No. 773

Artichoke Bottoms Printanier, Small Appetite, Small Raw Poivrade

Fonds d'Artichauts Printaniers, Petit Appetit, Petits crus Poivrade

It is necessary to have small artichoke bottoms; remove the green part covering the bottoms and all the leaves until the stringy core is reached; pare the bottoms to have them very round and even, and rub them as quickly as they are done with half a lemon, then throw them into cold water. Blanch them until the core or choke can be easily removed, then cook them in water, butter, lemon juice, and salt; drain and make incisions in the bottom, and marinate them for one hour in a seasoning of salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar, then drain them. Garnish them with a small vegetable macedoine (No. 680), well seasoned with salt, pepper, vinegar, and mayonnaise, then dress them on a side dish.

For Small Appetite, instead of the macedoine, take some small green chiccory, wash it well and add to it some chopped chervil and tarragon; season with salt, pepper, oil, and vinegar, dress and decorate the tops with small anchovy fillets.

Small Artichokes, Poivrade.—Choose small, freshly gathered artichokes, green and tender; trim the bottoms, rub them with lemon, and remove two or three rows of the hardest leaves, place the artichokes at once into cold acidulated water, and when ready to serve, drain and lay them on a side dish with clean pieces of ice set around. Serve in a separate sauce-boat, a French dressing made with salt, pepper, vinegar, oil, and mustard.

← No. 772 Anchovies-Sardels—Anchovy Salad and Anchovie Cold Side Dishes No. 774 Beets →

For the Modern Kitchen

Three cold artichoke preparations in one entry, all built on the same knife work. The hinge is the trimming: everything else is seasoning.

The size of artichoke"Small" here means baby artichokes, 2-3 oz each, the side shoots that grow below the main head. Look for baby or violet artichokes in spring; globe artichokes are too fibrous for the raw poivrade version and give you one bottom apiece for a lot of work.
Trimming and discolorationCut surfaces oxidize within a minute, which is why Ranhofer says rub with lemon as quickly as they are done and drop into cold water. Keep a bowl of water with the juice of a lemon at your elbow and work one artichoke at a time.
"Cook them in water, butter, lemon juice, and salt"A cooking liquid of this kind is often called a blanc, though Ranhofer does not use the term here. Roughly a quart of water, 2 tablespoons butter, the juice of a lemon, and a teaspoon of salt per pound of trimmed bottoms works. Keep them submerged with a plate or a round of parchment so the exposed tops do not gray. Simmer 10-15 minutes for babies, until a knife tip meets no resistance.
Blanch first, choke secondThe instruction to blanch until the choke lifts out easily is the labor-saver. On very young artichokes the choke is barely formed and can be scooped with a teaspoon after a two-minute blanch; on older ones give it five and use a melon baller.
Macedoine, No. 680A macedoine is conventionally diced cooked vegetables cut to a uniform small dice: carrot, turnip, green beans, peas. Dice at 1/4 inch, cook each vegetable separately so nothing turns to mush, cool, then bind with mayonnaise seasoned with vinegar, salt and pepper.
Chiccory for the Petit Appetit"Small green chiccory" is the young frisee or curly endive heart, not Belgian endive and not the roasted chicory root sold as a coffee substitute. Dress it at the last moment; it collapses in oil and vinegar within about ten minutes.
The poivrade dressingPoivrade signals pepper. A workable French dressing is one part vinegar to three parts oil with a rounded teaspoon of Dijon, salt, and considerably more coarse black pepper than you would normally use. The raw leaves are astringent and need it.
Serving the raw versionThe ice keeps the artichokes very cold, which holds them crisp and slows browning. Chill the trimmed hearts in their acidulated water in the refrigerator and drain them as the dish goes to the table.
YieldThe original gives none. Figure three to four small bottoms per person as a side dish, or six raw baby artichokes per person for the poivrade, which is eaten leaf by leaf.

A Little History

Charles Ranhofer, chef at Delmonico's in New York, published The Epicurean in 1894 as a complete record of the restaurant's kitchen, and the cold side dishes section is essentially a catalogue of things a waiter could bring out before or alongside the main service. In Provence, small tender artichokes have long been eaten raw with salt, pepper and oil. The other two versions show how a restaurant kitchen made the same vegetable earn its keep, once as a cup for a mayonnaise-bound macedoine and once as a base for a herbed salad finished with anchovy.