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Celery Fried
Cut off the green leaves, and cut the stalks of the celery in pieces about an inch long. Wash them and then put them into boiling water for fifteen minutes. Then dry on a napkin. Beat up an egg with a little stock, or hot water, add salt and pepper, dip the celery in, then roll it in bread crumbs, and fry in boiling lard.
A straightforward fried vegetable in the Italian manner: blanch, coat, fry. Two details in the original need translating for a modern stove.
- "Boiling lard" means 350-375F"Boiling lard" -- Fat does not boil; the phrase describes the vigorous bubbling around food dropped into properly hot fat. In modern terms this is usually taken as around 350-375F; use a thermometer. Lard is the period fat, but any neutral oil with a high smoke point works.
- Fifteen minutes is for tough winter celeryFifteen minutes is a long blanch -- Celery of the period was probably stringier than the hybrids sold today. Five to eight minutes in boiling water is usually enough now; the pieces should bend without snapping but still hold their shape for frying.
- Dry it seriouslyThe napkin instruction is the hinge of the recipe. Wet celery will not hold the egg wash, and any water carried into the fat spits and softens the crust. Blot the pieces and let them air-dry a few minutes before coating.
- The egg washOne egg loosened with a tablespoon or two of stock is a thin coating rather than a batter, which is what you want here. Season the egg, not the celery, as the original does.
- StringsRun a peeler or a knife down the outer ribs to pull off the coarse strings before cutting. Inner ribs can be left alone.
- BreadcrumbsDry fine crumbs, not the coarse fresh kind, and certainly not panko if you want the period texture. Press them on firmly and let the coated pieces rest ten minutes so the coating sets.
- Yield and servingThe recipe gives no quantities; one large head will make roughly four small side servings. Fry in batches so the fat stays hot, drain on paper, salt while hot, and serve immediately.
Fried celery belongs to the broad Italian repertoire of fritti and fritto misto, in which almost any vegetable — artichoke, cardoon, zucchini flower, fennel, celery — is parboiled if it needs it, coated, and dropped in hot fat. Celery was grown extensively in Italy, and the cardoon, though botanically unrelated, is treated exactly this way in Roman and Piedmontese cooking. The recipe's brevity is characteristic: it assumes the reader already keeps stock and lard on hand and needs only to be told the order of operations.