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Celeris au Lard
Take one pound of celery, cut off the green tops, cut the stems into pieces two-thirds of an inch long; put into boiling salted water, and cook till tender. Take one-half pound potatoes, peel and slice, and add to the celery, so that both will be cooked at the same moment. Strain and place on a flat fireproof dish. Prepare some fat slices of bacon, toast them till crisp in the oven; pour the melted bacon-fat over the celery and potato, adding a dash of vinegar, and place the rashers on top. Serve hot. Leeks may be prepared in the same way.
A one-pan Belgian side dish that lives or dies on timing: the celery and potato must finish together, so everything else is straightforward.
- Staggering the potCelery cut into the two-thirds-inch pieces the recipe specifies takes roughly 10-12 minutes in boiling salted water; sliced potatoes take 8-10. Start the celery, then add the potato a few minutes later so both arrive tender at once, as the original intends.
- Which celeryThe recipe means stalk celery, not celeriac. Pull the coarse outer ribs off, or run a peeler down their backs, before cutting.
- Bacon in the ovenLay the rashers on a rack or in a shallow pan at 400F for 12-18 minutes until crisp. Use dry-cured or streaky bacon; supermarket water-added bacon renders less fat and you may be short of the dressing.
- Fat and vinegarYou want about 3 to 4 tablespoons of hot bacon fat for this quantity, with 2 to 3 teaspoons of a sharp vinegar. Pour the fat while it is still very hot so the vinegar hisses into it and coats the vegetables rather than pooling underneath.
- "Fireproof dish"In 1915 this would have meant an ovenproof or flameproof earthenware dish. A warmed gratin dish or shallow serving bowl is exactly right; nothing goes back into the oven.
- SeasoningSalt the cooking water properly, then taste again at the end. Bacon and its fat carry most of the salt in the finished dish, so hold off until the dressing is on. A little black pepper is not in the original but is not out of character.
- YieldOne pound of celery and half a pound of potato serves two as a light supper or three or four alongside meat. It does not reheat well; the vinegar dulls and the bacon softens.
- The leek variationLeeks want the same treatment but less time, about 6-8 minutes for split lengths, and they hold water. Drain them hard, pressing gently, or the bacon fat will slide straight off.
The Belgian Cook Book was compiled by Mrs. Brian Luck in 1915 from recipes given by Belgian refugees who had come to England after the German invasion, and its dishes are notable for how thrifty and unfussy they are: a pound of celery, a half-pound of potatoes and a few rashers make a whole course. Dressing boiled vegetables with hot pork fat sharpened by vinegar is a technique that runs across the Low Countries and into Germany, where it survives most familiarly in warm potato and dandelion salads; au lard simply signals that bacon fat is the dressing. Belgium was well known in the period for chicory and Brussels sprouts, and the same treatment applied to leeks.