No. 2688

Artichokes Quartered a la Colbert, Stuffed a la Villeroi, Fried and Braised

Quartiers d'Artichauts a la Colbert, Farcis a la Villeroi, Frits et Fraises

To prepare these artichokes the hard outside leaves must first be removed, the remaining ones shortened and the bottoms pared; then divide them in four, blanch in salted acidulated water until the choke detaches easily; throw them into cold water, drain and pare once more (see Fig. 545). They can be cooked in several ways, either sauteing in butter to finish the cooking, and adding just when ready to serve some meat glaze (No. 402), lemon juice, seasoning and chopped parsley. Or they can be cooked in a white stock (No. 182), and then served in their natural state, either by filling the space between the leaves and the bottom with chicken quenelle forcemeat (No. 89) that has had cooked fine herbs (No. 385) mingled in, then poached and covered with Villeroi sauce (No. 560), breaded and fried. Those not stuffed may also be breaded a la Villeroi and fried. They can also be braised in a sautoir lined with bards of fat pork; moisten with mirepoix stock (No. 419), and cover with more bards of fat pork. When done dress them in a vegetable dish, and have half of their stock skimmed and strained over; reduce the other half with espagnole sauce (No. 414), and when well reduced fill some hollowed-out bread-crusts (No. 51) with blanched marrow; cover with a part of this last sauce, and serve the remainder in a sauce-boat.

← No. 2687 Artichoke Bottoms with Marrow Artichokes & Asparagus No. 2689 Artichokes-Whole-a la Barigoule →

For the Modern Kitchen

Ranhofer packs four separate preparations into one entry, all beginning from the same trimmed, blanched artichoke quarters. The numbered cross-references send you elsewhere in The Epicurean for the sauces and forcemeat; here is what they amount to.

The hinge: chill the Villeroi coatingFor the fried versions the artichokes are masked in Villeroi sauce, which is a velouté-type sauce reduced until it coats heavily. It must be spread on and then refrigerated until firm, ideally an hour, before breading. Warm sauce will blow out through the crumbs the moment the pieces hit the fat.
Acidulated waterWater with lemon juice or a spoon of vinegar, salted. Blanching runs roughly 8-12 minutes for large globe artichokes, until the choke pulls away from the bottom cleanly. The acid keeps the cut surfaces from blackening; a stainless or enamel pan, not aluminum or cast iron.
Bards of fat porkThin sheets of unsmoked pork fatback, cut to line and cover the pan. Salt pork sliced thin and blanched is the closest supermarket equivalent; unsmoked bacon will work but brings a cure flavor Ranhofer did not intend.
SautoirA shallow straight-sided pan with a lid, not a deep pot. For the braise you want the quarters in one snug layer so the mirepoix stock comes about halfway up them.
Meat glazeHis No. 402 is brown stock reduced to a syrup that sets to jelly when cold. A teaspoon or two of commercial demi-glace concentrate, or your own reduced stock, gives the same effect: gloss and depth, added off the heat with the lemon juice.
Espagnole and quenelle forcemeatEspagnole is the old brown mother sauce, thickened with brown roux; a good reduced veal or beef stock lightly thickened stands in. For the forcemeat, a modern mousseline -- raw chicken breast pounded or processed with egg white and cream, seasoned, with the cooked fine herbs folded through -- will serve, though period quenelle forcemeats were often bound with a panada. Poach a test spoonful before you pipe it.
MarrowBeef marrow bones split lengthwise, the marrow pushed out, soaked in cold salted water several hours to draw the blood, then poached gently in stock or salted water for a few minutes until just translucent. It goes into hollowed fried bread crusts as a garnish for the braised version.
Frying350-375F for the breaded quarters, in batches, until the crumbs are deep gold, about 2-3 minutes. The artichoke is already cooked, so you are only setting the crust and warming the interior.
YieldFour large artichokes give sixteen quarters, which serves four as a vegetable course. The braised version with marrow croûtes is substantial enough to stand alone at lunch.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York from 1862, built The Epicurean (1894) as a working reference rather than a book to read straight through, which is why a single entry like this one branches into four finished dishes and leans on numbered cross-references to sauces held ready in a professional kitchen. The Colbert treatment is generally traced to the mid-nineteenth-century French repertoire and in Ranhofer's usage means little more than butter, meat glaze, lemon and parsley; à la Villeroi refers to the technique of masking cooked items in a stiff reduced sauce, chilling them, then crumbing and frying, a method that let a kitchen prepare well ahead of service. The marrow garnish on the braised version is a good marker of the period: beef marrow was a standard luxury enrichment on American hotel menus of the 1880s and 1890s, appearing on toast, in croûtes and spooned over vegetables, and it turns up again in the entry immediately preceding this one.