Weisser Spargel mit Sauce Hollandaise

German white asparagus with sauce hollandaise, Black Forest ham, and buttered new potatoes: the canonical Spargelzeit plate of Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria, served during the six-week window between late April and June that southern Germany observes as an unofficial national season

Origin: Schwetzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

From the journey of Asparagus.

Spargelzeit (asparagus season) is one of the most ritualised food events in Germany, and possibly in all of Europe. From late April until the 24th of June (Johannistag, the feast of St John the Baptist, by which date the asparagus plant needs to be left to recover), white asparagus dominates German restaurant menus, market stalls, farm shop signs and newspaper food pages. The Schwetzingen area of Baden-Württemberg has been cultivating white asparagus since the 1600s, and the town's Spargelfest is one of the oldest asparagus festivals in the world. German white asparagus is grown in deep, carefully maintained sandy-loam ridges, cut by hand just below the surface before the tips emerge, and graded by diameter: extra-thick extra-class asparagus is the most prized, with a diameter above 26mm. The white asparagus of the Rhineland, Bavaria, and Lower Saxony has PDO protection under EU law. The canonical plate is always the same: thick white spears, sauce hollandaise (made in the French style, not a packet), sliced Schwarzwälder Schinken (Black Forest ham) or cooked ham, and small boiled new potatoes glistening with butter and parsley. Nothing else. Germany consumes more than 57,000 tonnes of white asparagus per year, almost all of it during the six-week Spargelzeit.

Ingredients

Vegetable

  • 1 kg white asparagus

Cooking water

  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 20 g butter (for cooking water)

Hollandaise

  • 3 egg yolks
  • 180 g unsalted butter, clarified
  • 1 tbsp dry white wine
  • 1 tbsp cold water
  • 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 0.5 tsp fine white pepper

Accompaniment

  • 200 g Schwarzwälder Schinken (Black Forest ham) or high-quality cooked ham, sliced
  • 600 g small new potatoes
  • 30 g butter (for potatoes)

Garnish

  • 2 tbsp fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Method

  1. Peel the white asparagus generously from just below the tip to the base, removing the tough outer skin. Trim the woody ends to create spears of uniform length.
  2. Clarify the butter for hollandaise: melt the unsalted butter gently over low heat, skim the white foam from the surface, then carefully pour off the clear golden liquid, leaving the white milk solids behind. You need 180g of clear, warm clarified butter.
  3. Cook the potatoes in salted water until tender, drain, and toss with butter and parsley. Keep warm.
  4. Cook the asparagus: stand the peeled spears upright in a tall pot with salted water reaching three-quarters up the stalks (tips above water). Add the sugar and butter to the water. Cover loosely with foil and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15–20 minutes until the stalks are tender when pierced.
  5. Make the hollandaise while the asparagus cooks: place the egg yolks, white wine, and cold water in a heatproof bowl. Set over a pan of barely simmering water (bain-marie): the bowl must not touch the water. Whisk continuously until the yolks thicken to a pale, ribbon-like consistency that holds its shape when the whisk is lifted: about 3–4 minutes.
  6. Remove the bowl from the heat. Begin adding the warm clarified butter drop by drop while whisking constantly: this builds the emulsion. Once the sauce visibly thickens after the first few additions, you can add the butter in a thin, steady stream, whisking constantly.
  7. Season the hollandaise with lemon juice, white pepper, and salt. Taste: it should be rich, buttery, clearly lemony, and with a gentle warmth from the pepper. Keep warm in the bain-marie (off the heat) until ready to serve.
  8. To serve: arrange the hot asparagus on warm plates. Place slices of ham alongside. Add the buttered potatoes. Spoon hollandaise generously over the asparagus. Serve immediately.

Notes

Sauce hollandaise does not hold well and should be made immediately before serving. If you must make it in advance, keep it in a warm (not hot) bain-marie for up to 30 minutes, whisking occasionally to prevent a skin forming. The German tradition uses salted, not smoked, ham for Spargelzeit: Schwarzwälder Schinken is technically a dry-cured, cold-smoked product, but the version sold thinly sliced for Spargelessen is usually mild. Any good quality cooked or cured ham works.

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