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Celery Sauce
Cut into very small dice pieces four branches white celery and place in a small saucepan with three-quarters of a pint cold water and half teaspoon salt and boil for fifteen minutes. Drain on a sieve and keep the water and celery separate.
Heat one and a half tablespoons melted butter in a small saucepan, add two tablespoons flour and stir while heating for two minutes; then pour in half the quantity of celery water. Season with two saltspoons salt, one saltspoon cayenne pepper and a saltspoon ground nutmeg, adding one light gill cream; mix well with a wooden spoon, then add the celery; lightly mix, slowly boil for five minutes and use as required.
A classic white sauce built on celery cooking liquor and finished with cream. The measurements are in pints, gills and saltspoons, and the seasoning is heavier than most cooks will want.
- Saltspoon and gillA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon; a gill is half a cup, so a "light gill" is a scant half cup of cream. Three-quarters of a pint is 1 1/2 cups of water.
- Branches of celery"Branches" here means individual ribs, not whole heads. Four pale inner ribs, diced small, is the intent — the white celery of the period was blanched and milder than modern green stalks, so trim any strings and lean toward the heart.
- The cayenneA full saltspoon of cayenne, a quarter teaspoon, in roughly a cup and a half of sauce is assertive by current taste. A pinch is closer to what most people expect from a cream sauce for poultry; add more at the end if you want it.
- The rouxTwo tablespoons flour to one and a half of butter is deliberately flour-heavy and will look dry. Cook it the full two minutes without colouring, then add the hot celery water gradually and whisk to avoid lumps.
- Half the celery waterOnly half the cooking liquid goes in, about 3/4 cup, which with the cream gives a thick coating sauce. Keep the rest to loosen it if it tightens while standing.
- Boiling the celeryFifteen minutes at a boil leaves the dice fully soft, which is what this sauce wants — it is not a salad garnish. If you prefer some texture, eight to ten minutes is enough and the liquor will still be well flavoured.
- The final five minutesOnce the cream is in, hold it at a bare simmer rather than a rolling boil, stirring, or the sauce can catch on the bottom and the cream may separate.
- Yield and useAbout 1 1/2 cups, enough for four to six servings. It is a sauce for boiled or roast fowl, turkey, poached white fish or plain boiled potatoes.
Celery sauce appears in English cookery of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, commonly served with boiled turkey or a boiled fowl, and similar versions appear in American cookbooks. Celery of the period was often earthed up or wrapped to blanch the stalks white and mild, and was served at table in tall celery glasses. Here the sauce is built on the celery cooking liquor rather than on milk. The quantities of cayenne and nutmeg give it more bite than a modern cream sauce would usually carry.