[coolj]

OK, so I was watching food network at around 2am this morning, and there was this new show on, I think it's called 30 minute meals, anyway the host was making some salad, and she mentioned that alot of people are split over whether you should tear the lettuce or cut it. So I thought this would be a fun thing, to see what everybodies preference is. Myself, I prefer to cut the lettuce, because that's how it gets done at work.

 

[kokopuffs]

I tear, therefore I am. :bounce: :chef:

 

[peachcreek]

At work and at home, I tear. I' m also a stickler for washing before tearing and making sure the leaves are DRY!

 

[phatch]

I do both. Depends on quantity, type of green, how far ahead I'm prepping, how much time I have for the task and so on. A truly sharp knife doesn't bruise it significantly, but it looks manufactured.

Phil

 

[suzanne]

At home, I tear. At work, I do whichever my chef tells me to do.

 

[mezzaluna]

I tear, and with gusto!

 

[kimmie]

Unless I'm making coleslaw, I most definitely tear!

BTW CoolJ, hubby just finished the Paul Newman's...

 

[culinarian247]

At work, true, I do as my chef tells me.
At home, I do what my WIFE tells me.

 

[momoreg]

I cut! I find that when it's torn, the leaves get crushed. So I take the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

 

[nancya]

I buy it in a bag!


:blush:


...if I buy it in a bag I eat salad more often...which is good for me. I'm afraid there are some preservatives on bagged salads tho...

 

[suzanne]

We still love you, Nancya. But remember you still have to wash the stuff in the bag. It's not just the preservatives ...

 

[kokopuffs]

The preservative is probably just bleach. I overheard a manager at Denny's say that bleach is what they use to preserve salad greens.

 

[nancya]

Oh! Suzanne! Do I really want to know??? If Kokopuffs is right...no! I don't want to know! And I have seen reports on the amounts of chemicals and fertilizers on bagged salads and lettuce (organic or not) and I just don't want to think about it.

Now...where did I leave that salad spinner?

 

[jim berman]

From what I have seen in produce processing places, they gas flush the cut lettuce with nitrogen to keep it fresh. However, the flavor suffers - just open that bag! Peeeeewwww. Also, if you check out Harold Magee's On Cooking he goes on for 20+ pages on cutting vs. tearing greens to prevent browing. His conclusion- it's all the same.

 

[peachcreek]

As I was tearing away at work a little while ago, and I know that this is a personal preference and nothing more- but we tear the salad as we make them, and the smell of the freshly torn greens does seem to make some difference. They look good too. Suzanne would be proud of me- she could get a freshly torn just-tossed salad with fresh, never bruised lettuce properly dried with the right amount of dressing.
All of that out here in the diaspora.......For @3 bucks to boot!

I liked the coleslaw comment. Could you imagine. "Hand torn coleslaw- a dish for the truly patient cook." lol..

 

[suzanne]

Peach, I'm on my way! The only problem is that I have no car, so I gotta keep walkin', uh uh, uh uh, uh uh uh. (but I just can't lose my pride)

 

[coolj]

I only do that when I've got a catering gig, because it saves me a lot of time.

 

[marmalady]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by nancya
I buy it in a bag!



LOL, Nancy! You reminded me of a story - my son's rehab doc would get jealous when she saw the meals I brought in to the rehab hospital for him, and always told me I should give her cooking lessons.

One day, she said her mother told her, 'Barbara, just go to the store and they have these neat salads in a bag, already cut and everything'. Doc's reply - 'But, ma, then I have to open the bag!!!!!'

 

[isa]

On Good Eats Alton Brown said that by tearing the lettuce, you'll keep the water water cellules intact.


To make his point he said to imagine a sheet of bubble wrap. If you tear it it will break between the bubble but if you use a knife you will cut right in the centre of the bubbles and destroy them.



I am so happy I can now watch The Food Network!! :bounce:

 

[chiffonade]

Cutting lettuce reminds me of the Brooklyn diners where you were presented with a perfectly symmetrical quarter head of iceberg lettuce as a "salad."

Roughly torn, bite sized, irregularly shaped pieces of ANYTHING but iceberg lettuce is what I think of as "green salad."