Asparagus
Ingredients
Directions
Boil water in a pot.
Add ½ ounce of coarse sea salt per quart of water.
Place asparagus in the boiling water, keeping the tops out.
Boil green asparagus for 10-15 minutes and white asparagus for about 30 minutes.
Drain well and serve in an oval dish.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Asparagus
- Forms the dish; boiling softens its fibres to a tender texture.
The step that matters
Boiling time. Boiling for too long breaks down the spears' cell walls, leaving them soft, limp and dull in colour. Green and white asparagus are thicker or more fibrous, so they need different cooking times, and the spears should be tender but still hold their shape.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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