Celery is a master of disguise when it comes to taste and presentation.
The leaves have a very slight bite and make a nice “herb” to add to all kinds of dishes, plus making a pretty garnish. Logical, since celery is related to parsley. (Check out the history of celery and a few cooked dishes.)
Grandma Vera Anderson liked to dip raw vegetables into a little pile of salt on her plate, and it is still indispensable on a crudite tray.
When my sons were little, they could be conned into eating celery if I stuffed it with peanut butter or Cheese Whiz. Now I’ve graduated to more sophisticated spreads, like this dried tomato cheese spread.
Now that I cannot eat onions, I tend to double up on chopped celery in stews, stir fries and such– to get the little crunch you get from onions that I have to omit.
But what I do not do, is cook celery alone as a side dish. Why not, I wondered, when I saw a recipe for stewed celery in the Civil War Recipes: Receipts from the Pages of Godey’s Lady’s Book. I vaguely remember the taste of creamed celery, so maybe grandma cooked it some time. This recipe was published in Godey’s in 1862, so even though I doubt that Anna Butts was a magazine reader back during Civil War days, it probably was a common enough method that she would have known about it. And I imagine she planted celery in her garden. And I know that Hattie Morgan Stout was reading Godey’s, along with her mother Mary Morgan, for whom it was a lifeline to civilization.
This delicious and economical recipe, like so many from the 19th century, is vague on details, so I am going to quote the recipe verbatim and then give you my version and some notes on why I made changes. It seems that the bitterness that called for stewing of celery in milk and adding lemon has been bred out of the modern plant, because I do not think of celery as bitter at all.
My Version of Creamed Celery
Creamed Celery
Serves | 4-5 |
Prep time | 55 minutes |
Cook time | 45 minutes |
Total time | 1 hours, 40 minutes |
Allergy | Egg, Milk, Wheat |
Dietary | Vegetarian |
Meal type | Side Dish |
Misc | Serve Hot |
From book | Civil War Recipes: Receipts from the Pages of Godey's Lady's Book |
Ingredients
- 1 cup Milk
- Water
- 1 bunch Celery (2 stalks per person)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground mace (plus some to sprinkle on top)
- 3 tablespoons Butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 2 egg yolks
- 3/4 cups cream
Directions
Note
I have eliminated the lemon slice called for in the original. I tried it when I cooked this and it curdled the milk. (Of course!) Plus, I did not think the lemon taste added anything.
Mace is another part of the same plant that gives us nutmeg. I like it very much. It has a slightly milder flavor. But feel free to substitute nutmeg.
I wound up with a lot more sauce than was necessary. If I were making it again, I believe I would pour off some of the milk/water that the celery is stewed in before adding the other ingredients.
I used only seven stalks of celery and it made enough for two servings and seconds, but if cooking this again, I believe I would use a whole bunch of celery. It takes a bit of work to make this, the leftovers are delicious, so why not have planned overs?