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Celery with Roquefort
Remove the outer branches from a large stalk of crisp celery. Detach all the branches; thoroughly wash and wipe dry. Place in a mortar one ounce of Roquefort cheese with a quarter ounce butter and half saltspoon cayenne pepper; thoroughly pound it, then evenly spread the cheese on inside of celery branches, dress on a side dish, cover with cracked ice and serve.
A stuffed-celery appetizer of the sort that opened formal dinners around 1900. Nothing here is difficult; the terms are just older than the technique.
- Stalk vs. branchA "large stalk of crisp celery" is the whole head; the "branches" are what we call ribs. Discard or save the coarse outer ribs for stock and stuff the pale inner ones.
- SaltspoonA saltspoon is a quarter teaspoon, so half a saltspoon is about an eighth of a teaspoon. Against only one ounce of cheese that is aggressively hot — start with a pinch and taste, since cayenne heat varies wildly by jar.
- ProportionsOne ounce of Roquefort to a quarter ounce of butter is a 4:1 ratio. That is a small quantity of paste — enough for only a few ribs — so scale up by the ounce for a crowd. Have both at room temperature or the paste will not spread.
- The mortarA fork on a plate does this job, or a small food processor if you are making a large batch. The aim is a smooth spreadable paste, not a crumbly mixture — pound until no lumps of butter remain visible.
- Cracked iceThe recipe says to cover the dressed celery with cracked ice, which keeps the celery rigid and the cheese firm on the table. If you prefer, arrange the ribs on a shallow dish set over ice rather than burying them, so meltwater does not run into the filling.
- Wipe dryWorth taking seriously: cheese paste will not adhere well to damp celery, and any water left in the groove thins the filling; dry each rib inside and out with a towel.
- YieldAs written this is a first course for two, or part of a relish tray for four.
Roquefort is a sheep's-milk blue from the Causses of southern France, ripened in the limestone caves of Roquefort-sur-Soulzon, and by the late nineteenth century it was among the blue cheeses an ambitious American or English cook would name. Pounding cheese with butter into a spreadable paste is a mixture that appears repeatedly in period cheese savouries and canapés, when a mortar stood in for the food processor and softened butter was one way to make a hard, salty cheese behave. Celery was grown blanched and pale and sold by the head, and was often set out in tall cut-glass celery vases at formal dinners — which may be why it turns up here dressed on a side dish over cracked ice, cold and crisp, as one of the small salted things served before or after the meal proper rather than as a salad.