Recipes
Culinary Dictionary
| Search: | All culinary Terms | ||
| Back to categories | |||
| Category: Vegetables and fungi |
|
|
| Term(s) | ||
Celery | ||
 Celery is a crunchy biennial plant which has been cultivated for centuries in various forms.Appearance: The leaves are pinnate to bipinnate leaves with rhombic leaflets 3-6 cm long and 2-4 cm broad. The flowers are creamy-white, 2-3 mm diameter, produced in dense compound umbels. The seeds are broad ovoid to globose, 1.5-2 mm long and wide. Nutrition Facts: Celery is valuable in weight-loss diets, where it provides low-calorie fiber bulk. Celery contains androstenone, not androsterone. Bergapten in the seeds can increase photosensitivity. The use of celery seed in pills for relieving pain. History: Zohary and Hopf note that celery leaves and inflorences were part of the garlands found in the tomb of Tutankhamun, pharaoh of ancient Egypt, and celery mericarps dated to the 7th century BC were recovered in the Heraion of Samos. Cultivation: The plants are raised from seed, sown either in a hot bed or in the open garden according to the season of the year, and after one or two thinning out and transplanting they are, on attaining a height of 15-20 cm, planted out in deep trenches for convenience of blanching, which is affected by earthing up to exclude light from the stems. |