No. 2697

Asparagus Tops with Cheese

Pointes d'Asperges au Fromage

Scrape some medium-sized asparagus; cut them into quarter of an inch lengths, cook in salted water, keeping them slightly hard, drain and put them into a sautoir with butter, and toss for a few moments over the fire to evaporate all the moisture. Drain off the butter, season and dress on a vegetable dish; cover the surface with freshly kneaded butter, into which mix as much grated parmesan as the butter can absorb; salt; if found necessary, adding a little cayenne pepper; push into a hot oven, and serve as soon as it browns.

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer gives no quantities, which is normal for The Epicurean — it was written for cooks who could scale a dish by eye. The technique is precise enough to follow anyway.

The hinge: dry the asparagusThe tossing in butter over heat is not for flavour but to drive off the water left from boiling. Wet asparagus will steam under the cheese butter and the surface will never brown.
ScrapingAsparagus of this period was often sold thicker and coarser than much of what is sold now, though it varied by market and season. Peel only the lower half of stalks thicker than a finger; thin spears need nothing.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow pan, wider than a saucepan. Any wide skillet works, and wider is better here since the pieces should sit in a single layer to dry out.
"Slightly hard"Blanch the quarter-inch lengths in well-salted water briefly, a couple of minutes or so; they finish in the oven. Asparagus taken to full tenderness at this stage will go watery and lose its shape.
Kneaded butterSoftened, not melted, butter worked smooth and then loaded with grated Parmesan until it will take no more. Ranhofer gives no amounts; as a starting estimate only, roughly equal weights of butter and cheese, about 3 oz of each, will cover 2 lb of trimmed asparagus.
"A hot oven"425–450F, on an upper rack, for five to eight minutes. A broiler set a few inches away does the same job faster and is easier to watch.
SaltThe asparagus is cooked in salted water and the Parmesan is salty. Taste the cheese butter before adding any more.
YieldTwo pounds of asparagus, trimmed and cut, serves four to six as a side.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer ran the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York and published The Epicurean in 1894 as a full record of that restaurant's repertoire — over a thousand pages, numbered recipes, and a French title line for nearly everything. Pointes d'asperges, asparagus cut into short lengths from the tender upper stalk, was a standing French garnish and side of the period; the tips went into omelettes, garnishes and cream sauces, while the numbered variations here show how many ways one kitchen could dress the same vegetable. Asparagus was a genuinely seasonal luxury in the 1890s, arriving in eastern markets in late spring, and Delmonico's treatment of it — butter, Parmesan, a fast browning — belongs to the same tradition that later became the familiar gratin.