Brooklyn1 <Gravesend1> wrote:
> On Wed, 28 Mar 2012 07:34:57 -0700, "Julie Bove"
> > wrote:
>
>>
>> "Dave Smith" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> On 28/03/2012 1:37 AM, Paul M. Cook wrote:
>>>> "Julie > wrote in message
>>>> ...
>>>>> I know that celery is high in sodium but I never had salty tasting
>>>>> celery
>>>>> until just now. I know someone else reported on this before. I think
>>>>> it
>>>>> was Lee. I have had bitter tasting celery a few times. But this stuff
>>>>> tastes like someone gave it a really good sprinkle of sea salt. I don't
>>>>> mind it. I like salty things. I just find it to be interesting!
>>>>
>>>> It varies. I've had some very salty celery and some extremely sweet
>>>> celery.
>>>> Just has to do with the weather when it was growing I think. Celery is
>>>> kind
>>>> of salty to start with. I find I need less salt when I cook with it.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Celery is funny stuff. It is usually quite bland, but I have on occasion
>>> found it to have much more flavour than usual. A bout a month ago I put
>>> one stalk of celery into a pot of soup and it turned out to be too much
>>> celery flavour.
>>
>> I keep dried celery for soup and such if I don't have the real stuff in the
>> house. I only need to use a teensy bit of that.
>
> Dehy celery works much better if you first rehydrate it in cold water
> for like 20 minutes, then toss it in a pot of hot soup... the heat,
> any acidity, and fat will prevent the flavoids in dehy vegetables from
> fully releasing... this is especially noticable with dehy celery. I'm
> a firm believer in keeping dehy veggies on hand, too many times I went
> into the fridge only to find I ran out or the celery, bell pepper,
> etc, has melted to mush.

I like 2-3 stalks in my chicken soup. I never tried celery seed in the
soup, but it's a necessity in BBQ sauce around here.

Greg