a wedge salad when dining out and there is one, local place that makes a great Cobb salad. When there it’s my usual lunch order. With a side of steak fries.
Foreign cars were rare in my Chicago neighborhood until the late ’70s.
“There was meat and there was potatoes and there was a veggie such as green beans. In our house, we rarely had dessert, but if we did it tended to be a Sara Lee cake.”
Sounds like the meals my mom cooked, too. I’m pretty sure heads of iceberg was the only lettuce stocked in the little grocery store back in the day in the little north Iowa town where I grew up. We might have grown something different occasionally in our garden. Mom was a bit adventurous when it came to food.
I think the only fish I had regularly was cut square and breaded.
This ties into a thought I had regarding the angst of the current generation regarding keeping up with their parents as was discussed here a few days ago. It seems to me that even those of us who grew up in fairly comfortable households were able to move out and establish ourselves in a living situation that didn’t differ markedly from the experiences of our last years at home. Given a number of factors such as parents generally being older with higher incomes, kids ‘launching’ at later ages due to extended schooling, and a marked increase in both the size and quality of homes, I suspect the experience of today’s young adults is a more marked decline which may account for some of the belief that they are going to have a harder time achieving parity with their parents.
My mother would start dinners with iceberg wedges with bleu cheese dressing and cherry tomatoes for special evenings. My aunt would surprise us with Sara Lee brownie cake for teatime. But I think my favorite Sara Lee cake was the banana cake. I haven’t thought about that for a long time.
Was it served on the Titanic?
From Duckduck AI
Origin of the Name “Iceberg Lettuce”
Iceberg lettuce gets its name from the shipping methods used to transport it in the early 20th century. The term “iceberg” was coined because the heads of lettuce were packed in ice to keep them fresh, and as they were shipped, the ice would often create a layer that resembled an iceberg.
@Om:
See Steinbeck’s “East of Eden” for shipping lettuce on ice east from CA.
The spherical form of Iceberg probably allowed layers damaged by freezing to be easily removed before sale at the grocers?
Can’t remember at what age or circumstances I discovered lettuce and iceberg were not synonymous, but I’m fairly certain that having sampled the wealth of lettuces and lettuce-like salad foundations, iceberg is now a faint memory.
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Iceberg lettuce – and the classic wedge salad – is coming back into the limelight as part of the grill and burger renaissance, and general interest in retro cuisine.
Crosswise slices of iceberg are uniquely dense, cool, and crisp – and are therefore preferred in a burger stack by gourmet bistro burger chefs.
That dense, crunchy, coolness is also the core of the wedge salad. And they are much easier to pull together than salads based on leaf lettuce.
Iceberg lettuce has its place, just like celery does, for its nice, satisfying, watery crunchiness. There is nothing better than garden-ripened tomatoes, iceberg lettuce, and bacon on lightly-toasted fresh bread, plenty of mayo. Although I might be tempted to include a layer of romaine as well, for the tart green flavor.
…because there’s far more tastelessness below the surface of the part that’s actually visible…?
I too remember when iceberg lettuce was king! I once ate in a quite expensive restaurant where the fancy salad was an iceberg wedge with bleu cheese dressing. Now we rarely eat iceberg lettuce, but it was great on sandwiches because of that lovely crunch.
Can’t forget saddle shoes! And culottes! And era of Midi, Mini, and Maxi skirts. And selection of apples wasn’t what it is today. Margarine often ruled (at least in my house). Brillo pads were the kitchen pot cleaners (no non-stick pans in those days). Much fewer choice in cereals: Frosted Flakes w/ Tony the Tiger, Sugar Smacks w/ horse (forget the name!), Cocoa Puffs,… (Iceberg lettuce was what was meant by word “lettuce”). In my house desserts were some kind of canned fruit, and veggies were usually Birdseye frozen or Le Seure peas in silver cans w/ blk. labels. Took me about 35+ yrs too discover I liked so many fruits and veggies- but when they were raw!
And, of course, in the grocery stores, there weren’t the narrow aisles blocked by people on their cell phones oblivious of other shoppers!
OK, there’s general agreement with neo that iceberg is an awesome lettuce and is great on sandwiches, however, we can’t let her uniting words obfuscate the obscenity buried in the lede of her post.
Lettuce on a post Thanksgiving sandwich made with leftover turkey?!
The only proper way to eat leftover turkey in sandwich form is on untoasted white bread (preferably Wonder), slathered with mayonnaise and salted liberally.
You can have lettuce on a sandwich made with turkey sliced as lunchmeat. Heck, you can even add tomato, pickle, cheese, mustard, wheat bread, rye an onion roll… But turkey carved right off the bird? Untoasted white bread with mayo and salt.
I like to use spinach in salads. Tastes great fresh, has a long growing season, and I can go pick some leaves from the garden as long as it’s there.
Every kid could clearly hear his momma holler their name to come home.
Just made smothered pork chops, the way mom did. Cream of chicken, plus mushroom. I made garlic mash, but mom made white rice. It soaked up the slightly watery gravy better. I did not make an iceberg salad to go with, but kind of wish I had.