Why snapping asparagus stalks is like throwing away money

Anyone who has had a mouthful of stringy asparagus knows that there’s nothing appealing about the woody base of the springtime stalks.

For many people, the easiest way to eliminate these woody stems is to break them off by bending them until they snap in two. The conventional wisdom is that this natural snap-off point is where the unpalatable toughness ends, and the tender asparagus begins.

This is one snap decision that’s dead wrong. If you snap off asparagus spears, you’re wasting food and throwing away your grocery dollars.

In the current issue of Cook’s Illustrated, the recipe testers from America’s Test Kitchen found that if they snapped asparagus at the natural breaking point, they lost as much as 50 percent of the weight of each spear, and much of what was being tossed onto the compost pile was completely edible. That’s because spears don’t necessarily break at the best possible place, and can snap just about anywhere depending on where the cook applies pressure.

To reduce this waste, they tried cutting roughly an inch off the bottom of each spear, then used a vegetable peeler to trim away the stringy exterior of the base until they got to the tender center. This not only produced asparagus that looked prettier than the short, stubby spears. It produced a loss of less than 30 percent.

Of course, cutting and peeling individual asparagus spears takes time. But in this case, time really is money. With conventional asparagus running as high as $4.99 a pound at some Portland-area grocery stores (and organic going for as much as $6.99 a pound), throwing away as much as 50 percent of what you buy is financial lunacy.

Recipes included with this story: Clarke’s Artichoke and Asparagus Salad With Serrano Ham; Cream of Asparagus Soup With Soft-Poached Eggs; Roasted Asparagus With Pecorino and Pine Nuts.

And we’re not really talking about that much extra prep time. In testing recipes for this story, we took the Cook’s Illustrated approach of trimming and peeling thicker spears, and it only took about 5 minutes of additional prep time per pound compared to how long it takes to snap spears. Trimming and peeling only produced a 25-percent loss, saving us about $1.25 (or about $1.75 if we had bought organic) over what we would have lost by snapping spears. Not bad for 5 minutes of extra work at the cutting board.

Of course, you can avoid the issue entirely by buying pencil-thin asparagus, which just needs about a quarter of an inch trimmed off the base, with no additional peeling required. But thin asparagus can be difficult to find, and has some drawbacks compared to thicker spears. While these spears are great for flash-roasting or incorporating into creamy soups, they tend to overcook quickly, and have a tendency to fall through the grates when you try to grill them. Asparagus that’s inedible or incinerated is more grocery money that’s just thrown away.

If buying thicker stalks, picking out the freshest asparagus possible is probably more important than deciding whether you want to snap or trim spears. The older asparagus gets, the more it turns woody and fibrous. Avoid spears that have started to shrivel at the base or that have tips with the flowers starting spread, which is an age indicator. Bottom line: If it doesn’t look fresh, it probably isn’t. That’s the time to buy broccoli instead.

— Grant Butler

503-221-8566; @grantbutler