HISTORY AND COOKERY 



according to the freshness (asparagus should be cooked on 

 the same day that it was growing in the garden) and variety 

 of the asparagus, but as a rule the time may be taken at 

 from thirty to forty minutes, the cover of the saucepan 

 being left off during the whole time. When cooked, the 

 stems should be tender, but not flabby. Mrs Glasse, in 

 her celebrated " Art of Cookery," advised to "cut the 

 round of a small loaf about half an inch thick, toast it 

 brown on both sides, dip it in the asparagus liquor, and lay 

 it in your dish; pour a little butter over the. toast, then 

 lay your asparagus on the toast all round the dish, with 

 the white tops outward," and her advice has been copied 

 by nearly every cookery writer — English and American 

 — since her day. Much the nicer way, however, of serv- 

 ing boiled asparagus is to drain it thoroughly, remove 

 the tape or riband, and place the vegetable .on the drainer 

 of a hot asparagus dish or ordinary vegetable dish, on dry 

 unbuttered toast, or, as Gouffe suggests, on a napkin. 



Dr Kitchener, in his "Cook's Oracle," did indeed 

 advise that one should " pour no butter over them, but 

 send some up in a boat, or white sauce." Better than 

 white sauce or melted butter as an accompaniment to 

 boiled asparagus is sauce Hollandaise, or (as Mrs 

 Roundell suggests in her excellent "Practical Cookery 

 Book") the beurre fondu of the Dutch. This is made by 

 melting four ounces of butter in a saucepan, adding a 

 saltspoonful of salt, a pinch of mignonette pepper and a 

 squeeze of lemon juice. Let this settle over the fire, 

 and before the butter has quite liquefied, take the sauce- 

 pan off, and let the heat of the saucepan complete the 

 melting. In this way the butter will be creamy, and not 

 like oil. Pour the sauce free from sediment into a very 

 hot sauce-boat, and see that the plates for the vegetables 

 are thoroughly hot. 



Sauce Hollandaise may be made thus : — Put in a bain- 

 marie two and a half ounces of butter and beat it to a 



