Little Gem lettuce
Lactuca sativa · Leafy green
Top 10 pairings
Little Gem is the dwarf cos — a small, dense, upright mini-romaine that packs the crunch and standing posture of a full romaine into a head barely the size of a fist. Its tightly folded leaves shade through medium green at the rim to a sweet, pale yellow-green heart, and the eating quality is its whole point: a sturdy, audible crunch in the broad pale rib, a clean sweetness with almost none of the bitterness of a coarse lettuce, and a size that makes a single head a tidy one- or two-person portion. It is the lettuce cooks reach for to halve and grill, or to peel apart into rigid, boat-shaped cups.
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