The Book of Household Management by Mrs. Beeton

tablespoonful of salt; asparagus. [Illustration: ASPARAGUS ON TOAST. ASPARAGUS TONGS.] _Mode_.--Asparagus should be dressed as soon as possible after it is cut, although it may be kept for a day or two by putting the stalks into cold water; yet, to be good, like every other vegetable, it cannot be cooked too fresh. Scrape the white part of the stems, _beginning_ from the _head_, and throw them into cold water; then tie them into bundles of about 20 each, keeping the heads all one way, and cut the stalks evenly, that they may all be the same length; put them into _boiling_ water, with salt in the above proportion; keep them boiling quickly until tender, with the saucepan uncovered. When the asparagus is done, dish it upon toast, which should be dipped in the water it was cooked in, and leave the white ends outwards each war, with the points meeting in the middle. Serve with a tureen of melted butter. _Time_.--15 to 18 minutes after the water boils. _Average cost_, in full season, 2s. 6d. the 100 heads. _Sufficient_.--Allow about 50 heads for 4 or 5 persons. _Seasonable_.--May be had, forced, from January but cheapest in May, June, and July. [Illustration: ASPARAGUS.] ASPARAGUS.--This plant belongs to the variously-featured family of the order _Liliaceae_, which, in the temperate regions of both hemispheres, are most abundant, and, between the tropics, gigantic in size and arborescent in form. Asparagus is a native of Great Britain, and is found on various parts of the seacoast, and in the fens of Lincolnshire. At Kynarve Cove, in Cornwall, there is an island called "Asparagus Island," from the abundance in which it is there found. The uses to which the young shoots are applied, and the manure in which they are cultivated in order to bring them to the highest state of excellence, have been a study with many kitchen-gardeners. ASPARAGUS PEAS. (Entremets, or to be served as a Side-dish with the Second Course.)