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French Artichoke Salad
Boil the artichokes until tender, and put them away until perfectly cold. At serving time put one drop of onion juice in the centre of each, arrange neatly on lettuce leaves and pass with them a bowl of Mayonnaise.
A whole boiled globe artichoke served cold with mayonnaise, presented as a salad course. The recipe assumes you know how to trim and boil an artichoke, so most of the work is in what it leaves out.
- Which artichokeThese are globe artichokes, the flower buds, not Jerusalem artichokes. One medium globe per person is the standard serving as a salad or first course.
- Prep before boilingCut the stem flush, trim the top inch off the bud and snip the thorny leaf tips. Rub the cut surfaces with lemon or drop the trimmed artichokes into acidulated water, or they will blacken before they reach the pot.
- Tender meansBoil in well-salted water 25-45 minutes depending on size. It is done when an outer leaf pulls away with no resistance and a knife slides into the base easily.
- Perfectly coldThe instruction is doing real work. A warm artichoke sweats and turns the mayonnaise loose. Drain upside down so water does not pool in the leaves, then chill several hours or overnight.
- Onion juiceGrate an onion and press the pulp through a fine sieve, or crush a piece in a garlic press. The recipe asks for a single drop in the centre of each artichoke, so the quantity appears to be meant literally.
- The chokeThe recipe leaves the fuzzy choke in place, so diners strip the leaves and stop at the centre. If you want the heart eaten as well, spread the boiled artichoke open once cold and scoop the choke out with a teaspoon.
- MayonnaisePeriod mayonnaise was made to order with raw yolk and oil. Any homemade version should use pasteurised eggs if it is going to sit out on the table, and a good jarred mayonnaise thinned with lemon juice does the job here.
- ServingProvide a plate for discarded leaves. The mayonnaise is passed, not spooned over, so each leaf is dipped at the table.
Cold artichokes with mayonnaise or vinaigrette belonged to the French manner of service that American cookbooks of the period were adapting for domestic kitchens, and recipes of the era often carried the label "French" whether or not the treatment was particularly Gallic. Onion juice, extracted by grating and straining, was a common trick of the era for getting the flavour without the texture; it turns up in American cookery of the 1890s and 1900s in dressings, canapes and creamed dishes where a visible piece of onion would have been thought coarse.