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Asparagus (tinned)
Place the tin in a saucepan with sufficient cold water to cover it. Bring to boiling point, and let it boil for five minutes. Take out the tin and cut it open round the edge, as near to the edge as possible so as to avoid cutting the asparagus. Drain off the liquor, and serve the asparagus on freshly-made hot toast. Probable cost, 1s. 9d. to 2s. for large tin.
A serving method rather than a cooked dish: the tin is warmed whole, opened, and the contents laid on toast. Two details need updating, one of them for safety.
- Do not heat the tin sealedModern cans are not designed to be heated closed, and a dented or lacquer-lined tin can bulge or spit when opened hot. Open the can first, tip the asparagus and its liquor into a small pan, and warm it through over a low heat for two or three minutes.
- Five minutes is for the tin, not the asparagusTinned asparagus is already fully cooked in the can. Any further boiling turns the tips to thread; it needs only to be brought to serving temperature.
- Cutting round the edgeThe instruction reflects a period tin opened with a knife or a claw opener, where cutting the lid out cleanly avoided slicing the spears. A rotary or safety opener removes the whole lid and makes the caution unnecessary.
- The liquorCanning brine is salty and faintly metallic. Drain it as instructed and season afterwards, or the dish will be over-salted before butter is added.
- ToastCut thick, crusts off, and butter it while hot: the asparagus is wet even after draining, and thin toast collapses under it. The recipe specifies no quantity of toast or number of servings.
- FinishingThe recipe stops at plain asparagus on toast, which is austere by current taste. Melted butter, a spoonful of hollandaise, or black pepper and a little lemon are all reasonable additions.
- Yield and costThe recipe specifies only a "large tin" and gives no yield. The stated price of 1s. 9d. to 2s. suggests something closer to a small luxury than a pantry staple.
Cassell's includes this because tinned asparagus was still something of a novelty to explain rather than assume. Commercial canning of vegetables expanded rapidly through the second half of the nineteenth century, and asparagus — with a short British season and a high price fresh — was among the first luxury vegetables to be sold in tins. The instruction to boil the unopened tin treats reheating in the can as a convenience; the cost noted at the end, close to two shillings, shows that even in a tin this was a dish for a household with money to spend.