Why Is It Called “Iceberg” Lettuce?

Film director John Waters once dubbed iceberg lettuce “the polyester of greens.” It’s not difficult to understand why: Crisp but bland and lacking the same nutritional profile as other vegetables, iceberg lettuce is often regarded as a last resort for salads. It’s probably better tolerated in hamburgers or BLTs. Only a wedge salad, where the head is left partially intact, seems to be welcome in fine dining establishments.

But let’s table the debate over its merits for a moment. Why is it known as iceberg lettuce?

1. Tip of the Iceberg
2. Breaking the Ice

Tip of the Iceberg

According to the culinary magazine Saveur, the modern branding of iceberg lettuce was the work of W. Atlee Burpee & Co., a Philadelphia-based seed distributor, in the 1890s. The vegetable belongs to a family of lettuces known as “crisphead,” derived from Batavia lettuce, which was a similarly bulbous and leafy variety. But iceberg was crispier, had more leaves, and sported a durable outer “shell.”

A sturdy ball of lettuce was surprisingly valuable. Most lettuce grown in the United States originated in California, and from there it was shipped via railroad to other parts of the country. Taste wasn't necessarily a priority: A lettuce head that could simply survive the trip was paramount. Iceberg had tough leaves that refused to wilt easily, especially when compared to other soggy, frail greens that went bad more quickly. It was also available year-round.

The result? A seemingly exotic vegetable. “California iceberg lettuce,” one 1891 newspaper ad that ran in Wisconsin read. It cost 12 cents per head.

Traveling well is where the origins of the name iceberg may have come from, though that’s somewhat in dispute. One theory has it that iceberg was so named because it was shipped on mounds of ice, a necessary cooling procedure before refrigerated transport became commonplace.

But that may be apocryphal. Helen Rosner, a New Yorker contributor and iceberg apologist, bluntly assessed this as “pure American horsesh*t,” a tall tale spun for publicity purposes by Depression-era farmers.

In speaking with Saveur, Burpee CEO George Ball offered another explanation: Iceberg refers to the white(ish) color of the outer leaves and its crunchy texture, not the ice it was packed in. That’s bolstered by some of the early descriptions of the lettuce. In an 1895 ad for iceberg lettuce seeds, Cole’s Seed Store of Pella, Iowa, wrote:

“ … [the leaves] have small indents, which are constantly filled with dew-drops. They are thus kept fresh, and show a remarkably crystalline appearance, which well warrants the name of iceberg.”

Further refinements to the lettuce were made, and by the 1940s, lettuce science had improved to the point where one type of crisphead was cross-bred with another variety, dubbed brittle-ice, to create the super-crisp iceberg we’re familiar with. Because it was easy to ship and slow to wilt, iceberg became the predominant type of lettuce consumed by Americans for decades.

Breaking the Ice

Trouble came in the form of the growing influence of celebrity chefs like Julia Child in the 1960s, who shirked iceberg for more flavorful greens like romaine and arugula. Later, the emergence of pre-bagged salad mixes that kept fresher for longer made room for other types of lettuce to get a seat at the table. Coupled with an increasingly health-conscious society, iceberg was unseated as the only lettuce game in town.

Does iceberg deserve the bad rap? By some estimates, it does have a lower nutritional profile—perhaps as little as 5 percent of what other greens pack in. But for people who want to add some crunch to a salad or sandwich, that may not matter. Some even choose to grill or pickle the leaves, though that may defeat iceberg’s true purpose: to remain reliably bland, the polyester of greens.

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