Artichoke Bottoms

ARTICHOKE BOTTOMS are perhaps more generally used than the whole vegetable, probably because they are so easily canned, and they produce many vegetable entremets. Where artichokes are home grown, it may be useful for the cook to know how to preserve them, in itself no difficult matter. Boil the artichokes in plenty of fast-boiling, salted, and acidulated water till the leaves will lift out easily. Then drain them well, remove all the leaves, and carefully scoop out the choke with a silver spoon; trim and drain the bottoms well, strain them dry, and set them on a baking tin in the oven till firm. Store in an air- tight box, and to serve them, re-heat in any sauce to taste, and serve when thoroughly hot. To cook artichoke bottoms from the fresh plant, cut off the top leaves, trim the under ones, and boil them in slightly salted water till they peel easily; now skin, re-trim, and cook them in salted acidulated water with a little butter and flour (this keeps the colour good) and leave them till cold in this liquor. Artichoke bottoms are cooked in many ways. For instance—Fried artichoke bottoms: For these parboil fresh ones, or re-heat the well-washed canned ones in boiling acidulated water till thoroughly hot, then either dip them in batter or in beaten egg and breadcrumbs, and fry a golden brown in plenty of hot fat. Fonds d'artichauts méringues: Prepare a rich purée of mushrooms, with ½lb. of mushrooms, re-heat some nice artichoke bottoms, put a good spoonful of the purée into each, piling it well up, then cover it with a méringue au Parmesan (stiffly whipped egg whites seasoned with salt, coralline