I’ve alway bought the subject vegetable by looking for thin, as in pencil sized, stalks. I thought that they were better, tenderer, than the fatter ones often seen in the store. Looked at them and said, nope too fat, see what’s available next week.
Today I was looking through a cookbook, “The Wiseguy Cookbook”, and the autor makes the statement that “Asparagus don’t get thicker as they get older. They come out of the ground as thick as they’re going to be”. That may be true and comments would be appreciated, but my real qustion is are the thicker spears as tender and tasty as the thin ones. Mom always said the thinner the better!
So am I wasting my efforts in not buying the thicker spears. I know they’ll have to cook longer, but that aside, is there a difference?
I’ve heard that the stiff part of an asparagus spear can be made tender if you peel it and cut in half lengthwise. I haven’t tried it. The way I was taught to prepare asparagus is to hold the base of the spear between thumb and two fingers, then bend the tip over until the stalk snaps. The part below the break, says this method, is thrown away. I prefer pressure-cooking, a wee bit longer than the chart says. I don’t like vegetables that feel like I’m chewing boiled pencils.
The very first batch you can get in spring is tender and tasty even if the stalks are fat. I don’t always even have to snap the bottoms off of those. It’s later in the year that I watch out for the fat ones - they’re woody. But so are the thin ones, sometimes. It’s just thinner wood.
Well, FWIW the thickness of the stalk depends on the age of the plant. My roughly 8 year old asparagus plants are about the thickness of my forefinger. Most people don’t realize it, but they are perennials [they come up every year from the same rootstock] and I can cut it 2 times at about the 12 inch height, but then again later in the year I can snap off frond ends and cook those=) They end up when left to themselves about 5 feet tall, very lacy looking frondy plants.
If I get store bought I will go for whatever they have available. I also do the snap thing, but I dont throw away the woody ends, I cook them separately and run them through a food mill to make a puree and turn it into soup with heavy cream, a touch of chicken broth, and herbs [penzeys sunny paris blend]
So aruvqan, if I understand correctly, the thickness is determined by the age of the plant. I.E., young plant = thin stalks and older plant, such as yours, = thicker stalks? A newly planted bed will produce thin stalks, and as the plants in the bed age they will produce thicker and thicker stalks?
How about the white ones? I was once told that they are produce by mounding dirt areound the stalks as they grow to keep them in the dark. If in the dark they never get green.
I don’t know if they get thicker after they sprout or not, but I do know the thick ones are fine if you peel them. I shop for the thickest ones I can find.
First, snap off the bottoms wherever they naturally want to snap. Then peel deeply, starting at the bottom and working towards the tip, cutting shallower as you get closer to the tip. You’re peeling to remove not just the skin, but the 1/16-inch or so of woodiness at the surface. Use a small knife, not a vegetable peeler. It may sound wasteful but the result is you can then eat them all the way down to the butt, and they’re perfectly tender.
After they’re peeled, tie them in bundles and boil only until they get slightly limp.
Correct=) sort of like a regular and similar plant, the grape vine. Ever been to a production vinyard? you start out with twigs stuck in teh ground, about like a tomato plant in size when you get them as started plants in the spring=) The vinyard basically ignores the vine for 2 years before they start ‘training’ it to the wire. After that, they basically shop off the branches at the end of the year to the trunk, and in the spring they take the branches [canes] and start looping them through the wire to make rows. As the vines get older, the main stems get larger in diameter so for example, at 3 years they are about thumb diameter, depending on variety=) at 4 years they are almost wrist size in diameter. mrAru has pulled grape stumps that were 6 inches in diameter, and about 20 years old. He also just told me that the reason they lop all but a couple canes off in the spring is to make the plant put more resources into the fruit than in growing canes=)
Same more or less with asparagus, except they never really get more than an inch in diameter…and you do mound dirt or use paper traffic cones to keep them grit free=) and it is easier to care for them, you simply lift the cone off and on to tend the plants=) There is also a purple asparagus, I have sort of been toying with the idea of clearing a new patch and having both a new patch of regular to cone for whiteness, and purple so I can have tricolored asparagus=)
A neat thing to do with the asparagus frond tips is to use them in salads. I love asparagus, it is one of my absolutely favorite veggies. I also adore artichokes.
I should start a thread about what people would have in their dream gardens if growing conditions weren’t a consideration=)
Thanks for the information. If I stop at the store tonight I don’t have to be concerned about diameter. I’ll tell my wife that size doesn’t matter, it’s what you do with them that counts!
I’ve always preferred the thicker ones. I snap then steam 'em and never let them get anything remotely like “limp.” I can’t stand overcooked asparagus.
aruvqan, thanks for the soup tip. I always feel wasteful tossing those ends.
My great uncle Otto planted asparagus one year to see if it would grow next to his strawberries and cabbages. 20 years later there is still a huge crop every year. My uncle Wally has tried to kill it over and over, but he can’t get it to die.
Otto once told me (in quiet tones, an 80 year old man whispering to his 6 or 7 year old grand niece) “never plant, asparagus, my wild irish rose, unless you plan on eating it for the rest of your life”.
Wow. This is making me tear up a little. I miss him.
{{{{filmgeek}}}}
I can understand, I miss my oppa george as well…
We have 3 ferral asparagus plants in the back yard, they have survived mowing the lawn with sheep, 2 large rambunctious dogs, cats using the place for a toilet and gophers. Sort of like a zombie movie asparagus=)
Kinda on a tangent, but just so you know, there are asparagus beds more than 100 years old that still bear every year, so I am not sure I’d call 8 year old beds “old”.
