Caviare
If it were not a pleasure it would be an Cayenne Pepper. imperative duty to eat caviare, for reasons which will be given when we come to sturgeon, of which it is the roe. It is to be spread on toast, with a squeeze of lemon. CAYENNE PEPPER would be much better called Red pepper, for it does not come exclusively from Cayenne. It is the powder of the dried pods and seeds of the capsicum. The name of Chillies is a Mexican name for the pods.
CELERY AND CELERIAC are cultivated varieties of a wild plant common enough in England-smallage. It was the Italian gardeners who educated smallage into celery, and brought it into European notice towards the middle of the seventeenth century. Celeriac came about the same time -its distinction being that whereas in celery the gardeners brought the stalks to perfection, in celeriac they spent their skill upon the root. Unfortunately celeriac, though on the Continent much in favour, is little known in England; yet in some respects it is more useful than celery, being reared with greater ease and at less expense, being also fit for use during eight months of the year. The name of celery is derived from the Greek for parsley; and it is curious that celeri-ac contains the Latin name (apium) added to the Greek. Ac is to be identified with the French ache, and with the final syllable of smallage; and all three are transmutable into apium on the same principle that the Scottish Mac and the Welsh Ap are dialectical varieties of one and the same word.
Celery is most seen at table in England raw, to be eaten with cheese or sometimes in salad; but its presence at table is felt in other ways, for like parsley it is in constant demand for pot and pan to heighten soup and sauce. Also it makes a soup of itself; it makes a sauce of itself; it is excellent plain boiled, as sea-kale; it will stew to perfection; and it makes a salad which is not only good in itself, but Chambord also doubly good because it may be had when other salads fail.
Celery Soup. To be made on the same principle as asparagus soup.
Celery Sauce. For poultry or game. Slice very thin four or five heads of celery, and put it into a saucepan with pepper, salt, a pinch of sugar, a sliced onion, and for every head of celery an ounce of butter. Let it stew very slowly till the celery is melted; only take care not to brown it. Then add four ounces of flour, with about a pint of milk; let it cook for twenty minutes more, and rub it through a sieve.
Purée of Celery is the same as the foregoing, but thicker. Use more celery and less milk. Finish it with a pat of butter, and serve it as a garnish for cutlets.
Celery for Garnish. - Plain boiled the same as sea-kale. Another way is to work it like endive or spinach.
Celery in Salad is excellent by itself, and may be eaten every whit as the French eat it that is, root, branch, and leaf. For additions to it try any or all of these in slices : beet-root, Spanish onion, kidney potato.