Grandma’s Wilted Lettuce Recipe – Old Fashioned Wilted Lettuce
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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.
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, for she never, ever, ever wasted anything.
That’s what happens when your family loses its farm during the Great Depression. That’s something that you never get over, and frugal becomes your normal; at least this is what happened with my Grandma.
Wilted Lettuce Salad with Bacon
The dressing is the perfect melody of tangy from the vinegar and sweet from the sugar. And then, bacon grease 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
Leaf Lettuce
How to Make Wilted Lettuce with Bacon Grease
- Chop up bacon into small pieces; fry in a 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 over leaf lettuce, tossing to lightly wilt.
- Add in chopped 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.
Notes About Wilted Lettuce with Bacon Grease
- 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!
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Grandma’s Best Garden Recipes
Grandma's Wilted Lettuce Recipe - Old Fashioned Wilted Lettuce
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? Try Soy Cucumber Salad.
