When I was a kid my mother used to serve COOKED celery at least once a week. I ate it; no problem. It wasn’t until I grew up and mentioned it to a roommate, who was horrified, that I realized…not every one likes cooked celery.
I hate to badmouth my mother, but she was not the world’s greatest cook.
No, I don’t cook my celery. I enjoy it, but raw.
snfaulkner, you have it nailed. Celery has always been one of my least favorite vegetables. I hated it as a kid and I still hate it now.
Oddly, I don’t mind celery salt and actually kind of like Dr. Brown’s Cel-Ray soda.
There’s no need for the alarmist all-caps when describing cooked celery; it’s a perfectly acceptable way to serve it. A celery and fennel gratin is a lovely side-dish. It’s also a vital component of a mirepoix.
It’s yucky raw. I actually like it in soup, stew or stuffing, as long as you don’t overdo it. In potato or egg salad I’d rather have chopped fresh jalapeño.
I also only hate it raw. However, it’s an essential part of my mother’s dressing (aka stuffing), which is the food of the gods. And it’s good in soup, too.
I do notice that, lately, it seems a lot more flavorless raw, though, which makes it more palatable. What I don’t get are people who always say it’s flavorless. How do they not taste that?
Celery is just like everything else; *you are either a celery fan or not a celery eater. *
You can’t fault the celery fanatics for trying to convince you how great celery is.
Also: standard celery will always be better than organic celery.
I don’t hate celery, but am not particularly keen on it. Have no problems with the texture; while for me, the taste isn’t horrible, just “meh”. Now and again, I find myself making something in the stew or soup line, the recipe for which will call for just a stick or two of celery: where I am anyway, I can only get the stuff a whole bunch at a time – so I buy a bunch, use a little of it in recipe as mentioned; and the rest usually sits in the fridge until if finally goes “off”. For me, a frustrating vegetable.
Some likes it one way, some the other ! Ogden Nash’s take on this particular foodstuff gives me a smile:
Celery, raw
Develops the jaw –
But celery, stewed
Is more quietly chewed.
I feel the same way as Snowboarder Bo but yes I will eat it as long as it’s chopped up and mixed with other veggies, like soup…or turkey stuffing.
By itself? It can lie there and wait for somebody who truly enjoys it. I don’t. I still have nightmares of getting raw sticks of 'em with my carrots when I was a kid. THOSE STRINGS! AAAAAAAAAARGH!
Would you eat it with a fox? Would you eat it in a box?
I don’t like it raw-too stringy, but cooked celery in soup or stuffing is good.
I’m a bit confused; what precisely is forcing the OP to eat something he “fucking hates”?
Celery is a divisive subject, to be sure. I personally don’t mind it but I can also understand what the haters are talking about.
snfaulkner, I hereby grant you permission to tell all the celery of the world to fuck off. You are now entitled to live a celery free life. You’re Welcome.
Celery is one of those things that people who don’t hate it tend to think of as totally innocuous and will add it to absolutely anything without a thought; pasta salads, tuna/chicken salads, soups, stir fries, casseroles, whatever. To those who hate it, it’s almost impossible to avoid unless you prepare 100% of your food yourself.
Yep, I’m one of those people. Love the stuff. My apologies in advance for serving it to someone who doesn’t share my enthusiasm.
If you do that, it’s not self-flossing any more! 
<– my shiny pretty teeth, kept clean by the good offices of indigestible vegetable fiber
Wow, my list of dinner invites just got a whole lot shorter. 
Celery chunks go into making stock.
Chopped or minced goes into:
Soups
Stews
Potato salad
Stuffing
Egg salad
Chicken salad
Tuna salad
My mother used to make crab stuffed celery (crab and cream cheese).
I love celery raw or cooked.
Tuna salad without celery is like yin without yang. However my husband hates celery as much as the OP, so I have to hold off adding it to the mix until I’ve made his sandwich. Then I put in LOTS of finely chopped celery into the remaining salad until it’s about 2/3 tuna and 1/3 celery. That part is for my sandwich.
Now I want a tuna sandwich for lunch today. Extra celery, please.
I will only eat raw celery as a vessel for peanut butter or ranch dressing. The consistency of cooked celery has always gagged me. I won’t eat it. If it’s in a soup I will pick it out. The only time I will eat it cooked is if I’m at someone’s home for dinner. I can choke it down rather than being rude and picking them out.
I used to hate celery too. Until one day I ordered some garlic chicken at a Chinese place.
As I was eating it, I remarked to my friend: “I don’t know what this is, but it tastes really good.”
So I let my friend have a bite so he could indemnify what it was I was eating: “Uh, that’s celery.” :dubious:
Apparently, if you chop celery up paper thin, it becomes much tastier.
Oh, and I will add that I do put celery in my pasta salad, potato salad and tuna salad because I like the crunch. My mom cooked a lot with celery and she told me it was because it provides so much flavor. I just don’t understand that at all.