Celery was the Avocado Toast of the Victorian Age

September 9, 2017 5:07 PM

Most of us are "meh" about celery, but oh there was a time . . . And of course it was the Victorians who celebrated celery. And had special containers to show it off. There's a recipe at the end for a slaw, but I've added a link for Alton Brown's Braised Celery. A friend once made this for me and I was enchanted with it, especially since she burned it just a tad, which seemed to enrich the flavor somehow.
posted by MovableBookLady (74 comments total)

If you watch Three Stooges videos you will see them in 'upscale' restaurants where there is a plate of celery on the table. Even in the 1930s celery was considered as a classy thing. Of course they would slap each other with it. But still.
posted by Splunge at 5:29 PM on September 9, 2017 [11 favorites]

Get your celery glove on, and get some celery!
posted by chainsofreedom at 5:38 PM on September 9, 2017

Celery previously.
posted by Chrysostom at 5:39 PM on September 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

celery au gratin, the classy predecessor to today’s gooey celery-cheese casserole,

Wait, what?
posted by sourwookie at 5:53 PM on September 9, 2017 [6 favorites]

All these paupers could be landed gentry by now if they stopped spending so many of their shillings on extravagances like celery.
posted by idiopath at 6:03 PM on September 9, 2017 [61 favorites]

This makes me want to get some celery.
posted by dame at 6:10 PM on September 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

So timely. Watching an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents yesterday, the dudes at the boarding house where Dick York and the guy who stole money from him who he was trying to make crazy fought over who got the celery heart because the same guy was taking it all the time, and I thought "how much celery are you being served if you've got a feud about it?", and now, I guess I know.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 6:21 PM on September 9, 2017 [6 favorites]

I suspect that oldschool celery was a lot more flavorful than the waterlogged monster sized celery we get today. I've had some really tasty heirloom celery as well as wild celery* and they were both a lot more pungent and flavorful, almost spicy. The wild celery in particular was so flavorful it was grassy and edging towards bitter.

*Warning; Wild celery is easily mistaken for poison hemlock.
posted by loquacious at 6:28 PM on September 9, 2017 [17 favorites]

You forget how marvellous celery is when mostly what you eat is the insipid watery stuff you find in the grocery store - I grew some in the garden a couple of years ago and it was incredibly flavourful and bold. We were peeling stalks off the outside for a couple weeks until the dog discovered it, and we had to harvest the whole plant for fear she'd break into the garden and eat it all. She would rip your arm off for a stalk of celery, that dog.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 6:29 PM on September 9, 2017 [28 favorites]

*Warning; Wild celery is easily mistaken for poison hemlock.

I would hate to mistake celery for hemlock. Celery is gross, and I'd be both disgusted and embarrassed if I tried committing suicide in front of the Athenian city council and just ended up with a mouthful of celery jucero instead.
posted by Telf at 6:36 PM on September 9, 2017 [34 favorites]

Obligatory link to Portlandia's celery sketch with Steve Buscemi.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:38 PM on September 9, 2017 [11 favorites]

I once ordered braised chicken and celery at a Taiwanese restaurant and when it came, there was so much.... celery. Then I started eating it and it was so good.
posted by acrasis at 6:44 PM on September 9, 2017 [4 favorites]

I love celery. I'll try putting it in everything I cook given half a chance. Which probably should alert you to avoiding invitations to any dinner parties I'd throw, but that's okay, there'd just be more celery for me then.
posted by gusottertrout at 6:46 PM on September 9, 2017 [3 favorites]

I find it fascinating how our actual perceptions of what tastes good, which it can be tempting to put down to pure biology, can be so affected by fashion sometimes.

For some reason the following 1889 quote, mentioned in the article, particularly tickled me:

The tall celery glasses set upon the table form the handiest and handsomest medium, but having become so exceedingly common they are discarded at present at fashionable tables, and the celery is laid upon very long and narrow dishes.

