No. 2678

Artichoke Bottoms a la Jussienne

Fonds d'Artichauts a la Jussienne

Turn some artichoke bottoms the same as mushrooms (No. 118), rub them over with lemon and cook in a seasoned white stock (No. 182), to which add pieces of marrow; drain when well done. Mince a few mushrooms, cut them into strips and fry them in butter; drain off the latter and replace it by thick bechamel sauce (No. 409); cover the artichoke bottoms with this, mask over with allemande sauce (No. 407), reduced with a little jelly (No. 103), into which mix more mushrooms and chopped truffles; allow to cool; roll them in white bread-crumbs, dip in beaten eggs, again in bread-crumbs and fry to a fine golden color; drain, wipe and arrange them on a dish in a circle, having the center filled with sliced cooked sweet potatoes, cut three-eighths of an inch thick and one and a quarter inches in diameter. Serve separately a Colbert sauce (No. 451).

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For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer writes in cross-references, assuming a brigade with a stockpot and four mother sauces already on the stove. Stripped down, this is a stuffed artichoke bottom bound with sauce, chilled solid, breaded and fried — a croquette in a vegetable shell.

The hinge: it must be cold before it is breadedThe sauced bottoms have to chill until the coating is set firm, an hour or more in the refrigerator, ideally longer. Breaded warm, the béchamel and allemande liquefy in the fryer and burst the crust.
"Turn" the artichokesRanhofer refers the technique to his mushroom entry (No. 118). For artichokes it means paring away leaves and stem with a knife until only the fleshy base remains, then scooping the choke. Rub every cut surface with lemon at once; cut artichoke discolours quickly. Large globe artichokes give bottoms of usable size; small buds give little return for the labour. Frozen or good jarred bottoms are a legitimate shortcut.
Cooking liquidRanhofer specifies his own seasoned white stock (No. 182). In practice a light white stock or water will do, and cooks commonly add lemon juice and a little flour or butter — a blanc — to keep the vegetable pale. Simmer gently, roughly 15 to 25 minutes, until a knife slides in without resistance.
MarrowBeef marrow from canoe-cut or cross-cut leg bones, soaked in cold salted water overnight to draw the blood, then poached in the same liquid as the artichokes. It is added for richness and largely melts; if you skip it, add butter to the béchamel instead.
The sauces, in shortBéchamel (No. 409) is milk thickened with white roux, and here Ranhofer asks for it thick. Allemande (No. 407) is a velouté finished with an egg-yolk and cream liaison, sharpened with lemon. The "jelly" (No. 103) is a reduced meat jelly or glaze, which helps stiffen the coating as it cools. Colbert sauce is a butter sauce enriched with meat glaze, lemon and chopped herbs, tarragon among them.
Mushrooms cut into stripsCut them into fine julienne and cook in butter over decent heat until the water has gone and they begin to colour, otherwise they weep into the sauce. Drain the butter off as directed before the béchamel goes in.
FryingDeep fry at 350–360°F until golden, two to three minutes. Hotter and the crust darkens before the interior warms through. Standard flour-egg-crumb order works; Ranhofer's double crumbing gives a sturdier shell and is worth following here.
The sweet potato garnishBoil or steam sweet potatoes whole, cool, then slice 3/8 inch thick and cut rounds with a 1¼-inch cutter. Ranhofer wants uniform discs for the centre of the ring, not a mash.
YieldNot stated. Reckon two bottoms per person as a first course; the recipe scales to whatever number of artichokes you trim.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of his years running the kitchen at Delmonico's in New York, and it reads less like a cookbook than an inventory of a professional repertoire — some 3,500 numbered items, each leaning on the numbered stocks and sauces earlier in the volume. Artichoke bottoms occupy several entries of their own because in nineteenth-century French service they functioned as edible cups: a neutral, slightly sweet vessel for whatever garnish the name of the dish specified. Ranhofer offers no explanation of the suffix, and no settled derivation for Jussienne in this sense is on record. What the dish does document is the era's fondness for the cold-bound croquette — a filling stiffened with reduced sauce and jelly, chilled, crumbed and fried — a technique that let a kitchen prepare portions in advance and finish them to order.