No. 2682

Artichoke Bottoms a la Villars

Fonds d'Artichauts a la Villars

Procure twelve raw artichoke bottoms; when turned (Figs. 547-548) and pared blanch them in salted water and cook in white stock (No.182), with aromatics and a little white wine, keeping them slightly firm; drain on a cloth and then cut out the bottom with a two and a quarter inch diameter tin cutter. Lay them in a sautoir, moisten with a little chicken bouillon (No. 188) and a small piece of butter. Reduce the liquid entirely. Mince some white onions, blanch them for a few minutes, fry them lightly in butter and moisten with broth (No. 194a) and cream, half of each, adding the same quantity of minced fresh mushrooms; reduce and leave to cool. Drain the artichoke bottoms, cover the hollow side with the preparation, and this with a layer of raw cream forcemeat (No. 75); strew over bread-crumbs and grated cheese, and lay them in a sautoir with a little stock (No. 194a); color in a moderate oven, and dress on a well-buttered reduced cream veloute sauce (No. 415).

← No. 2681 Artichoke Bottoms a la Soubise Artichokes & Asparagus No. 2683 Artichoke Bottoms Fried →

For the Modern Kitchen

A composed garnish from Ranhofer's Delmonico kitchen: cooked artichoke bottoms filled with an onion-mushroom cream, capped with forcemeat, browned, and set on sauce. The hinge is the forcemeat cap, which must actually cook through in the oven, not merely color.

What you are buyingTwelve artichoke bottoms means twelve large globe artichokes, trimmed down to the fleshy base with leaves, choke and stem removed. Good-quality jarred or frozen bottoms will stand in and save an hour, though they arrive already cooked and want only the bouillon-and-butter step.
"Turned" and paredTurning is paring the base smooth in a spiral with a small knife so no dark green remains. Drop each one into acidulated water (lemon juice or a splash of vinegar) as you go, or they blacken within minutes.
Blanching whiteRanhofer's salted water is best made as a blanc: water with lemon juice and a spoonful of flour whisked in. It keeps the bottoms pale. Ten to fifteen minutes, then finish in stock so they are tender but still hold a shape when cut.
SautoirA straight-sided shallow sauté pan, not a lidded casserole. Anything wide enough to hold the bottoms in one layer without crowding will serve.
Cream forcemeatNo. 75 is a raw pounded forcemeat bound with cream, in the quenelle family. A food processor does in ninety seconds what the original expects of a mortar; keep everything cold so the cream does not break.
Oven and donenessThe book says only 'a moderate oven', which in modern terms is somewhere around 325-350F. Colored to a light gold is not the same as cooked: the raw forcemeat cap needs to reach 165F at the center, roughly 15 to 20 minutes for a layer a half-inch thick. Check one with a probe before serving.
ReductionsThe bouillon and butter on the bottoms are reduced away entirely, as the recipe says; the onion-mushroom cream is reduced until thick. A slack filling will weep under the forcemeat and slide off the base.
Yield and serviceTwelve bottoms serve six as a first course or a vegetable course, two apiece, plated over a spoonful of cream velouté rather than swimming in it.

A Little History

The Epicurean (1894) is Charles Ranhofer's record of thirty years cooking at Delmonico's in New York, and this dish shows the house style plainly: a vegetable treated as a vessel, filled, capped with forcemeat, gratinated and set on a finished sauce, with five cross-references to other numbered preparations before a single artichoke is trimmed. The name honors the Villars family, and garnishes raally traced to the Duc de Villars, marshal of France under Louis XIV, though as with most such nineteenth-century labels the attachment of a particular dish to a particular name is culinary convention rather than documented invention. Artichoke bottoms occupied a settled place in the classical repertoire as small edible containers, cheaper in labor terms than they look to us only because a professional brigade had someone whose morning was spent turning them by the dozen.