I think it's the fact that the author is able to notice and comment on the fashions for serving celery but not notice the, to modern eyes, more pertinent question of "hang on, why does every dinner party I go to have a whole load of celery?"
posted by Dext at 6:48 PM on September 9, 2017 [6 favorites]

Part of the problem with celery stems from the fact that most of us are eating the wrong part of the plant.
posted by TedW at 7:03 PM on September 9, 2017 [3 favorites]

On a related note, if any of you don't want your broccoli stalks, I'll take them. They are the best!
posted by TedW at 7:06 PM on September 9, 2017 [5 favorites]

I'd like to take this opportunity to endorse my favorite soda, Dr. Brown's Cel-Ray.
posted by Ranucci at 7:07 PM on September 9, 2017 [6 favorites]

Bah, there is no wrong part of celery! Celeriac is just further proof of its overall deliciousness. (And is excellent in soups and stews!)
posted by gusottertrout at 7:07 PM on September 9, 2017 [4 favorites]

This gives more meaning to The Doctor wearing celery on his lapel.
posted by jozxyqk at 7:10 PM on September 9, 2017 [9 favorites]

celery is great for people like me who have been at war for many years with a number of vegetables bc it is like cronching the tasty bones of your enemies
posted by poffin boffin at 7:11 PM on September 9, 2017 [14 favorites]

C R O N C H
posted by poffin boffin at 7:11 PM on September 9, 2017 [20 favorites]

This reminds me of a Japanese friend and roommate I had back in college, telling me how celery was one of her favorite things to eat and how she and her mother would, I don't remember exactly, basically steal away with it and have it all to themselves.

I said: "Celery?

"CELERY?"
posted by Auden at 7:17 PM on September 9, 2017 [7 favorites]

Celery is the shit. I need to get back on my bullshit and perfect my celery cake recipe.
posted by kenko at 7:19 PM on September 9, 2017 [4 favorites]

Well, I mean, celery is a shit, but...
posted by Daily Alice at 7:22 PM on September 9, 2017

The author of this article is a friend of a friend so I've read a few of her books and this one is particularly great as is her book on chili peppers.
posted by bitter-girl.com at 7:22 PM on September 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thank you, MovableBookLady, this is fascinating.

I'll be trying my hand at some of these recipes, and thinking about proper celery in floral arrangements.

Braised celery sounds great. (One of my favorite foods is braised leeks. They shrink down so small and concentrated.)

Raw celery always struck me as a drink of water that is crunchy.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:25 PM on September 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

For me it's the innermost stalks that makes celery so interesting. These are the smaller, more delicate, super crisp stalks that aren't included in the pre-cut bags (so you have to get the whole celery bunch to get these precious stalks). And there was a time I discarded these same stalks because there were colorless and, I assumed, flavorless. Ha! Was I wrong!
posted by marimeko at 7:25 PM on September 9, 2017 [4 favorites]

These are the smaller, more delicate, super crisp stalks

I've learned that things like this should be placed fo an hour or two in a full, clean sink filled with water and some ice, that really plumps up the crunch.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:29 PM on September 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

My underweight children are, inexplicably, batshit for celery.

One of the strangest utterances that has ever crossed my lips was, "no, you may NOT have any more celery until you eat some of your grilled cheese."

Folks, it was the buttery melty pan fried extra decadent kind of grilled cheese. WTAF.

P.S. don't worry, I let her eat two full plates of celery before laying down the grilled cheese law.
posted by telepanda at 7:36 PM on September 9, 2017 [34 favorites]

Kids like the craziest things! You never know what a kid will like. I loved broccoli the enemy of most children. Loved celery too, like your kids. Celeriac too. The recipe attached to this article looks delish- can't wait to try it!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 7:39 PM on September 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Next time you make clam chowder, chiffonade a bunch of those tender celery leaves and garnish your soup with it just before serving.
posted by Mary Ellen Carter at 7:40 PM on September 9, 2017 [7 favorites]

It wouldn't have been Thanksgiving without Aunt Tillie's stuffed celery.

