Cut your stalks of equal length, rejecting the woody or lower portions, and scraping the white part which remains.

Throw into cold water as you scrape them.

Tie in a bunch with soft strings--muslin or tape--and put into boiling water slightly salted. If very young and fresh, it is well to tie in a piece of coarse net to protect the tops.

Boil from twenty to forty minutes, according to the age.

Just before it is done, toast two or three slices of bread, cutting off the crust; dip in the asparagus liquor, butter, and lay in a hot dish.

When you take off the asparagus, drain, unbind the bundle, and heap it upon the toast, with bits of butter between the stalks."