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To Curl Celery
It is only necessary to slit the tops evenly with a penknife and set the celery in glasses of ice-water.
Leave enough of the green tops on for ornament. Take two turns of twine round the upper part of the stalks for a guide-mark. The tops when slit curl outwards just as far down as the cuts extend and these should be of uniform length. "I am a great foe to dinners, and indeed to all meals. I think when the good time comes we shall give up eating in public, except perhaps fruit on a green bank with music." --Consuelo-Theodora.--Lothair. "I know a bank where the wild thyme blows." --Ariel. "I bring A scrip with herbs and fruits supplied, And water from the spring." --Vicar of Wakefield
A garnish technique rather than a dish, and it still works exactly as described. A few points on materials and timing.
- The hinge is the cold waterThe curl comes from the cut strips absorbing water and bowing outward. Ice water, as the recipe specifies, not merely cold tap water, and give it a good while -- the longer the soak, the tighter the curl.
- Penknife means a thin, sharp bladeAny small paring knife works. Slice down through the stalk from the leafy end in parallel cuts about 1/8 inch apart, keeping the depth even so the fringe curls in a uniform ring.
- The twine is a depth guide, not a tieTwo turns of string around the stalk mark where every cut should stop. Remove it before serving; a rubber band around a bundle of stalks does the same job while they soak.
- Choose the right stalksOuter ribs, being broader, stringier and more curved, are generally the easiest to curl and the least rewarding to eat raw; pale hearts are tender and may flop rather than fringe.
- Green topsNineteenth-century celery was often blanched nearly white, so leaving "enough of the green tops" may well have been a deliberate touch of colour. Supermarket celery is green throughout; trim the leaves back to a couple of inches or the curl disappears into foliage.
- Holding and servingCurled stalks keep in ice water in the refrigerator overnight and stay crisp. Drain and stand them upright in a celery glass or lay them on a relish tray; figure one or two stalks per person as a table ornament and nibble.
- The quotationsThe passages from Lothair, Shakespeare and The Vicar of Wakefield are filler set beneath the entry, not part of the method.
Celery was a fashionable and comparatively expensive vegetable in nineteenth-century America, grown in trenches and banked with soil to blanch the stalks pale and mild. It was commonly served raw as an ornament and a palate-cleanser -- though it was also stewed and made into sauce -- and Victorian tables carried tall, narrow celery glasses and celery vases in pressed or cut glass, made to stand the stalks upright in water. Curling belongs to a family of cold-water garnish tricks of the period, alongside radish roses and scallion brushes, all relying on the same principle that scored plant tissue takes up water unevenly and bends.