And this update from Martha Stewart looks great!
posted by Marky at 7:42 PM on September 9, 2017

We always keep a pitcher of celery in water in the fridge for snacking. I never knew celery vases were a thing! Now I want one!
posted by Kriesa at 7:42 PM on September 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

One of my proudest moments as an archaeologist was identifying a large shard of a glass celery dish.

Given my love of all things historical and Victorian, I would love to someday have a garden and grow my own delicious celery. So many vegetables have been made tasteless in the modern world as a byproduct of being grown and harvested in enormous quantities.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 7:53 PM on September 9, 2017 [7 favorites]

I would hate to mistake celery for hemlock

My gums ache, and a stringy blandness pains
My sense, as though of celery I had ate
posted by Jon Mitchell at 7:58 PM on September 9, 2017 [12 favorites]

Growing up in coastal North Carolina in the 1950s, our family most often used celery as a vehicle for pimiento cheese, not cream cheese. Here's a link for pimiento cheese, nowadays thought of as quintessentially southern. Howsomever, it originated in the North where cheese makers were trying to expand use of their cheeses. I guess it's mostly southern these days. And I like braised celery better, anyhow.
posted by MovableBookLady at 8:02 PM on September 9, 2017 [4 favorites]

I'll be making those pimiento cheese sandwiches for some guests tomorrow. What a great idea, mix some mayonnaise with grated cheese for the grilled cheese sandwiches.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:09 PM on September 9, 2017

Having worked as a caterer for a while, you basically put celery onto a veggie tray so that you can pick it up 2 hours later and throw it away. I do personally enjoy it, however, even the apparently bland mass market stuff. I'd be very interested to try spicier, tastier celery.
posted by codacorolla at 8:31 PM on September 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

I would hate to mistake celery for hemlock

I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates, who said, "I drank what?!"
posted by aws17576 at 8:50 PM on September 9, 2017 [6 favorites]

Celery with peanut butter in the trough was a common snack of my childhood, and I do not miss it at all. It's funny to think of it being a fashionable and in-demand food.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:56 PM on September 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh yes, my small town Yorkshire home vegetable garden growing husband thought US celery was a different. Breed then UK celery cause it was so watery and bland , suitable only for mild flavors and texture. Getting decent celery changed that, but he stil insists if the very fussy preparations that retains all the leaves but removes all the strings and is cross cut and everything.

Celery! Love it, it's great blended into soups and stews for a mild and gentling efffect.

And Celeriac! A divine addition to mashed potatoes, one of the mighty tubers with a clear and sweet flavor profile. Excellent for sweet stews and curries.
posted by The Whelk at 8:58 PM on September 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Celery with peanut butter in the trough was a common snack of my childhood, and I do not miss it at all.

Even with my fondness for celery, I never understood the idea of adding peanut butter to it at all. The effect was of watered down stringy peanut syrup, which sort of ruins the best attributes of both peanut butter's thick creaminess and celery's crisp watery clearer taste. Put the peanut butter on a cracker and if you must add something to celery, cheese or a light dip is fine, mixing them is just, well, I was going to say nutty, but instead I'll go with, a mess.
posted by gusottertrout at 9:09 PM on September 9, 2017 [5 favorites]

Man, I still love peanut butter on celery. It brings me great joy.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:17 PM on September 9, 2017 [8 favorites]

I went to an estate sale of a collector of cut glass crystal. They had about 20 different celery dishes. Even though I like celery, I was not tempted to buy any of them.
posted by vespabelle at 9:49 PM on September 9, 2017

"onions, bell peppers and celery" is for some reason a thing in a lot of my recipes.

/s
posted by mikelieman at 10:17 PM on September 9, 2017

"Ants on a log: meet PANTS on a log!" is what I'd say to that snack if I were a young man. As I'm a lady in my late 30's I cannot, but consider that hypothetical diss, you nastiest of foods.
posted by macrowave at 10:29 PM on September 9, 2017

Say it out loud: celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery celery.

