Celery Sauce is a traditional British recipe, based on Charles Elmé Francatelli's recipe of 1861, for a classic sauce of celery and onion cooked in butter and made into a sauce with flour and milk. The full recipe is presented here and I hope you enjoy this classic British version of: Celery Sauce.
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This is a classic recipe for a Victorian version of Celery Sauce that's derived from the chef, Charles Elmé's 1861 volume, The Cook's Guide and Housekeeper's & Butler's Assistant. Below you will find both the recipe in its original form and a modern redaction.
Original Recipe
No. 91.—CELERY SAUCE.
Thoroughly cleanse four heads of white celery and slice them very thin; put this into a stewpan with nutmeg, pepper, and salt, and four ounces of butter and an onion sliced; put the lid on the stewpan and set it over a slow fire to stew very gently until the celery is dissolved, without acquiring and colour. Then add four ounces of flour and a pint of milk; stir again over the fire until the sauce has boiled twenty minutes, and then, having rubbed it through a sieve or tammy, put it into a small stewpan; to be used for boiled poultry or game.
The white celery referred to in the recipe is blanched celery ie celery grown in mounded earth or beneath pots so it grows white without the leaves developing chlorophyll.
Modern Redaction
Ingredients:
4 heads of white celery, washed and very thinly sliced
freshly-grated nutmeg, freshly-ground black pepper and sea salt, to taste
120g butter
1 onion, sliced
120g plain flour
600ml milk
Method:
Melt the butter in a pan, add the celery slices and the sliced onion then season to taste. Place the lid on the pan and sweat very gently, until the celery has all dissolved but has not coloured in any way (about 25 minutes).
Scatter the flour over the top and mix in to form a smooth roux then whisk in the milk, ensuring you have no lumps. Continue stirring until the sauce comes to a boil then continue boiling, stirring constantly, for 20 minutes.
Take off the heat and rub through a fine-meshed sieve then place in a small pan, heat through an serve as an accompaniment to boiled poultry or game.
