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Artichokes, Dried
Wash the artichokes in two or three waters. Put them for a quarter of an hour in plenty of fast-boiling water. Drain, and place them in a moderate oven for an hour. Allow them to cool. Repeat this several times, until they are quite dry. They should be kept in a dry place, well covered. Time to prepare, three or four hours. Probable cost, 2d. to 4d. each.
A Victorian method for putting up globe artichokes for winter, written when "moderate oven" meant a coal range cooling between bakings rather than a thermostat. The technique is sound in outline, but the temperatures need rethinking.
- Which artichokeThe pricing "2d. to 4d. each" points to globe artichokes sold by the head, not Jerusalem artichoke tubers sold by weight. Trim off the tough outer leaves and the choke before blanching; only the heart and tender base are worth drying.
- The oven temperature is the problem"moderate oven" is conventionally glossed today as somewhere around 350F, which will bake and brown artichokes rather than dry them. Drying wants 130-150F with the door propped ajar, or a dehydrator; the repeated hour-long sessions may well reflect an oven that could not hold a low steady heat.
- The blanchA quarter of an hour in fast-boiling water is long enough to soften the hearts as well as blanch them, and it does the necessary work of deactivating the enzymes that would otherwise darken and embitter the dried pieces. Acidulate the water with lemon juice to keep the cut surfaces pale.
- Cut them down firstWhole heads dry unevenly, the outside case-hardening while the base stays damp. Quartering or slicing the hearts a quarter-inch thick gives a far more reliable result.
- Judging "quite dry"This is the hinge. The pieces must be brittle and snap rather than bend; anything leathery still holds moisture and will mould in the jar. Let them cool completely before testing, since warm pieces feel drier than they are.
- Storage"Well covered" in a dry place means an airtight jar out of the light. Condition them for a week by shaking the jar daily, and if any moisture beads on the glass, return the lot to low heat.
- Using themDried artichoke needs a long soak, an hour or more in warm water, and then simmering until tender. They are best in soups, stews and rice dishes rather than served as a vegetable in their own right.
- YieldThe original gives none. Reckon on a heavy loss: a dozen medium heads reduce to a modest jarful once trimmed and dried.
Drying was one of the few ways a Victorian household could hold a short-season vegetable past its months, and the globe artichoke, a summer crop in English kitchen gardens, was an obvious candidate. The repeated cycle of heating and cooling described here fits the working of a coal range, whose oven was hottest when bread or a joint had just come out and cooled steadily afterwards, so the cook worked with whatever falling heat was available. Sun-drying of vegetables is long established around the Mediterranean, where dry air did similar work without an oven at all. The costing in pence per head is characteristic of the book, which was written for households budgeting carefully and wanted the reader to weigh the labour against the price of the fresh article.