I used to cut the bottoms off at an arbitrary place. Frequently, the ends of the asparagus would be of a harder consistencey than the rest of the stalk. Now I snap the bottoms off. It’s like the asparagus ‘knows’ where to trim itself. Works every time for me.
I finally figured that out too. And that it’s great grilled (wrapped in foil).
We just today started an asparagus bed in the garden, with those brown plants that look like desiccated octopus. I heard it takes 2-3 years to get something edible.
I can wait. The neighbors have been pretty good to us, asparagus-wise.
I grill them too, but with no foil, just a sprinkle of kosher salt and a drizzle of olive oil. My vegetable-hating seven year old son recently decided that he loves grilled asparagus. It’s crazy and cool at the same time.
While I do snap my stalks, everybody knows that the closer the spears snap to the heads, the better it reflects on the server’s wealth. And untrimmed asparagus? You might as well throw in an apple core.
For those not-so-rich days, you can take a regular vegetable peeler to the bottom ends of the stalks. Peel off the outer layer (the smooth skin), and what’s left cooks fast enough to be ‘soft’ and done at the same time as the rest.