The Saturday Sip: April 20, 2024
Your etiquette tip, quote and an Emily Post Cookbook recipe to start your weekend off right!
The Tip
Whether you’re a host or a guest, asking if others mind before you smoke or vape is polite. As a guest specifically, asking if smoking or vaping is permitted at all is always a polite move.
The Recipe
Emily provides a few ways to prepare asparagus, a wonderful spring vegetable. One of our favorite ways to eat it is covered in hollandaise sauce.
Emily Post’s Cookbook, 1951, pg. 168 *Please note that recipes are copied as exactly as possible, including grammatical errors and inconsistencies.
Asparagus
Emily lists a few ways to prepare asparagus, so we’ll forgo the ingredient list this time.
Directions
Wash asparagus and cut or break off tough white ends. Lay parallel in a pot and cover with boiling, well-salted water. Cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Remove one by one so as not to break the tips off, and serve with butter that has been softened but not completely melted. Melted butter in which some chopped hard-boiled egg has been mixed, a Hollandaise, Cream or Cheese Sauce are all good on asparagus.
If you wish asparagus a deep emerald green, put 1/2 tsp. of soda in the water.
Asparagus may be tied into a loose bunch and stood up in a saucepan or the lower half of a double boiler. Salted water is poured in up to an inch or so of the tips. The upper half of a double boiler may then be inverted and placed over the tips so as to keep them bathed in the steam rising from the boiling water. Boil until tender of about 15 minutes.
In a pressure cooker, cook whole stalks 1 1/2 minutes, or if cut in pieces, 1 minutes, at 15 lbs. pressure. In either case, set cooker in cold water to bring pressure down quickly. Drain off juice and keep or use in making a Cream or Cheese Sauce. Return asparagus to cooker with a large piece of butter. The butter will melt in a minute or two and the asparagus will stay hot until served.
Asparagus cut into pieces 1 to 1 1/2 inches long is usually served with melted butter or a Cream Sauce as a vegetable at the same time as the meat. When served whole, either hot or cold with a Vinaigrette Sauce or with French Dressing, it becomes a separate course and is served after the main course.
The Quote
“Certainly what one is is of far greater importance than what one appears to be.” - Emily Post
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We hope you’ve enjoyed the Sip today. What’s your favorite way to cook asparagus? Let us know in the comments. Can’t post here? Head over to the Monday post comment thread, where the comment section is open to everyone.
Cheers!
Lizzie and Dan
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Emily Post working in her living room in New York City, circa 1955