Fried Celery
Celery cut in three-inch pieces Salt and pepper Batter I, III, or V Parboil celery until soft, drain, sprinkle with salt and pepper, dip in batter, fry in deep fat, and drain on brown paper. Serve with Tomato Sauce.
A short entry that assumes you already have a batter recipe and a pot of frying fat on hand. The hinge is drying the celery: parboiled stalks hold water in their ribs, and wet celery will slide out of its batter in the fat.
- Batter I, III, or VThese are numbered cross-references to the book's batter section, not ingredients you can guess at. Any thin fritter batter works — roughly 1 cup flour, 1 egg, and enough milk or water to coat the back of a spoon; a beer batter gives a crisper shell.
- Parboil, but briefly"Until soft" is likely to overshoot: six to eight minutes in salted boiling water leaves the celery yielding but still able to hold its shape through frying.
- Dry thoroughlyAfter draining, spread the pieces on a towel and blot. Any surface moisture makes the batter slip and the fat spit.
- Fat temperatureDeep fat for battered vegetables wants 365–375F. Fry in small batches so the temperature does not crash; two to three minutes gives a golden shell.
- Brown paperBrown paper was a common draining surface in this period. Use paper towels or a wire rack set over a tray — a rack keeps the underside from steaming soft.
- Which part of the headUse the outer ribs, strung first with a peeler. The pale tender heart is better raw; the coarse outer stalks are exactly what parboiling and battering are for.
- Yield and servingNo quantity is given; one large head will stretch to roughly four modest servings as a course or a side. Salt again the moment it comes out of the fat, and serve immediately with the tomato sauce hot.