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As the website notes, it's long been conventional culinary wisdom that breaking the asparagus stalks was simply the logical, easiest method. However, that may not be the case:

A lot of sources will tell you that asparagus has a built-in natural breaking point: Hold a spear up horizontally, and break off the end where you see it start to droop—or, even simpler, bend it yourself in your hands, and it'll break precisely where you need it to. So you bend, and snap! It's almost as if that asparagus wants to be trimmed.

The problem is, this approach doesn't really work better, or faster, than the more obvious method: slicing off the ends of a bunch of spears all at once. This is something a lot of cooks, professional and non-, have cottoned on to through experience, but the shadow of bend-and-snap still looms large over conventional cooking wisdom.

However, it turns out that using the bend-and-snap method can create a break pretty much anywhere in the stalk, which certainly isn't very efficient. So, cutting may just be the way to go:

Though it doesn't make that same satisfying snapping sound, it's far easier to simply line up the asparagus stalks and look at where they appear to start toughening up toward the ends. That generally corresponds with where most stalks' green color starts to fade to white. Then cut off those hard ends with a chef's knife—you know, just as you would when trimming other vegetables.

How do you trim your asparagus? Do you use the bend-and-snap method, or do you cut it? Which method do you prefer? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

Article Source: Serious Eats