[Sca-cooks] A Dishe of Artichokes Question

[Aruvqan Myers]

So I am over looking at artichoke recipes and this
gem<http://medievalcookery.com/recipes/artechokes.html>is causing me a
bit of trouble.

And I quote:

> One of the many vegetable dishes served in medieval England, this is
> simple to prepare but still delicious and elegant.
>
>  10 - 12 artichoke bottoms, cooked
>  1/2 tsp. pepper
>  1/2 tsp. cinnamon
>  1/2 tsp. ginger
>  2 Tbsp. water
>  1 Tbsp. large crystal sugar
>  4 Tbsp. butter
>  dash vinegar
>
> Mix pepper, cinnamon, and ginger with water. Bring to a boil and remove
> from heat. Add artichoke bottoms and allow to marinate for 15 minutes.
> Place into baking dish and add butter and vinegar. Bake at 350° for 15
> minutes. Sprinkle with sugar and serve.
>
> Source [The Good Huswifes Jewell<http://www.medievalcookery.com/books.html#GHJ>,
> T. Dawson]: *To make a dishe of Artechokes. Take your Artechokes and pare
> away all the top even to the meate and boyle them in sweete broth till they
> be somewhat tender, then take them out, and put them into a dishe, and
> seethe them with Pepper, synamon and ginger, and then put in your dishe
> that you meane to bake them in, and put in Marrowe to them good store, and
> so let them bake, and when they be baked, put in a little Vinegar and
> butter, and sticke three or foure leaves of the Artechoks in the dishe when
> you serve them up, and scrape Suger on the dish.*
>

**

So how does one seeth a dozen artichoke bases in 2 tablespoons of water?**

I think I would redact it by boiling up a dozen artichokes in a nice
chicken broth [sweet broth to me would mean something that hasn't been used
to boil up puddings for the past few weeks] and eating the leaves while
finishing off the dish [no sense in wasting good leaves] by taking about a
cup of the resulting chicken broth that I had just seethed the artichokes
in and simmering the pepper, cinnamon and ginger [adjusting the seasoning
to taste before chucking in the now prepared artichoke bases]


I think I would actually use marrow - I am not a vegetarian and it has a
good umami content. I would slice the marrow thinly and lay a slice in each
artichoke base, arrange them in an already blind baked shell and bake them
until the marrow is nice and gushy, and then sprinkle them with a nice
mellow wine vinegar mixed with melted butter. I would also make a blind
baked cover for them that is decorated with artichoke motifs and pop it on
over the sugar and decorative few artichok leaves. I think I would actually
lay a pattern of the little light green and purple heart leaves as they are
pretty. The pastry top could get cutwork like the neat Jacobean artichoke
patterns used for embroidery.