Celery doesn't stop at the stalk—its leaves, root, oil, and seeds are used for purposes as diverse as cooking, perfumes, medicine, and strangely, aphrodisiacs. Not limited to crudite-munching dieters, celery is an important ingredient in classic flavor bases like the French mirepoix (celery, onion, and carrot) and it's a key ingredient in the American chicken soup. More

Celery's true purpose: Best Supporting Role. Along with pungent onions and sweet, earthy carrots, celery's slight bitter edge forms the backbone of at least half the dishes in the Western repertoire. This slideshow will help teach you to cut celery into all of the major shapes and sizes. Learn these cuts well, you'll be using them all your life. More

Let me try and convince you that this spice deserves a couple ounces of your cabinet space. Celery seed isn't a flavor powerhouse by any means, but it's a surprisingly versatile spice and is one of the most convenient ways to deliver a recognizable flavor to a dish. Many spices taste like complex blends of flavors, especially when used in combination. Celery seed, on the other hand, tastes exactly like celery. More

Although you hardly hear the word anymore—it's even hard to find in classic Italian cookbooks—battuto is basically an Italian (and much more fun to say) term for finely chopped aromatics (apparently, the words translates as "beaten"). Usually it's a combo of onions, celery, carrots, garlic and parsley cooked in fat such as lard or, more recently, butter or olive oil, and it can sometimes includes a meat like pancetta, bacon or prosciutto. But almost always it's the first element of a dish to hit the pan, and the one that makes you close your eyes and hum after taking the first bite later on. More

This staple of the produce aisle always goes forgotten in the fridge, then goes limp, then gets trashed. In fact, it's difficult to remember the last time we actually used an entire bunch of celery before tossing it. What interesting creations could come from a vegetable which even the most authoritative texts say is best thrown in stock? More

Science and food links from around the web! Were chickpeas responsible for the rise of a human empire? Cultivated chickpeas had more than three times as much tryptophan as their wild cousins. Increased amounts of tryptophan in the diet can improve performance under stress and also promote ovulation, handy advantages when you're taking over the world. An In-depth scientific explanation of why we develop food allergies. Duda Farm Fresh Foods has engineered celery to grow with hollow stalks, thus celery straws. MIT Technology Review's two-parter, "The Alchemist" (part 1, part 2) goes deep with Grant Achatz and Alinea: The highest and most expensive forms of cooking have always involved the latest kitchen technology. But seldom has technology worked to bring... More