Home › The Principles of Cookery › Celery, Puree Of
Celery, Puree Of
Wash thoroughly four heads of fresh white celery, cut them into small pieces, and put them in a stewpan, with an onion sliced, and a quarter of a pound of butter. Let them simmer very gently till tender, then add a quarter of a pound of flour mixed smoothly with a pint of milk. Let this boil up, then pass the whole through a fine sieve, season with salt, pepper, and a little piece of sugar, and add some butter and very thick cream to the puree. Serve in the middle of a dish, with cutlets, etc., round. Time for young celery, three-quarters of an hour; if old, one hour and a half. Probable cost, 2d. to 4d. per head.
A thick vegetable purée in the old French manner, meant as a bed for cutlets rather than a side dish. Two things need attention: the proportion of flour, and the fact that the celery must never colour.
- Four heads of celeryA "head" is a whole bunch, trimmed of leaves and root, not a single rib. Four heads is roughly 3 to 4 lb of trimmed celery, which cooks down a long way.
- The pint is imperialCassell's pint is 20 fl oz, so use 2 1/2 cups of milk rather than 2. This matters here because the flour is measured against it.
- The flour is the riskA quarter pound of flour (a scant cup) to a pint of milk makes a paste stiff enough to stand a spoon in. Slacken with more milk or a little stock after sieving until the puree just holds its shape; serving it as a mound with cutlets set round implies a firm consistency.
- Sweat, do not brownThe hinge of the dish. Celery and onion go into the butter over low heat with a lid on, and any browning shows in the finished purée as a grey-tan cast and a slightly bitter edge. Keep it pale.
- SievingA blender or food processor does the work in seconds, but still push the result through a fine sieve afterwards; celery strings survive blades and ruin the texture.
- "A little piece of sugar"Probably a lump broken from a sugar loaf, so roughly a teaspoon. It is there to lift the faint bitterness of the celery, not to sweeten.
- TimingsThree-quarters of an hour is generous for most celery sold now, which tends to be more tender; 25 to 35 minutes is usually enough. Judge by whether a piece crushes against the pan with no fibre left.
- ButterA quarter pound (1 stick) at the start plus more at the finish is period-rich. Half that at the start works, with a tablespoon or two beaten in at the end for gloss.
- YieldThe original gives no yield. Reckon on enough for six as a base under cutlets, or four as a vegetable course.
Purees of this kind were used as a bed on which grilled or fried cutlets were arranged for service. The heavy flour binding is characteristic of the nineteenth century, when a puree was expected to be firm enough to hold meat upright rather than spooned loose across a plate. The costing line, twopence to fourpence a head, reflects a period when celery was a winter crop trenched and blanched in the ground; late-season celery had a good deal more fibre than anything now sold in a bag, which may be why the recipe distinguishes so sharply between young and old heads.