Not necessarily, according to Harold McGee. For his "Curious Cook" column in The New York Times, he snapped 130 spears and found that, even after they were steamed, a third of those asparagus were still stringy and tough at the end. We've always snapped our asparagus. Is there a better way?
Unfortunately, the article doesn't really offer one. McGee mentions that you can be aggressive and cut off 6 to 7 inches from every spear, making sure you get tender ends. But you may be losing a lot of edible stalk in the process.
He does give this tip: The discarded ends are still good if you slice them into very thin disks, then add them to the pan while you're cooking the stalks or use them for a stir-fry. Apparently the stringy fibers lose their chew if they're cut short.
• Read the full article: Asparagus' Breaking Point, from The New York Times
It's a short piece, and the majority of it is devoted to fun facts about how asparagus grow. It's an enlightening read. Did you know that most of what you eat is one day's growth? And that asparagus are so full of go-go energy that they keep growing (usually on a bend) even after they're cut?
Overall, we think we'll still snap our asparagus, mostly because we like the familiar, repetitive process. And a few tough bites left on our plate isn't a big deal. What about you?
Related: 10 Fresh Asparagus Recipes for Spring
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Snapping is certainly the quick and dirty method I use on busy weeknights, but nothing is more elegant than asparagus that's peeled so that the ends are the same shape as the tips.
I bought my henckel asparagus peeler almost 20 years ago when I was in chef school and it's still going strong!
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Snap and then use a vegetable peeler on the bottom inch if you are worried that they'll still be tough. If that doesn't work, you got the wrong batch of asparagus!
I do what manjar does - snap, then trim/cut the end to make it look pretty, and then vegetable peeler if it's a particularly thick stalk. Also, I slice all but the tips in relatively short pieces (1 inch, approximately), and the tips in longer pieces (2 inches), to help even out cooking.
I can't recommend Russ Parson's How to Pick a Peach enough for advice on choosing, storing, prepping, and cooking fruits and vegetables. He recommends not snapping because you'll have wasted too much edible asparagus. Instead, he says to cut off the bottom inch and a half or so, and if you've bought really fat asparagus, you must always peel it. Start just below the tip and increase pressure as you go down. Save the peels and the trimmed off ends for asparagus soup.
I don't ever snap, but I do peel and trim. I do save those peelings and trimmings in a freezer bag, and when I have enough, I boil 'em for broth to make cream of asparagus soup. I learned this when I was living in Germany and my thrifty landlady was horrified when she saw me put the spargel peels in the compost heap. She said they had too much flavor left to throw away. I make soup if I have some leftover spargel from a meal.
I snap and never peel and trim and yet still find the entire stalk making its way off my plate and into my mouth. My husband's plate, on the other hand, will be littered with what he thinks are tough ends. I think its a matter of preference.
Like dsbook, I save the woodier ends in a freezer bag, but with other veggie clippings (onion roots/skins, herb stems, carrot nubs, etc.) for homemade veggie stock.
Like many have suggested, I cut off just a little from the bottom and use a vegetable peeler from about an inch below the tip to make the rest less tough. It takes a little more time, but you get more out of the asparagus and it's not tough.
I snap and never peel & trim. However, if I have a lot of asparagus to prepare, I'll just snap a couple & then chop the rest based on a rough estimate of how much I snapped off. If it seems especially thick or fibrous, I'll chop more aggressively. Peeling and trimming does sound less wasteful than what I do, but often I'm more concerned about time & figure the extra bits are at least feeding the compost.
I've never used my asparagus ends in my veggie stock b/c I feared it would overwhelm the other flavors, but I definitely like the idea of saving them for broth for cream of asparagus soup.
I don't mind eating the tough bits. More fiber for me!
i am a recent convert to the snapping method, and found that its a little wasteful. I used to just cut off the bottom inch or whatever the white part was and call it a day before i discovered snapping, and never had a problem. Just this weekend i was snapping away when i had a hunch i was throwing too much away, so i wound up doing this: snap, and then munch on the "throwaway" piece. Your mouth will tell you pretty quickly where you should stop biting, and its a yummy snack as you're prepping for dinner. :)