Pickled Artichoke Bottoms

Ingredients

• the artichokes
• salt
• water
• a little mace
• sliced nutmeg
• pure white wine vinegar

Method

1. 1

   Boil artichokes until leaves can be removed.

2. 2

   Soak in salt water for an hour, then dry.

3. 3

   Pack in bottles with mace and nutmeg, and fill with scalded white wine vinegar.

4. 4

   Alternatively, boil vinegar with spices before cooling and straining over artichokes.

Nutrition per serving

As published

This recipe was extracted from The "Queen" cookery books: Pickles and Preserves (1902) by S. Beaty-Pownall, page 44. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

water; let this stand all night uncovered. Next day LIQUEURS, WINES, &c. 89 strain off the liquor, and boil it with 31b. of sugar for half an hour, then add to it the rinds of two sweet oranges and two lemons, very thinly pared, quite free from all white pith, and previously well bruised, and when milk warm add a toast spread with yeast. Let it stand seven to ten days before putting it into a cask, then bottle in three months, adding a lump or two of sugar to each bottle. In the country this wine is often not put into a cask at all, but simply drunk from the crock, which is kept covered with a cloth or a board to keep out the dust. Country wives consider it a splendid tonic, or as they phrase it, “ excellent for clearing the blood.” Lastly, it may be mentioned that foreign house- wives make all sorts of essences and tinctures by the simple process of infusing the desired aromatic in strong rectified spirit or even brandy, till the latter is strongly flavoured, keeping such tinctures very closely stoppered, as these flavours are usually very volatile. For instance, infuse the very thinly pared rind of some lemons in good brandy, keeping it closely stoppered, and shaking it daily. Essence of allspice, cloves, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, &c., can all be prepared in this way. Essence of ginger can be made by infusing loz. of bruised ginger in half a pint of strong spirit, with the thinly pared rind of half a lemon. These essences need no further treat- ment, if to be only used in the kitchen, but, if carefully filtered and mixed with a proportion of sugar syrup to taste, they will produce some very fair home-made liqueurs, which will, at all events, possess the merit of unconventionality. CHAPTER VII. PICKLES AND PRESERVES. Pickles were formerly almost inevitably home-made, and in each household there was some little private method of preserving some out-of-the-way article, the secret of which the housewife guarded almost as carefully as she would her life. Give a bottle of her pickle ? Why certainly, if the friendship warranted it ; but give the recipe, even to her nearest, never. However, since those days very few of us take the trouble to manufacture such addenda, though in truth few things more repay the small amount of labour involved. Pickles are like all other preserves ; the best material alone should be used, the vegetables chosen should be sound, ripe, but not over ripe, and freshly gathered on a dry, and if possible, warm day. The vinegar should be above suspicion. For ordinary pickles the best brown malt vinegar answers admir- ably, but its quality must be first-rate: for more delicate preparations the very best French, or white wine vinegar should alone be used. Copper pans or metal spoons must be carefully avoided, unglazed stoneware is far and away the safest for anything connected with vinegar, and clean if not new, wooden PICKLES AND PRESERVES. 91 spoons should alone be used. Glass bottles (R viand’ s make are most useful for these) or jars are the best for storing, but of course where pickles in large quan- tities are made, stone jars may be used ; only re- member in this case, to be particular in the covering if to be stored for some time, place a piece of bladder over the mouth of the bottle, force the cork in over this, and then tie down carefully with more moist- ened bladder. Another way is to put a piece of vegetable parchment into the neck, force in the cork as before, and then dip the mouth and neck of the bottle into boiling wax, which can be either bought ready made, or else mav be made thus at home : melt lib. of common red sealing wax, with lib. of black resin, and ^lb. of beeswax, melting it all over a very gentle fire, and stirring it during the process with a tallow candle to prevent its burning. Or the recipe for bottling-wax, previously given, will answer. Any way never think covering a jar with brown paper, however many the folds, will keep a jar airtight, for it will not, paper in itself not being airproof. Old- fashioned housewives, who always kept a store of pickles, &c., and prided themselves on their keeping powers,used to cork the jars and bottles but loosely for the firs'u two days, and then fill them up with scalded vinegar to the very neck, and lastly fasten them down closely ; for the pickles absorb a great deal of the vinegar first poured into them, yet, unless they are perfectly covered with the liquid they will not keep. It must be borne in mind that all fermented liquors lose by boiling, so the vinegar should never (unless the contrary be expressly stated in the recipe) be 92 PICKLES AND PRESERVES more than scalded, or boiled up sharply, with the spices, &c., used to flavour it. A very useful flavoui- ing vinegar for most pickles may he made by boiling up together a gallon of good malt vinegar, about lOoz. of salt, 2oz. to 3oz. of bruised ginger, |oz. of mace, 2oz. to 3oz. of shallots, a teaspoonful of cayenne, foz. of mustard seed, and 1 oz, of turmeric ; let this simmer together after the boil up, for fifteen to twenty min- utes, and when cold put it into a stone jar ; into which you can throw, as they ripen, any vegetables that come handy, such as broken up cauliflower, French beans, tiuy cucumbers or gherkins, onions, radishes, &c., &c., using perfectly fresh vegetables, carefully wiped free from grit, or dirt ; being very particular to keep the jar closely covered all the time, recovering it tightly each time you add anything to it. This pickle, which will be in condition in eight or nine months, makes a very nice household piccallili, with the least amount of trouble. As a matter of fact almost every household has its own views on the flavouring of pickle vinegar, but care must be taken to keep it delicate, or it will overpower the flavour of the vegetables. Artichoke Bottoms , to pickle. — Boil the artichokes until you can remove all the leaves, and clear the bottoms thoroughly from the choke, &c. Lay each as done in salt and water, and leave them in this for an hour ; then lift them out on to a clean cloth and leave them till dry, when you pack them in wide mouthed bottles, with a little mace and sliced nutmeg between them and then fill up with pure white wine vinegar

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.