# Identify this Lettuce.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 18, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159 "2013-09-18T17:15:05Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/1 "2013-09-18T17:15:05Z")
This might be hard to describe. But I am trying to get healthy and eat more salads, and I have been buying lettuce mixes. But there is one type that of lettuce leaf that is only in very few mixes, and very little of it there. And I hate it, I want to know what it is so I can avoid those mixes.
the only way I can describe it is tasting very strongly like fertile(Manurey, composty) dirt smells afters it’s been rained on.
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### Author:  [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/2 "2013-09-18T17:55:03Z")
What does it look like?
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### Author:  [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/3 "2013-09-18T18:48:25Z")
let us chew on this.
has the leaffage been washed?
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### Author:  [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/4 "2013-09-18T18:51:40Z")
[Escarole?](http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-escarole.htm)
I hate the stuff and your description reminds me of it.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/5 "2013-09-18T19:17:26Z")
I wonder if the OP might be describing rocket/arugula
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### Author:  [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/6 "2013-09-18T19:33:57Z")
I don’t know what it looks like. There is never very much, I just get the taste after having put an assorted forkful in my mouth and start chewing, and don’t really want to do forensic analysis on it at that point.
And I have never found any for as long as I have the patience after that to eat one leaf at a time.
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### Author:  [@Motorgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Motorgirl)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/7 "2013-09-18T19:39:29Z")
Spinach often tastes a bit musty to me. Rocket/Arugula is another possibility though I always think of it as more spicy/peppery than “dirt”-y
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### Author:  [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/8 "2013-09-18T19:42:54Z")
Radicchio? It’s red and white, a similar color to a red onion, and it’s bitter and “spicy,” so there’s often very little of it in salad mixes.
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### Author:  [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/9 "2013-09-18T20:27:23Z")
The top leaves of romaine can have that wilted mushy vile taste.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/10 "2013-09-18T20:32:48Z")
> [@wolfman](#):
>
> I don’t know what it looks like. There is never very much, I just get the taste after having put an assorted forkful in my mouth and start chewing, and don’t really want to do forensic analysis on it at that point.
>
> And I have never found any for as long as I have the patience after that to eat one leaf at a time.
Slugs, I reckon (Snails would be crunchy).
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### Author:  [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)
#### Post date: [September 18, 2013, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/11 "2013-09-18T20:58:21Z")
Can you at least tell us what brand of mixed greens you buy? If you can’t identify it by sight, I’m not sure what to tell you - if you can give me a brand, I can tell you what’s in them and what it MIGHT be.
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### Author:  [@Amblydoper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amblydoper)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2013, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/12 "2013-09-19T16:59:46Z")
Could it be, maybe, dirt?
Lettuce needs to be washed.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2013, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/13 "2013-09-19T17:15:57Z")
> [@Amblydoper](#):
>
> Could it be, maybe, dirt?
>
> Lettuce needs to be washed.
Some bagged prepared salads are sold as pre-washed, but it could be just about anything - as the OP only tastes it when shovelling leaves indiscriminately - it could be dirt, bugs, weeds, rotten leaves, or assorted other contaminants. Or some leaf in the mix. I don’t see how we can factually answer such a vaguely-defined question.
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### Author:  [@CLee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CLee)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2013, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/14 "2013-09-19T17:20:15Z")
You’ve described beet greens, which are a rounded leaf with a red central vein. Lots of people liken the taste of beets and beet greens to dirt or earth. Here’s a photo of a beet leaf in a salad mix:
[http://rebeccakatz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/OneBiteRoastedBeetSalad-700x295.jpg](http://rebeccakatz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/OneBiteRoastedBeetSalad-700x295.jpg)
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### Author:  [@Missy2U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Missy2U)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2013, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/15 "2013-09-19T19:04:24Z")
> [@CLee](#):
>
> You’ve described beet greens, which are a rounded leaf with a red central vein. Lots of people liken the taste of beets and beet greens to dirt or earth. Here’s a photo of a beet leaf in a salad mix:
>
> [http://rebeccakatz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/OneBiteRoastedBeetSalad-700x295.jpg](http://rebeccakatz.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/OneBiteRoastedBeetSalad-700x295.jpg)
I had never heard of beet greens in prepackaged salad mixes - who knew? Thanks for the info!
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2013, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/16 "2013-09-19T23:23:29Z")
nm
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/17 "2013-09-20T06:08:05Z")
> [@Missy2U](#):
>
> I had never heard of beet greens in prepackaged salad mixes - who knew? Thanks for the info!
It’s the same species of plant as perpetual spinach.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2013, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-this-lettuce/669159/18 "2013-09-20T06:10:25Z")
I would describe beet as ‘earthy’, certainly, but never manure or compost like - to me, that implies a whiff of rank decay.