It gets weird far quicker than most words when repeated.

FYI, adding some extra celery salt directly into your Caesar (for those who don't know, I'm talking about the drink, not the salad), along with some extra dashes of worcestershire and a spicy bean totally makes for an amazing drink. Trust me, extra celery salt.
posted by ashbury at 11:09 PM on September 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

I would love to have some unsweetened, celery-flavored chewing gum.
posted by jamjam at 11:23 PM on September 9, 2017 [5 favorites]

my favourite soup has both celery AND celery leaves in it, as well as a fuckton of bacon, i haven't made it in ages but now it is seasonally appropriate and I AM INSPIRES
posted by poffin boffin at 11:36 PM on September 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

(it's a corn chowder with celery and bacon and milk and chicken stock, i have no idea what the recipe is, i just wing it)
posted by poffin boffin at 11:37 PM on September 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

My underweight children are, inexplicably, batshit for celery.

When I was a kid, chopped-up celery with a bowl of extra-creamy Caesar for dipping was among my favorite foods. I expect you've probably tried that, but if not, it's a good way to increase the calorie count by approximately infinity percent.
posted by fermion at 12:20 AM on September 10, 2017

Several years ago I was given a celery vase as a gift, but didn't know it was a celery vase. I've been using it for flowers. Time for a few stalks on the mantel.
posted by Miss T.Horn at 12:30 AM on September 10, 2017

That braised celery recipe looks delicious, will be tried today.

I think my parents saw celery-eating as posh when I was a child — I'd forgotten all about it till I read the article. But maybe it was a half-ironic thing, just like there's a lot of retro-food out there now. I'll try to ask my mum, but she was never really a foodie so she might not remember.
posted by mumimor at 12:56 AM on September 10, 2017

Interstellary Celery!
posted by fairmettle at 12:56 AM on September 10, 2017

In the time since my previous comment I've been spending too much time thinking about mirepoix made from celery, carrots and onions that isn't made from the weird, oversized and often flavorless commercial produce.

And I'm realizing I have never actually tasted nor even seen such a thing, and I've worked in kitchens and gardens. Even in commercial kitchens, even when they're a bit fancy there's not a lot of attention given to celery. Or carrots. Or onions, for that matter. You generally have one choice of celery, one of carrots, and maybe three choices of onion, the standard white, the brown and the sweet yellow.

I never see any heirloom cultivars going into something fundamental and basic like a mirepoix starter for soup stock or lentils or something. Sure, I see fancy carrots in salads or pan-roasted and glazed as an entree, but not as a mirepoix.

It's odd and telling I haven't ever even thought about this before. Further, I have never heard anyone in my time in kitchens or knowing chefs and cooks to talk about anything like this either. Like I've never heard the words "Oh, man, I made the most amazing mirepoix the other day out of the cutest little carrots and this really intense heirloom celery and some new onions." No, even in commercial kitchens they just shrug and reach for the plain old celery, carrots and onions.

And this is weird because mirepoix is supposed to be this really important, fundamental blend of flavors and starting point to a ton of recipes, and not just French ones. You're caramelizing and Maillard-ing these three veggies down into a their concentrated essence that will end up essentially being the canvas and base note for a recipe, and we just throw the most flavorless, overgrown commercial produce at it and call it good.

I think the next time I need to make mirepoix I'm going to go find some better celery.

Seriously, look at the illustration of old school celery on wikipedia. It doesn't look anything like the watery Pascal stuff we have everywhere in the US. I'm also noting there's a note that using wild celery is definitely a thing in French cuisine.

And plain old mirepoix is pretty amazing stuff, even as I've known it as this basic thing. It would probably be absolutely incredible with wild celery, some really flavorful heirloom carrots and onions and some really good butter.
posted by loquacious at 4:07 AM on September 10, 2017 [24 favorites]

I just got all worked up about growing celery next year and then Googled it and remembered when I hadn't grown it in the past....it requires a lot of water, or rather a consistent amount. Our kitchen garden is in a high, bright part of the backyard. I am not that into watering and am not into drip irrigation. Works for some things, less so for others.

