The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Beeton

3 by Mrs. Beeton, Beeton, Mrs. (Isabella Mary), 1836-1865

Chapter 398: 387. INGREDIENTS.--6 heads of celery, 1 pint of white stock, No. 107, 2

Chapters

Chapter 398: 387. INGREDIENTS.--6 heads of celery, 1 pint of white stock, No. 107, 2

blades of mace, 1 small bunch of savoury herbs; thickening of butter and flour, or arrowroot, 1/2 pint of cream, lemon-juice. _Mode_.--Boil the celery in salt and water, until tender, and cut it into pieces 2 inches long. Put the stock into a stewpan with the mace and herbs, and let it simmer for 1/2 hour to extract their flavour. Then strain the liquor, add the celery and a thickening of butter kneaded with flour, or, what is still better, with arrowroot; just before serving, put in the cream, boil it up and squeeze in a little lemon-juice. If necessary, add a seasoning of salt and white pepper. _Time_.--25 minutes to boil the celery. _Average cost_, 1s. 3d. _Sufficient_, this quantity, for a boiled turkey. This sauce may be made brown by using gravy instead of white stock, and flavouring it with mushroom ketchup or Harvey's sauce. [Illustration: ARROWROOT.] ARROWROOT.--This nutritious fecula is obtained from the roots of a plant which is cultivated in both the East and West Indies. When the roots are about a year old, they are dug up, and, after being well washed, are beaten to a pulp, which is afterwards, by means of water, separated from the fibrous part. After being passed through a sieve, once more washed, and then suffered to settle, the sediment is dried in the sun, when it has become arrowroot. The best is obtained from the West Indies, but a large quantity of what is sold in London is adulterated with potato-starch. As a means of knowing arrowroot when it is good, it may be as well to state, that the genuine article, when formed into a jelly, will remain firm for three or four days, whilst the adulterated will become as thin as milk in the course of twelve hours. CELERY SAUCE (a More Simple Recipe).
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