Question
Diane Kirschner
When buying pre-rinsed lettuce that comes in a plastic container, what is the best way to store it to get the most use of it over a few days? I find if you put the container in the fridge, it creates water buildup inside.
Answer
The lettuces, they breathe and they, um, and, uh, so they, they put off, uh, moisture, and that also hasten the decline of the product. And so what I like to do is to, to get it out of the container, whether it's a plastic container, um, or a bag. A lot of times they're, they're really crammed in there pretty tightly. And so to get those out into a, another couple of containers so the lettuces can breathe. Um, and then also, I guess before you do that line, that container with, with a towel, it could be a paper towel, or it could be a cloth towel. Put the lettuces on top of that, and then, uh, that'll soak up any water that rolls down, uh, or drips down. And then also, um, I like to cover the lettuce with a, a lightly damp towel. And again, this could be paper or cloth. And, um, this maintains the humidity or the moisture right inside the container with these greens, because otherwise, the refrigerator fundamentally removes moisture from the atmosphere inside that box. And this is why we have wilting of products that occurs very, very quickly. And, um, so this is, uh, you know, one, one approach that I've used and that, um, you know, that I recommend at least trying out, uh, to see if that works for your space consideration. For example, um, let the, let the leaves breathe, uh, and then soak up the moisture. So, uh, and then you gotta balance that also against the, um, the refrigerator by adding some humidity with a very lightly dampen towel.
