1,613 easy and fully explained recipes, with +66K photos and 77 videos

This site uses only a few technical cookies that are necessary for its operation.
By continuing to browse, you agree to their use (learn more...).

Should asparagus really be cooked in bunches?

You'll probably read recipes here and there explaining how to cook asparagus "en botte", i.e. in a small package (the famous "botte").

Is this really the right way to cook asparagus?

9,565 5/5 (1 reviews)

Keywords for this post:Asparagus Cooking Tip Bundle Legend

Last modified on: May 22^th 2024

For this post Comments Lasts posts Follow

For this post: Comment Follow Ask me a question Send to a friend

"Botte" cooking

This is a method familiar to all professional cooks when cooking asparagus: peel the asparagus, tie it together with string or a rubber band to form a small bundle, the "botte", and plunge it into boiling salted water.

asperges en botte

Check for doneness by pricking one of the asparagus spears with the tip of a knife, and if it's easily pierced, the asparagus is done.
Remove the bundle from the water, drain and cut the string.

Is this a good method?

This method seems like a good idea, but it's not. In practice, doing it this way leads to problems with cooking levels.

Bunching the asparagus increases the overall cooking time, with the asparagus around the edges cooking faster than the asparagus in the middle, which takes longer.
This difference in cooking time means that some asparagus (again, those in the middle) may be overcooked, while those in the middle may be undercooked.
If you want to check doneness with the tip of a knife, it's almost impossible with the asparagus in the center, unless you go through the asparagus in the middle.

In short, you'll have understood that this is not a good method, and that it's much better to cook your asparagus the traditional way , in a large pot of boiling salted water, like any other vegetable.

asperges en cuisson classique asperges cuites

It's quicker and more effective.

To sum up: don't cook your asparagus in bunches, as they won't cook as evenly as conventional asparagus.

Lasts posts

Added cocoa powder: why it makes your cakes dry

Are you making a recipe—a cake, for example—and want to turn it into a chocolate version? Adding a few spoonfuls of cocoa powder seems like the simplest solution. However, the result is often disappointing: you end up with a cake that’s drier, denser, and goes stale quickly. This is due to...
November 10^th 20264805

Season to the right level

When you need to salt something—for example, fish fillets before cooking them—you’ll naturally sprinkle them with a pinch of salt using your fingers. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about this very ordinary gesture, which is done all the time in the kitchen, and yet there’s a...
October 14^th 20261,8035

How to Properly Fill a Jar

When you have a jar in your kitchen that’s almost empty—flour or almond flour, for example—you’ll probably refill it before it’s completely empty. And that’s a great way to go about it—no one wants to run out of an ingredient right in the middle of a recipe. Once you’ve...
October 2^nd 20261,2365

Serving Temperature for Wine

When it comes to serving wine, you may (like me) have a fairly simple rule of thumb: red wine at room temperature, and white, rosé, and yellow wines in the fridge until it’s time to serve them. It’s very easy to remember, but it’s a bit simplistic, and you’ll see that there’s a much...
September 23^th 20261,2715

Hot Emulsified Sauces

In French cuisine, sauces are a very important part of a recipe—not just a side dish. In fact, they’re so important that, especially since the time of Auguste Escoffier, they’ve been classified into categories. And among these categories are “hot emulsified sauces,” or lukewarm ones. ...
September 9^th 20261,7005

See all posts Random post RSS feeds

Other articles you might also like

The secret of cooking until "done"

This is a real chef's skill: being able to look at a fish fillet cooking and say, "Stop – that's enough, it's cooked". I always admire this ability to see at a glance if something is done. It is what sets the professionals apart from us mere amateurs. And it's true that how fish is cooked is...
November 26^th 201223 K4.4

Fruits which can ruin your jelly

There are many ways of making a fruit mousse, but one of the simplest is to prepare a fruit jelly (basically a fresh fruit coulis with gelatine) and then mix this jelly before it sets completely with whipped cream. The result is perfect for filling a charlotte, for example. But do beware;...
March 6^th 201382 K4.0

Candied fruits: don't get ripped off

Do you like candied fruit? You might like to nibble a handful or add it to a recipe, like a classic fruit cake or delicious Italian specialities like panettone or sicilian epiphany pie.
June 21^th 201772 K 24.2

Stand mixer tools

Whether we call it a stand mixer, food processor, or simply refer to it by brand (Kenwood, KitchenAid, etc.), this machine is a valuable tool for amateur cooks, bakers or pastry chefs like ourselves. All these machines come supplied with 3 different tools. Let’s take a look at their names and...
November 2^nd 201940 K4.5

Croutons

Do you use croutons, that typically French trick of toasting small pieces of bread on the side to add to a recipe? They're just delicious, but you need to know 2 or 3 things about them. .
December 30^th 202012 K5