DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

(Source: Harold McGee’s seminal work on food science, On Food And Cooking)

An odd side effect of asparagus has been known for centuries. As the learned Frenchman Dr. Louis Lemery put it in his Treatise of All Sorts of Foods (1702, in a contemporary English translation), “Sparagrass eaten to Excess sharpen the Humours and heat a little, and therefore Persons of a bilious Constitution ought to use them moderately: They cause a filthy and disagreeable Smell in the Urine, as every Body knows.” From 1956 until 1980, it was thought that the excretion of odorous methyl mercaptan after eating asparagus was a dominant genetic trait; if you had the particular gene, you were a “stinker.” But a recent study found that all asparagus eaters excrete methyl mercaptan; it is the ability to detect its odor that varies from person to person.

The Asparagus F.A.Q. describes the characteristic odor as smelling “funny,” which leads me to believe its author is not as skilled in the detection of methyl mercaptan as I am. (Around here, asparagus nights are accompanied by the sound of the bathroom fan.) Regardless, I’m amused that they address the issue at all — I’d bet not many official vegetable websites contain references to urine.