Celery Sauce

Ingredients

• 3 to 5 heads celery, white part, young and tender
• salt and water
• 0.5 pint veal broth or gravy
• 1.5 ounces butter
• 1 dessertspoonful flour
• 0.25 pint thick cream
• to taste pepper, salt, and nutmeg
• pinch cayenne

Instructions

1. Slice the white part of the celery and peel it if not very young.
2. Boil the celery in salt and water for twenty minutes, then drain well.
3. For white sauce: put the drained celery into half a pint of veal broth or gravy and let it stew until quite soft.
4. Mix an ounce and a half of butter with a dessertspoonful of flour.
5. Add the butter and flour mixture to the celery along with a quarter pint of thick cream or three egg yolks, and simmer gently until combined.
6. For the French method: chop the boiled and drained celery very fine.
7. Put the chopped celery with a slice of butter into a stewpan and season with pepper, salt, and nutmeg.
8. Stir over the fire for two or three minutes.
9. Dredge in a dessertspoonful of flour and let it lose its raw taste over the fire.
10. Pour in enough white gravy to moisten the celery and boil for twenty minutes longer.
11. For common celery sauce: stew the celery cut into inch-lengths in butter until it begins to be tender.
12. Add a spoonful of flour and allow it to brown slightly.
13. Pour in half a pint of good broth or beef gravy and season with pepper or cayenne.