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).