[Sca-cooks] celery was oddities of stuff, was canned gravy??????

[Olwen the Odd]

>Also sprach Kirsten Houseknecht:
>>my mom occasionally strings celery.
>>i understand that many of the relatives on both sides and back string
>>celery... i never understood it myslef except for the most tough and
>>"stringy" bits..... and usually those get chopped into stock, so it doesnt
>>matter.
>>it seems to be an "issue" with some of my family.
>
>I wonder if this is a throwback to a time when "genteel" people ate a 
>relatively low-fiber diet, with a lot of the vegetables, when eaten, were 
>largely pushed in the direction of baby food. What was that recent 
>"reality" TV program called? Manor House? Didn't that address certain 
>requests from the family/master of the house for a higher-in-fiber diet 
>than their historical counterparts would likely have eaten?
>
>I was taught in culinary school to destring celery. I think it's silly, and 
>don't do it, but I was taught it, very likely because someone like Careme 
>or Escoffier decided it was necessary, and nobody ever bothered to change 
>that viewpoint in any official capacity (as opposed to, say, more recent 
>views on what constitutes properly cooked pork, which have been more or 
>less "officially" updated).
>
>Adamantius

Actually, several varieties of older generation celeries had a lot bulkier 
string.  Also, the composition of the soil it is grown in can greatly change 
the size and the taste.  Some celery is _very_ wet and lighter in colour and 
usually smaller.  Some is really large and usually darker green and rather 
astringent/metallic in taste, while others are a sort of in-between.  
Typically the types most of our folks grew or bought was that dark, stringy, 
astringent one, which is probably why I can't stand the stuff.  Well, and 
the fact that it isn't meat...
Olwen

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