Aunt Betty’s Comfort Kitchen · Entertaining

Pennsylvania Dutch Wilted Lettuce

Name: Pennsylvania Dutch Wilted Lettuce
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 113 g bacon; 2 large bunches leaf lettuce; 2 green onions; 60 ml vinegar; 30 ml water; 2 tsp sugar; ¼ tsp salt; ¼ tsp black pepper

A warm leaf-lettuce salad dressed in hot bacon drippings, vinegar, and a little sugar — poured over the greens to wilt them just before serving. Old-country, sweet-and-sour, and quick.

15 min total Hot dressing wilts

Effort ●○○○ Time ●○○○ Anytime

Gluten-Free

Servingsamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Pour the hot dressing over the greens just before serving. Frying the bacon gives the drippings that make the warm sweet-sour dressing; pour it hot over the lettuce and toss right away so it wilts but doesn't cook. For a barely-wilted salad, warm the dressing rather than simmering it.

Easier, if you like

No drippings? Use pre-cooked bacon and 2 tablespoons of oil heated with the vinegar.
Add a sliced hard-boiled egg for the classic German wilted-salad touch.

Method

Cook's notes

Hotter dressing = more wilt. Simmering dressing wilts the greens fully; merely warm dressing gives a crisper, just-softened salad.

Leaf lettuce or spinach both work — sturdy greens hold up best to the hot dressing.

Naturally gluten-free.

Serve right away — it's a salad that's best the moment it's tossed.

Naturally gluten-free; meatless option

Gluten-free: it already is.

Meatless: the dressing is built on bacon fat, so for a vegetarian version use olive oil plus ½ tsp smoked paprika in place of the bacon and drippings.