Grandma Richter's Wilted Lettuce Salad

By Cindi Bauer
@DomesticGoddess

This is my son-in-laws favorite salad, which was prepared by his grandmother on many holiday occasions. It's now our families favorite as well. I did modify the ingredients, so it could easily be made by others. My son-in-law had told me, that when this salad was placed on the dinner table along with the tradtional holiday fixins', it was this salad that everyone would reach for first, and I can see why, as this salad is so good. It's also what my family reaches for first at the dinner table as well. And I'm not kidding!

Rating:

★★★★★ 7 votes

Comments:

57 Comments

Serves:

10-12

Method:

No-Cook or Other

Blue Ribbon Recipe

Notes from the Test Kitchen:
Yummmm! This is a simple but delicious salad. The dressing really makes this salad - sweet and delicious. I've never had a dressing like this before ... I will definitely be taking this one to our next church dinner.

Ingredients

12 cups: (8 oz.) romaine lettuce (*see note)
11 slices: hickory smoked bacon, cooked and crumbled
2-1/2: tablespoons diced onion
1/2 cup: heavy whipping cream, plus 2 tablespoons
1/4 cup: sugar, plus 1 tablespoon
1/4 cup: apple cider vinegar, plus 1 tablespoon

How to Make Grandma Richter's Wilted Lettuce Salad

Step-by-Step

1Place salad ingredients into a very large bowl. (I put mine into a 13 cup size Tupperware bowl.)
2In another bowl, add the creamy dressing ingredients. Stir thoroughly to blend the ingredients together.
3Pour the creamy dressing, a little at a time, over the salad, and stir gently to combine.
4Once the creamy dressing has been completely mixed into the salad, serve the salad immediately.
5*Note: When making this salad, you can pretty much use any type of lettuce, but my daughter and I agree, we much prefer using romaine lettuce; picked fresh from ones garden, but you can use store bought lettuce, even the iceberg lettuce. Also, when adding the leaves to the bowl, I pretty much left the leaves whole, except for the leaves that were a bit too large, then I tore those in half.