No. 2693

Asparagus, Countess Style-Heads

Tetes d'Asperges a la Comtesse

Scrape some green asparagus, cut them, leaving the tops two and a half inches long, and tie these into small bunches; cook in salted water, and when done cut off the strings and dress them in a pyramid; garnish around with bouchees filled with asparagus tops and mushrooms as follows: After the asparagus is cut off for the above break the remaining tender parts of the stalks, and cut them into quarter of an inch thick pieces; cook in salted water, and drain; put these into a saucepan with as much cooked mushrooms cut into quarter-inch squares, and dilute with good buttered veloute (No. 415); season properly, and fill very hot bouchees (No. 11) with it. Serve a veloute sauce apart, having it thickened at the last moment with egg-yolks, cream, a liberal piece of fresh butter and lemon juice.

← No. 2692 Boiled Asparagus with Hollandaise, Hollandai Artichokes & Asparagus No. 2694 Asparagus in Small Bunches-Heads →

For the Modern Kitchen

A Ranhofer set piece: a pyramid of asparagus tips ringed with puff-pastry cases of the chopped stalk ends in velouté. The recipe is really a lesson in using the whole spear, and the only tricky part is the finishing sauce.

The hinge: the liaisonThe velouté served apart is thickened with egg yolks and cream at the last moment, then finished off the heat with butter and lemon. Once the yolks go in, keep it below a simmer — around 180F — or it will curdle and break, and add the lemon last so the acid does not thin it further.
Velouté (No. 415)A white roux moistened with veal or chicken stock, simmered and strained; the "buttered" version has cold butter whisked in at the end. Any well-made light velouté works. For the bouchée filling you want it thick enough to coat, not to pour.
Bouchées (No. 11)Small round puff-pastry cases with a lid. Frozen all-butter puff pastry cut with two rings, or good bought vol-au-vent shells, will do. Crisp them in a 400F oven and fill at the last second, or the pastry goes soft.
Cooking the tipsGreen asparagus tips of that length need 3 to 5 minutes in well-salted boiling water, not the longer boiling older books imply. Tying in bunches is worth doing — it lets you lift them all out at once and keeps the pyramid tidy.
"Break the remaining tender parts"Snapping rather than cutting is the traditional test, on the principle that the stalk breaks at the point where it stops being woody. Discard the fibrous butts, dice what is left, and cook it separately from the tips, which need less time.
Mushrooms"Cooked mushrooms" here means white mushrooms stewed in butter with a little lemon and salt until they give up their water, not browned. Brown them and the filling turns grey.
Quantities and yieldThe original gives none. Reckon on 2 lb of asparagus, 6 oz mushrooms and about a cup of velouté for four, which fills roughly eight bouchées with the trimmings.
Timing the plateEverything is served hot and assembled at the last minute. Have the sauce made but unthickened, the filling warm, the pastry crisp in the oven, and boil the tips only when the table is ready.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer published The Epicurean in 1894 after decades as chef at Delmonico's in New York, and this dish shows the house habit of naming garnishes after titles — à la comtesse, like à la reine or à la Dauphine, generally signals a delicate white-sauced preparation with pastry cases rather than any documented countess. The cross-references to numbered recipes are the book's defining feature: it functions less as a collection of dishes than as a professional system, in which No. 2693 is assembled out of a velouté and a bouchée made elsewhere in the volume. The thrift is also period-typical. Asparagus was an expensive spring luxury in the American market, sold by the bunch, and a kitchen that could serve the tips in a pyramid while turning the stalk ends into a mushroom ragoût was getting two courses' worth of effect from one purchase.