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Asparagus Peas
Cut the tops from one bundle of asparagus, throw them into boiling, salted water and boil fifteen minutes; drain in a colander. Then put into a saucepan with a tablespoonful (one ounce) of butter, a teaspoonful of sugar, a half teaspoonful of salt, a dash of pepper, four tablespoonfuls of cream mixed with the yolk of one egg. Toss gently over the fire for a moment and serve quickly in a heated dish. peck of beans,
A simple dressed asparagus tip dish from the era when asparagus came tied in bundles rather than sold by weight. Two things need adjusting: the boiling time and the handling of the egg-and-cream liaison.
- Boil for far less timeFifteen minutes will reduce cut asparagus tips to olive-drab mush. Tips of ordinary thickness need three to five minutes in boiling salted water, until just tender at the base of the cut.
- A bundle of asparagusMarket bundles varied in size and were not sold by weight as they are now. Since only the tops are used, allow roughly two pounds of spears to yield a decent dish; the trimmed stalks are worth keeping for soup.
- The egg yolk is the hingeThe four tablespoons of cream mixed with the yolk form a light liaison, not a sauce cooked in its own right. Warm it over low heat and toss only until it thickens and coats -- a moment, as written. If it simmers, the yolk scrambles and the dish breaks.
- Butter measureA tablespoonful given as one ounce reflects older, heaped spoon practice. Two level tablespoons of modern butter is the equivalent weight.
- "Toss gently over the fire"On a coal range this meant the cooler part of the top, off the direct heat. Use the lowest gas setting, or pull the pan off the burner entirely and let residual heat do the work.
- Why it is called peasNothing pea-like is added. The name most likely refers to the look of the dish: short-cut green tips, buttered and creamed, resembling peas on the plate. The recipe itself gives no explanation.
- YieldServes three or four as a side. Serve immediately; the liaison thins and separates as it sits.
- Stray textThe trailing "peck of beans" appears to belong to an adjacent recipe and is a printing artifact. Ignore it.
Asparagus reached American kitchen gardens early and was a marker of spring, cut and bundled for market with the tips of even length. Dishes like this one belong to a nineteenth-century taste for presenting one vegetable in the guise of another: cut into short lengths and bound with butter, cream and egg, asparagus tips were offered as "peas" at table. The egg-yolk-and-cream finish is a plain domestic version of the French liaison. This book's boiling time reflects the period's general preference for thoroughly cooked vegetables.