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Braised Celery
Select a few heads of celery, and trim each stalk, leaving nothing but the white part; then tie them in bundles and parboil them for about ten minutes, next throwing them into cold water. After a few minutes remove and drain them on a sieve; place them in a stewpan with some good white stock, and let simmer gently for about and hour. When done drain them upon a napkin, and dish up upon croutons of fried bread. Pour over some good brown sauce to which had been added a little chicken glaze, and serve.
A straightforward braise from Oscar Tschirky's kitchen, written for cooks who already had stock, brown sauce and glaze standing by. The work is mostly in the trimming and the sauce.
- The hinge: don't overcook the braiseCelery hearts in a shallow pan of simmering stock are usually tender in 25-35 minutes, not the full hour. The celery reaching this kitchen may well have been tougher and stringier than what a modern cook buys; test with a knife tip and pull them while they still hold their shape.
- "Nothing but the white part"Strip the outer green ribs and the leaves, leaving the pale heart, then trim the head to a uniform 5-6 inches. Two heads of celery yield about four portions as a side.
- Tying the bundlesKitchen twine around each heart at both ends keeps them intact through parboiling and braising. Trim the root end flat first so the ribs stay attached.
- Parboil and refreshTen minutes in boiling water, then straight into cold water, stops the cooking and mellows any bitterness. Drain well or the braising stock will be watery.
- "Good white stock"An unroasted veal or chicken stock. Use enough to come about halfway up the celery and cover the pan, or a round of parchment on the surface, so the tops steam.
- Chicken glazeGlace de volaille: chicken stock reduced to a syrupy, near-solid concentrate. A teaspoon stirred into the brown sauce is enough; commercial demi-glace concentrate serves the same purpose.
- Brown sauceOscar assumes a classic espagnole held in the kitchen. A reduced brown veal stock thickened lightly, or a good demi-glace, gives the same result without the day's work.
- CroutonsCrustless white bread cut to the length of the celery hearts and fried in clarified butter until crisp. Cut them slightly larger than the celery so they show, and fry them last so they do not soften.
- Drain on a napkinA folded linen towel, used as a modern cook would use paper towel. Braising liquid left clinging will thin the sauce on the plate.
Braised celery belonged to the standard French repertoire that Oscar Tschirky codified for American readers at the Waldorf around the turn of the twentieth century: a vegetable cooked in stock, set on fried bread, and finished with a sauce drawn from the same kitchen's stockpots. Celery itself was a luxury vegetable in nineteenth-century America, blanched by banking soil or boards against the growing plants to keep the ribs pale and mild, which is why so many recipes of the period insist on using only the white part. Specialised celery glasses stood on well-set tables so the stalks could be displayed raw, and the vegetable's prestige is part of why it earns a hot preparation with brown sauce and chicken glaze here. The dish also shows how a great hotel kitchen worked: nothing in it is difficult, but it assumes white stock, espagnole and glace de volaille are already made and waiting.