Artichoke, cinara , species of plant which bears flowers with trim florets, bearing each on an embryo, and enclosed in a scaly and usually spiny calyx. The embryo becomes a seed garnished with tufts. In addition to these characteristics, the production of the artichoke by this species allows it to be distinguished easily from thistles. Tournefort, Institutiones rei herbariae . See Plant.

We distinguish among three types of artichokes , red , white , and violet .

The red are the smallest and only good to eat à la poivrade . The white are the most ordinary. The violet, which come last, are the best, the largest, and those which can be dried for the winter.

Young buds are made from them which are detached from the base and replanted every three years nine or ten inches apart. They must be regularly fertilized, watered, and covered during frost. They are bedded only in light soil. To encourage their growth, many gardeners spread ashes of burned wood.

Chemical analysis of the bottoms of fresh and tender artichokes - scales and choke removed and distilled into a column - produced: a clear liquor with the odor and taste of grass, bland and almost imperceptibly acid; a liquor clear at first, manifestly acid, strongly acid at the end, austere, reddish, and empyreumatic; an empyreumatic rusty liquor, at first strongly acidic, then a bit salty, and impregnated with a large amount of alkali and urinary salt; a thick oil like a syrup.

The black mass calcined for ten hours leaving ashes from which a purely alkali fixed salt was extracted through lixiviation. This fleshy substance has a sweetish taste, austere, and blackens the dissolution of vitriol. It thus contains an essential tartaric salt, bound with much astringent earth and sweetish oil.

Artichokes are eaten à la poivrade , fried, fricasseed, and pickled.

To serve them à la poivrade , take tender ones, cut them into quarters, remove the choke and the little leaves, and peel the top. Place them in cold water and leave them there to prevent them from blackening and turning bitter until you want to serve them. Then put them in a dish or on a wet plate and serve at the same time mixed salt and pepper.

To fry them, take the bottoms, cut them in quarters, remove the choke, trim the points on the leaves, coat them with flour mixed with butter, egg yolks, salt, etc. Drop them into hot oil.

Artichokes are also prepared with white sauce and other sauces. See treatises on cooking.

To pickle them, peel the bottoms, leaving neither leaves nor choke. Place them in cold water. Change the water. Place them in boiling water. Take a pot and put in well-salted water three fingers deep. Add one part salt and another vinegar, the thickness of two fingers of good oil or butter which is not too hot. Leave the artichokes in this state.

The artichoke à la poivrade is the stomach's friend and goes well with wine. The bottoms are preserved for winter by leaving them to dry in the sun or by smoking, and then placing them in a dry place. But in whatever manner they are prepared, they nourish little and furnish a crude and windy juice. The sides of the leaves and the tender white stems are easily digested. The roots strongly encourage urine and one can use them in decoctions and diuretic bouillons. Some prescribe an enema of the decoction to provoke urine.