THE ORIGINAL ‘RECEIPT’

ASPARAGUS A LA TOM THUMB. – The tips alone are used for this dish.  Scrape the stalks and lay them in cold water.  They will work well into a cream-of-asparagus soup.  Cook the tips – none of them more than two inches long – in boiling water slightly salted.  Meantime, make a rich white sauce by stirring into two tablespoonfuls of butter, one of flour and, when it is smooth, a generous cupful of milk.  Season with white pepper and salt;  add the hot asparagus tips;  cook for one minute and serve upon rounds of toast, laying six tips, side by side, upon each round.

~Karn, W.A. (Druggist). The Art of Cooking Made Easy. Woodstock, 1903.

THE UPDATED RECIPE

• 24 asparagus spears
• 2 Tb. butter
• 1 Tb. flour
• 1 c. plus 2 Tb. milk
• ¼ tsp. salt
• dash of white pepper
• 4 rounds of bread, toasted.

Wash the asparagus, and cut off the tips, so that each tip is uniformly 2 inches long.

(Use the lower parts of the stalk for some other dish.)

Have a pan of slightly salted water boiling, ready to cook the asparagus spears.

In the top of a double boiler, thoroughly blend the butter and flour, until smooth;  then add the milk and seasonings, and cook the cream sauce gently, over boiling water, for about ten minutes, until thickened, and smooth.

While the sauce is finishing cooking, cook the asparagus in the boiling water for about 5 minutes, until it just begins to feel tender-crisp.

Prepare the toasted rounds of bread.

Drain the asparagus, and add it to the cream sauce, and cook one minute longer.

Place six asparagus tips, side by side, on each round of toast, and cover with the sauce.

Serve immediately, while piping hot.  This is suitable for a luncheon, or a light supper.

Yield:  This makes two generous, or four small servings.

Asparagus, fresh from the garden, is still, for many Canadians, one of the special pleasures of Spring-time;  to the early settlers, who were obliged to rely so heavily during winter months upon root vegetables, the tender young shoots of the asparagus must have been doubly welcome.

A note from Patricia: This is my new favourite way to enjoy asparagus, and with asparagus season upon us, this simple dish makes such a nice light lunch. Bread + asparagus + a creamy sauce? What could possibly be better? I’ve made this many times now using 1:1 gluten-free flour, and have prepared the sauce with oat milk a few times, and with 2% milk a few times too. It all works out and it’s all downright delicious.

“Why is asparagus like many sermons?  The end is the part the people enjoy the most.” – Sunny Hours.

~The Capital Cook Book. Ottawa: Ladies’ Home Missionary Society of St. Andrew’s Church, 1905.

Select fresh and tender asparagus.  Those versed in its cultivation assert that it should be cut at least three times a week, and barely to the ground.  If it is necessary to keep the bunches for some time before cooking, stand them, tops uppermost, in water about one half inch deep, in the cellar or other cool place.

~Kellogg E. E. Science in The Kitchen. Michigan: Health Publishing Company, 1892.

Directions for cooking Asparagus.  – Cut the buds when from three to six inches high;  clean them well in cold water, cutting off most of the white part, as that which grows beneath the surface of the ground is apt to be tough and bitter.  Take water enough to cover the stalks, and put in salt sufficient to season them well;  boil and skim the water, then put in the asparagus.  Be careful to take them up as soon as they become tender, so as to preserve their true flavour and green colour;  for boiling a little too long will destroy both.  Serve up with melted butter or cream.

~A. B. (of Grimsby). The Frugal Housewife’s Manual. Toronto: J.H. Lawrence, 1840.

Asparagus.  – …. Serve on a toast with the heads inward; cut the base, and remove, and lay them regularly round.

~Copley, Esther. The Housekeeper’s Guide. London: Jackson and Walford, 1834.

Greens and Asparagus should be well drained, and laid on buttered toast, and then slices of boiled eggs be laid on top, and around.

~Miss Beecher’s Domestic Receipt-Book. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1858.

The time required for boiling asparagus depends upon its freshness and age.  Fresh, tender asparagus cooks in a very few minutes, so quickly, indeed, that the Roman emperor Augustus, intimating that any affair must be concluded without delay, was accustomed to say, “Let that be done quicker than you can cook asparagus.”

~Kellogg E. E. Science in The Kitchen. Michigan: Health Publishing Company, 1892.