HFF 6.16: Harvest Time

 

The Challenge: Harvest Time. Try a recipe associated with the harvest. [I harvested the salsify from my garden today, so I think that counts.]

The Recipe: Fried (Celery or) Salsify from Miss Leslie's Lady's New Receipt Book:

FRIED CELERY--Take fine large celery, cut it into pieces three or four inches in length, and boil it tender, having seasoned the water with a very little salt. Then drain the pieces well, and lay them separately to cool on a large dish. Make a batter in the proportion of three well-beaten eggs stirred into a pint of rich milk, alternately with half a pint of grated bread crumbs or of sifted flour. Beat the batter very hard after it is all mixed. Put into a hot frying pan a sufficiency of fresh lard, melt it over the fire, and when it comes to a boil, dip each piece of celery twice into the batter, put them into the pan and fry them a light brown. When done, lay them to drain on an inverted sieve with a broad pan placed beneath it. Then dish the fried celery, and send it to table hot. 

Parsnips and salsify (or oyster plant) may be fried in butter according to the above directions. Also the tops of asparagus cut off from the stalk and the white part or blossom of cauliflower. Cold sweet potatoes are very nice peeled, cut into long slips, and fried in this way.

The Date/Year and Region: 1850, Philadelphia

 

How Did You Make It: Not without two notable errors, despite the simple instructions. I started by picking five salsify plants from my garden (mammoth sandwich island salsify, which is the/a white variety). I washed them, cut off the leaves, and peeled the roots, then cut them in half, aiming for 3" pieces, but getting between 2" and 4" pieces. These went directly into the boiling water, to which (first mistake), I forgot to salt. I let them boil while preparing the batter from 1 egg, 2/3 cup milk, and 1/3 cup plain bread crumbs. I melted a couple ounces of lard on the stove (second error: it's lard for the celery, but butter for the salsify), and when it started bubbling, I dipped the salsify twice in the batter, and set it to fry.

 

Fresh out of the garden.

Time to Complete: I wasn't paying attention to the clock, but safely under an hour.

 

Total Cost: Everything was on hand.

 

How Successful Was It?: Not spectacular, but not bad. It was definitely improved with a little salt and pepper (and would be more improved by salting the water, I expect), but mostly just tasted like the-status-of-being-deep-fried-in-lard. Even the largest pieces with the lowest batter to salsify ratio didn't taste much like anything.

I noted the two error above, and if making this again (which I might, simply because there's more salsify in the garden to use), I would salt the water and cook it in butter to see if there's more flavor to be had.

 

As much as I'd like to give this another try, I doubt it's going into my living history rotation. I'd need an autumn event (when the salsify is readily available in the garden) at which I'm serving food hot (this is not going to travel well after being made up in advance), and even then the main interpretive thrust is just that Victorians cooked with a plant called salsify or oyster plant. As far as I've read, the plant's main point of interest is that it's supposed to taste like oyster, though I haven't had the real thing to compare it with. It does remind me of the mock oysters of corn I've previously made, but only in that both taste like deep-fried-breaded-things.

How Accurate Is It? Heritage crop! Aside from the two errors, I'd put this as fairly accurate. No modern substitutions.

Fried salsify with a parsley garnish.