The front yard slopes down and gets very wet as it goes, so it would work there, but it's also where the milkweed goes nuts to create a monarch caterpillar nursery and between them and the slugs, the celery would have a rough go of it.

I guess you'd have to be pretty devoted to this? Maybe in some kind of ornamental raised bed.......covering it with a mesh cloche type thing....but then you'd be devoting so much to growing celery. But then seems like it could be pretty and have ornamental value itself.

And then it's such a mystery vegetable....at this point lots of people have experienced the difference between supermarket tomatoes and garden tomatoes. But celery? Is it possible it holds secrets?

In short, torn about celery.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 6:26 AM on September 10, 2017 [4 favorites]

From this time of the year and onwards till the first frost, celeriac is always sold with the stalks and leaves here. And those stalks are definitely a tastier and stronger contribution to the mirepoix or soup, as are the leaves that I chop up together with parsley. They are not really for eating raw because they are really stringy.
Mashed celeriac or a mashed mix of celeriac and potatoes is delicious with a hearty beef stew where you can use the finely chopped stalks in the stew and the leaves as a garnish. Mmmm, this all makes me look forward to autumn.

loquacious: Some time ago I was at a farmers market where one farmer had different carrots for eating raw and cooking, but I haven't seen it since. The cooking carrots were more bitter, but became sweet and very tasty in cooked food and held up much better than the eating-raw carrots. I wonder if the carrots professional kitchens buy in bulk are to some extent "cooking carrots".
posted by mumimor at 7:20 AM on September 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'd only had the watery econo-sized celery stalks that most supermarkets carry, until, some years ago, I bought a small bunch from my local farmers market. The stalks were much thinner and shorter and a darkish green. These differences were as naught to the experience when I actually popped a piece into my mouth. Like Dorothy opening the door of her house into a Technicolor Oz. Quite strong, quite flavorful, only need a little bit in tuna salad to make the point that celery is in the motherfuckin' house.

That said, I don't know that I'll be incorporating celery into the décor.
posted by the sobsister at 7:29 AM on September 10, 2017 [5 favorites]

The Guardian says spaghetti was also once fairly exotic, "so mysterious that, on April Fool’s Day 1957 the BBC broadcast a spoof Panorama documentary about spaghetti bushes in Switzerland and quickly received hundreds of calls from viewers wanting to buy their own."
posted by stillmoving at 8:21 AM on September 10, 2017 [2 favorites]

Braised celery was featured in one of the courses at a prix fixe dinner my wife and I had a few weeks ago at the Foster Harris House, where I highly recommend eating if you're in the town of Washington, VA and you want to splurge on five courses. There was absinthe in the dish as well. It turns out that braised celery plus absinthe kind of equals fennel.
posted by emelenjr at 1:02 PM on September 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

I love raw celery, and now I'm looking forward to braising weather coming in so that I can braise some. And I'll look for it at farmers' markets, too. Mmmm, celery!
posted by lazuli at 6:03 PM on September 10, 2017

I get why people would dislike raw celery. I only really started liking it as something beyond a peanut butter/cream cheese delivery vehicle when I started eating all the parts of the stalk plain and appreciating them in their variery, from the bitter leaves down the nubbiny tops, the long juicy stalks (important to peel back the outer stringy layer and eat it separately, and at some point break the stalk and peel off the inner skin film, for added extra weird textures), the widened bit (my least favorite bit honestly), and the oddly serrated ends where it breaks off from the root. And then start the next layer in from the top, and it's slightly sweeter and crunchier and tenderer, and repeat until the pale inner mini-stalks can be crunched up in a big bite. It's a culinary and textural voyage in a single plant that I've learned to enjoy is what I'm saying.
posted by joeyh at 8:34 PM on September 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also, lovage is like celery flavor times 2 if you're looking for more of a punch.
posted by joeyh at 8:44 PM on September 10, 2017

