Butterhead lettuce
Lactuca sativa var. capitata · Leafy green
Top 10 pairings
Butterhead — the group that takes in Bibb and Boston — is the soft, gentle lettuce, a small, loose rosette of smooth, pliable, pale-to-medium-green leaves that fold into a loosely cupped head rather than a tight ball. Its defining trait is texture, a silky, almost buttery feel on the tongue from which the name comes, paired with a sweet, delicate, barely bitter flavour. Where crisp romaine and iceberg are built for crunch, butterhead is built for tenderness — the lettuce of fine salads, of single leaves used as edible cups, and of the soft European bistro salad dressed with nothing more than a light vinaigrette.
Picking a good onedrag
Crisp and squeakyLimp and slimy
SofteningStill fine rawDressed salads, sandwiches, tacos
Cut coreRim tanned, sap dried
Rib snapBends a little, then snaps
Leaf colourGreen, outer leaves dulling
SmellGrassy and neutral
These cues are Lettuce's, and hold across its varieties; where this one differs, its own page says so.
What you get from one
95%
Edible part
539 g · core out
567 g
Weight each
each one
Keeping ittap a temperature
A domestic fridge holds it about 5× longer than the counter.
95–100% — as damp as you can get it
Humidity
Wrapped, never sealed
Airflow