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Artichokes, Fried
Wash, trim, and boil the artichokes as directed in the recipe for boiling. Remove the chokes and the outer leaves, leaving only the most tender. Cut them into about a dozen pieces, then dip them in batter, fry in hot oil or dripping until they are lightly browned, drain, and serve with fried parsley. Time to fry, five or six minutes. Probable cost, 2d. to 4d. each. Allow three for four persons.
A straightforward globe artichoke fritter, written for cooks who already knew the boiling recipe on the preceding page. The main gaps for a modern reader are the parboiling stage and the fat.
- Which artichokeThese are globe artichokes, not Jerusalem artichokes. The "choke" removed is the hairy centre sitting on the heart; the pieces fried are heart and the pale inner leaf bases.
- The boiling step it assumesThe cross-referenced entry is not on this page, but boiling artichokes of this period means whole trimmed heads simmered in salted water until a base leaf pulls away cleanly, typically well over twenty minutes depending on size. Undercook them here and the batter will brown long before the flesh is tender.
- Drain them hardThe hinge of the dish. Boiled artichoke holds a great deal of water between the leaves; press the pieces gently in a cloth and let them cool and dry before battering, or the coating will slide off and the fat will spit.
- DrippingBeef or pork dripping was a common frying fat in this period and gives a savoury edge; the recipe allows oil equally. Any neutral oil at 350-375F works; the five or six minutes given assumes fat hot enough to set the batter at once.
- Fried parsleyWhole sprigs of curly parsley, thoroughly dry, dropped into the hot fat for a few seconds until they stop hissing and turn bright and crisp. Wet parsley in hot fat erupts, so dry it properly first.
- Yield"Allow three for four persons" means three artichokes serve four as a first course or savoury side, not as a main dish.
- Cost2d. to 4d. each is Victorian pence, useful now only as a rough signal of relative price; how modest that was is hard to judge without comparing other entries.
Globe artichokes are generally said to have reached English gardens in the sixteenth century and were long grown in kitchen gardens rather than bought, which is why a Victorian book can quote them at a few pence apiece. Frying boiled artichoke hearts in batter is an old Mediterranean habit, and English cookery books of the period are often held to take it from French practice, where artichauts frits appear as a garnish or an entremets. The fried parsley alongside is a Victorian signature: it turns up beside fried whitebait, cutlets and fish of every kind in Cassell's, and served as both garnish and vegetable in an era when a plate was expected to carry some green. The instruction to cross-refer to a boiling recipe is typical of the dictionary format, which assumed readers would work through the book rather than treat each entry as standing alone.