Liberal Arts Blog — Vegetables (V) Asparagus — from Ancient Rome to Marcel Proust to Julia Child
Liberal Arts Blog — Sunday is the Joy of Humor, Food, Travel, Practical Life Tips, and Miscellaneous Day
Today’s Topic — Vegetables (V) Asparagus — from Ancient Rome to Marcel Proust to Julia Child
Much has been written about the impact of asparagus on the smell of urine. Perhaps most memorably Marcel Proust wrote that asparagus transformed his chamber pot into a “flask of perfume.” This phenomenon has kept many away from this earliest of spring vegetables. But others have been quite enthralled — from the ancient Romans to Julia Child. Today, a few random notes. Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
ANCIENT ROMANS — The Epicureans, Emperor Augustus, Apicius
1. “Roman Epicureans froze its sprouts high in the Alps for the Feast of Epicurus.”
2. “Emperor Augustus created the “Asparagus Fleet” for hauling the vegetable, and coined the expression “faster than cooking asparagus” for quick action.”
3. “A recipe for cooking asparagus is given in one of the oldest surviving collections of recipes (Apicius’ s third-century BC De Re Coquinaria, Book III).”
WHITE ASPARAGUS — cherished delicacy
1. “White asparagus is the result of applying a blanching technique while the asparagus shoots are growing.”
2, “To cultivate white asparagus, the shoots are covered with soil as they grow, i.e. earthed up without exposure to sunlight, no photosynthesis starts, and the shoots remain white.”
3. Names include “white gold,” “edible ivory,” and “the royal vegetable.”
NB: In France, traditionally, served with hollandaise sauce.
JULIA CHILD: “FROM TIP TO BUTT” (If you like cooking videos, don’t miss this one)
1. “What’s lovelier than spring! It’s warm weather at last and the first fresh asparagus is in the markets. What dreams of butter and glory!”
2. “I just adore fresh asparagus. I think I am terribly serious about it so I always go to a market that takes asparagus very seriously and lovingly.”
3. “Asparagus is like a flower you must keep it moist and cool.”
NB: She goes into details about the importance of peeling and of not discarding the butts and much, much more.
French Chef; Asparagus From Tip to Butt
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YOUR TURN
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