Really interested in trying some quick pickled celery, I'm going to have to make some this week. Maybe lean a little heavy on fennel and caraway in the pickling spices, use it in like a mackerel or sardine salad for a super stinky delicious sandwich with red onion on rye?
posted by jason_steakums at 8:59 PM on September 10, 2017 [1 favorite]

My mom had one of those flat celery dishes. She only used it on Thanksgiving. Olives and carrots could go on it as well.
posted by mermayd at 5:27 AM on September 11, 2017

LAST night the waiter put the celery on with the cheese, and I knew that summer was indeed dead. Other signs of autumn there may be—the reddening leaf, the chill in the early-morning air, the misty evenings—but none of these comes home to me so truly. There may be cool mornings in July; in a year of drought the leaves may change before their time; it is only with the first celery that summer is over...

-- "A Word for Autumn", by A.A. Milne (1921)
posted by rollick at 8:07 AM on September 11, 2017 [3 favorites]

I love celery and I love this amazing celery soup so much (though I only put in 2 tbsp of butter rather than the stick the recipe calls for because that is way too much butter)
posted by urbanlenny at 8:52 AM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also, did anyone else have the special celery tupperware bin in their fridge growing up? I found one at a thrift store several years ago and bought it for nostalgia's sake, but man if that thing didn't take up way too much room in the fridge.
posted by urbanlenny at 8:54 AM on September 11, 2017 [2 favorites]

A quote I read 20+ years ago in Reader's Digest that I still remember went something like this: "What makes you laugh is easy to define. What makes you smile is, like the taste of celery, much harder to define." I hate celery and don't think a stronger flavored version would be an improvement for me. I just cooked with it last week for the first time in forever as I was roasting chicken and veggies. I didn't eat any of it with the chicken, but it did go in the freezer bag with the leftovers for a theoretical homemade pot pie. I can tolerate it in potato salad, where I cannot tolerate pickles. Pickles?!
posted by soelo at 9:36 AM on September 11, 2017

We used that celery tupperware bin for popcorn because the seeds fell into the grid!
posted by soelo at 9:37 AM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

My mom used the shorter version of the celery Tupperware without the grid for a seriously large amount of American cheese she'd buy in bulk every once in a great while. I hadn't thought about that in ages, realizing you have a sense memory of American cheese triggered by a particular shade of green is weird.
posted by jason_steakums at 10:40 AM on September 11, 2017 [1 favorite]

*Warning; Wild celery is easily mistaken for poison hemlock.

very timely as i juuuust rewatched that midsomer murders episode where someone gets murdered because wild celery is swapped out of a soup for poison hemlock

dun dun dunnnnn
posted by burgerrr at 10:57 AM on September 11, 2017

"no, you may NOT have any more celery until you eat some of your grilled cheese"

Problem solved!

(OMG, some people put raisins with the cheese whiz? Ugh, gag... Raisins are for the peanut butter filling option)
posted by jkaczor at 1:49 PM on September 11, 2017

aaaaaaaaa you guys I made quick pickled celery and it's incredible!

1 cup water, 1 cup vinegar (dealer's choice), 1 tbsp kosher salt, 1 tbsp sugar, whatever spices you want (peppercorn, bay leaf, coriander seed, mustard seed, a few whole cloves, caraway and red pepper flakes or maybe a couple whole dried chilis is a good mix), scale that mix to however much you need, heat and stir until salt and sugar are dissolved, pour over container of celery sliced however you want and refrigerate overnight (it gets better the longer it sits).

I also threw carrot sticks and red onions in mine, but the celery is the star of the show, it absorbs a ton of pickle juice and as long as you only heat the pickling liquid enough to dissolve salt and sugar it will stay super crispy.
posted by jason_steakums at 5:17 PM on September 14, 2017 [4 favorites]