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Artichoke Bottoms
Take a few artichoke bottoms, dried. Soak them, and boil them in sufficient clear stock to cover them. When tender, which may be ascertained by sticking a fork into them, take them out, let them drain, then put a little forcemeat into each one, and serve them in a napkin. Time to boil, if young, three-quarters of an hour; if fully grown, an hour and a half. Sufficient, one for each person. Probable cost, 3d. each.
A Victorian side dish built on a pantry item that has largely disappeared: artichoke bottoms dried for winter keeping. Everything hinges on the fact that modern artichoke bottoms come already cooked, so the long boil in the original no longer applies.
- Dried bottomsThese were whole artichoke fonds — the fleshy base left after the leaves and choke are removed — blanched and dried for storage. The nearest modern equivalent is canned or jarred artichoke bottoms, or frozen hearts trimmed flat; both are already tender.
- Ignore the timingsThree-quarters of an hour to an hour and a half applies only to rehydrating a dried, raw fond. Canned or frozen bottoms need 5 to 10 minutes in simmering stock, no more, or they collapse into mush.
- If you do start from freshTrim a large globe artichoke down to the base, scoop out the choke, and rub with lemon. Simmer in stock until a fork slides in easily, roughly 20 to 30 minutes depending on size.
- Clear stockMeans an unthickened, well-skimmed broth — veal or chicken in the period. Use a light, low-salt stock, since it will reduce around the artichokes and season them.
- ForcemeatA bound, seasoned stuffing of minced veal, chicken or ham with breadcrumbs, suet or butter, egg, and herbs. A modern sausage-meat or chicken-and-herb farce works. Because the artichokes are already cooked, the forcemeat must be cooked separately or the filled bottoms briefly baked at 375F until the filling reaches 165F.
- Served in a napkinA folded linen napkin on the serving dish absorbed drips and kept the hot vegetables from sliding. Purely presentational; a warmed platter does the same job.
- Yield and costOne bottom per person, as the original states, which makes this a small savoury course or a garnish rather than a dish in itself. At 3d. each it was not a trivial sum for a single vegetable.
Artichoke bottoms were an item of the well-stocked Victorian larder, sold dried. The globe artichoke reached English kitchens in the sixteenth century and was long treated as a luxury vegetable, valued for the mild, nutty fond rather than the leaves; French cookery calls the same piece a fond d'artichaut and still uses it as an edible container for garnishes. Stuffing a hollow vegetable with forcemeat and presenting a single unit per diner is characteristic of the period's service, as is sending the dish to table "in a napkin."