juiciness, and it becomes increasingly fibrous
from the base up. These changes are
especially rapid in the first 24 hours after
harvest, and are accelerated by warmth and
light. Moisture and sugar losses can be partly
remedied by soaking the spears in dilute sugar
water (5–10%, or 5–10 gm per 100 ml/1–2
teaspoons per half-cup) before cooking. White
asparagus is always more fibrous than green
and toughens faster in storage. It and some
green asparagus may be peeled to remove
some unsoftenable tissue, but woody lignin
formation also takes place deeper in the stem.
Cooks have dealt with this internal toughening
in the same way for 500 years: they bend the
stalk, and allow mechanical stress to find the
border between tough and tender and break
the two apart.
Asparagus and its peculiar branches, the
phylloclades, which are clustered near the tip