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Asparagus Salad (Scrape the scales)
Scrape the scales from the stalks, and cook, standing upright in boiling salted water, until tender; drain and chill thoroughly. Serve on lettuce leaves with French dressing. Garnish the lettuce with hard-boiled eggs cut in quarters lengthwise.
A short set of instructions that assumes you know what tender asparagus looks like. The technique of standing the stalks upright is the whole point, and it still works.
- Why uprightStanding the bundle stem-down in a few inches of water lets the tough bases boil while the tips steam above the water line. Tie the spears with kitchen string or stand them in a tall narrow pot so they do not fall over.
- TimingThe original gives none. Thin spears need 2 to 4 minutes, thick ones 5 to 8. Pull them while the stalk still has resistance at the base; carryover cooking continues as they drain.
- Chill thoroughlyThis is the hinge. Warm asparagus dressed with oil turns dull and limp. Plunge the drained spears into ice water, then dry them well or the dressing will slide off.
- Scraping the scalesAsparagus of this period was often much thicker than today's, and grit lodges under the scales, which is the likely reason for scraping them off with a knife. With modern thin spears, snapping off the woody base is enough; peel only the bottom third of very fat stalks.
- French dressingAt this date the term generally meant a simple vinaigrette of oil and vinegar with salt and pepper, whisked or shaken just before serving; proportions varied, with something in the region of three parts oil to one of vinegar being usual. It is not the sweet orange bottled dressing sold under that name today.
- Hard-boiled eggsThe recipe treats them as a garnish, quartered lengthwise. Cook 9 to 11 minutes, cool in cold water, and peel under running water for clean wedges.
- YieldThe original specifies no quantities. As a working guess, a pound of asparagus and two eggs will make four first-course salads.
Asparagus was an expensive, strictly seasonal luxury in this period, arriving in spring bundles tied with string, and tall, narrow asparagus kettles made for exactly this upright method were sold, though how widely they were owned is not clear. Serving it cold on lettuce with a vinaigrette fits the era's enthusiasm for the composed salad. The pairing with quartered hard-boiled egg is old and durable: the egg supplies richness where a cold vegetable and an acid dressing would otherwise be austere, and a related combination appears in dishes such as asparagus with sauce gribiche.