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St. Anselm’s Iceberg Wedge Salad
![St. Anselm’s Iceberg Wedge Salad](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/06/11/dining/wedge-salad/wedge-salad-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 30 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 6ounces thick-cut bacon, cut into ½-inch pieces
- 2tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½cup cider vinegar
- 1tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1tablespoon Dijon mustard
- Kosher salt and cracked black pepper, to taste
- 1large head of iceberg lettuce, cut and cored into 4 wedges
- 4ounces blue cheese, crumbled
- ¼cup roughly chopped fresh parsley
For the Dressing
For the Salad
Preparation
- Step 1
In a large skillet set over medium heat, cook the bacon until crisp, approximately 8 to 10 minutes. Using tongs or a slotted spoon, remove the bacon to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Pour off all but ¼ cup of the bacon fat in the skillet.
- Step 2
Lower the heat under the skillet, then stir in the flour and cook, stirring often with a spoon, until the flour is lightly browned, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Add 1½ cups water to the mixture, along with the vinegar, sugar and mustard, and allow to come to a simmer. Whisk the mixture frequently until the dressing is thick enough to resemble gravy and coat the back of a spoon, approximately 10 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and remove from the heat.
- Step 3
Put the iceberg wedges on plates. Drizzle with the warm dressing, and sprinkle with the bacon pieces, blue cheese and parsley. Serve immediately.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
I cannot give enough kudos for this recipe. This takes a normally ultra rich starter into the realm of frequent enjoyment without feeling like a splurge. Cheese, bacon, and a thick piquant dressing. It sounds so hedonistic, but it's truly a judicious amount of these luxury ingredients....it's the dressing that won me over. Thick rich mouthfeel, but very light on the actual fat...1 tb. per person! You can easily make the dressing in advance and rewarm at serving. Loved this.
The recipe for the dressing looks nearly like what we make out here in the Midwest as a dressing for spinach salad. Also makes a splendid dressing for German potato salad.
If your lettuce was bitter, it was probably old. Also, try removing the root end of the iceberg (that is bitter) and cutting it into smaller segments. It will absorb the dressing better.
It's almost impossible to find organic iceberg, and since lettuce is on the EWG's dirty dozen list, going to try this with hearts of romaine.
Definitely cut the round iceberg into eighths, not quarters! Quarters were too ungainly and it was hard to get a perfect ratio of lettuce to flavored elements.
One way to remove the core of iceberg lettuce that is easy (and somehow especially gratifying) is to take the whole lettuce and rap it hard, core-side down, on your counter. Then turn it over and remove the core easily with your fingers--it should pop out.
Great blue cheese dressing recipe. I vegetarian-ized it by using Morningstar Bacon Stripe, and adding extra evoo after the veggie bacon (which doesn't really render any fat) cooked through. I also increased the vinegar and dijon quantity while reducing the amount of sugar.
Organic people use whole Romaine Leaves. Makes a great looking plate. I've seen Caesar Salad made this way in restaurants.
Dressing was a little too sweet for my taste. Don't know if I'll make it again but if I do, I'll cut back on the sugar.
So very funny, after all the years that iceberg lettuce was totally déclassé, that it is now showing up in the finest of restaurants! Yes, there really are times when this crispy white stuff is a good foil for other ingredients.
I use hearts of romaine for this, some applewood smoked thick bacon (which I probably could live on if I needed to) and the chopped parsley. So good. Dressed it with Cindy's Buttermilk Dressing. Doing it again tonight actually. Didn't need the blue cheese with this dressing.
To core the lettuce hold it in your hand with the core down and then smack it on the counter. That will loosen the core and you can just twist it out.
So... I made this. For some reason I kept reading the cider vinegar as red wine vinegar, so that's what I used. The salad underneath it was not a wedge of iceberg with blue cheese. I used a second helping of it, warm, as a sauce for steamed bok choi. It was good, though the consistency, in both preparations, which was gravy-like (I guess I could have thinned it more), made it something I might not be moved to make again. Ambivalent! Would love to know what others think!
This salad dressing is exactly the same dressing i've been making for hot German potato salad, for over 50 years. It's delicious on those hot sliced potatoes, with a good sprinkling of the bacon and onion (no cheese). I did not find it inspiring as a salad dressing, hard to make that transition. The bacon fat, so good on hot sliced potatoes did not come over as well on the lettuce. I won't be making this again.
variation on iceberg wedge salads that seem to be in vogue again. this was good, but most importantly easy to tweak to your own taste. found it's best to keep dessing on the thinner side with the rich blue cheese.
Guess this is my new favorite salad. Didn’t have iceberg on hand so I subbed romaine hearts which, of course, was still delicious- though I suspect the crunch of thick iceberg would be more desirable for this one. Either way… YUM.
Bit too vinegary for me.
This was a hit! I was wary of the dressing, couldn’t wrap my head around it, but it was perfect. All diners raves about it.
Was anticipating this all day. Easy to make, came together quickly. But just “meh”. We all ate it but not going into the rotation.
Had along with chicory, thinking that the bitter goes with the bacon sauce. It was good main course after oysters.
Yes, this vinaigrette is very similar to my midwestern mother-in-law's dressing for German potato salad. Only difference is no flour needed, potatoes (edges rubbed off) thicken the dressing adequately. Also can be used warm for wilted lettuce salad. Go Barbara!
I would substitute Nance’s Sharp and Creamy mustard and add bacon and blue cheese. Similar flavor profile and tons less effort.
This gravy-dressing took forever to thicken over low heat. It finally came together when I turned it up to medium heat.
This was pretty good. I used Romaine and grilled half heads on one side. I probably didn't follow the measurements for sugar as I'm more of a "to taste" kind of person. Dressing flavor ended up not unlike German potato salad dressing. Overall flavor was more savory than I expected (good). I will make this again!
Prepared as written. Happiness in the mouth!
Loved this dressing. So easy to make and I agree with a previous post. Perfect for spinach salads. No need to buy the saccharine sweet jarred dressings again
Just a touch too much Apple cider vinegar in the dressing for my taste but otherwise delicious.
I found this salad to be easy to prepare following the preparation steps. Following the steps, I found that the dressing took about 15-20 minutes to resemble gravy. I liked to dressing, but felt that cutting the head of iceberg into quarters was much too large of a serving size for dinner guests, leaving wasted salad on all plates.
as we do not eat meat, the bacon issue was puzzling but i heated up the olive oil and used kosher salt and a smoky salt in the oil until they both seemed to dissolve. a bit acidic so i added a little more sugar and it became less so. in lieu of the bacon bits, i chopped up cherry tomatoes and put them around the lettuce. loved the tip on how to break up the core. wonderful!!
It was heavenly!!! Its blend of rich creamy bacon dressing and piquant blue cheese was a lovely topping for iceberg lettuce which needs some "dressing up" to be eaten!
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