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Celery Vinegar
Bruise an ounce of celery-seed, put it into a quart bottle, which must be filled up with cold boiled vinegar, let it soak for three weeks, then strain, and bottle for use. A few drops are an agreeable addition to salads, etc. Probable cost, 6d. per pint.
A steeped seed vinegar that needs almost nothing but patience and a clean bottle. The only real decisions are the strength of the vinegar and how you finish it.
- "Cold boiled vinegar"This means vinegar that has been brought to a boil and then allowed to cool completely before it is poured over the seed. The recipe gives no reason for the boiling; it is not to be poured on hot.
- Quantities in modern termsAn ounce of celery seed is about 4 to 5 tablespoons, which is a great deal of seed by current standards. An imperial quart is 1.1 litres, roughly 4.75 US cups; a US quart of 950 ml gives a slightly stronger result.
- Which vinegarThe recipe does not specify; malt vinegar would have been the ordinary household kind. For a long steep today use something at about 5 per cent acidity, such as supermarket malt or cider vinegar, and skip balsamic or wine vinegars whose own flavour will fight the celery.
- Bruise, do not grindCracking the seeds in a mortar opens them without turning them to powder. Ground seed clouds the vinegar permanently and makes straining slow and messy.
- The three weeksSteep at room temperature out of direct light, and shake the bottle every few days. There is no harm in tasting at two weeks; celery seed is assertive, and a longer steep than the three weeks specified may give a harsher result.
- Straining and storingStrain through muslin or a coffee filter rather than a sieve, or fine sediment will keep settling in the finished bottle. Kept sealed in a cool cupboard it holds its flavour for six months to a year.
- Yield and useAbout a quart of finished vinegar, which is a lot for the few drops suggested. Beyond salads it is useful in coleslaw dressing, in a tomato juice or oyster cocktail, and wherever celery salt would be wanted without the salt.
Flavoured vinegars were the Victorian kitchen's answer to a spice rack of extracts: tarragon, garlic, shallot, chilli, horseradish and celery vinegars all appear in Cassell's and in Eliza Acton and Mrs Beeton before it, each giving a cook a way to season a salad or a sauce out of season. Celery seed generally comes not from the stalk celery grown for the table but from smallage or wild celery -- forms of the same species -- and it carries the plant's flavour in a more concentrated and durable form, useful when fresh celery was a seasonal crop. The listed cost of sixpence a pint is a reminder of what this book was for -- domestic economy as much as cookery, with a price attached to nearly every entry so a household could judge whether making a thing was worth the trouble against buying it.