The following four recipes on Cardoons , Sherdoons and Artichokes are from William Verral's book A Complete System of Cookery. London: 1759 Cardoons , with piquant sauce.
Des cardons , sauce piquante. Cardoons are a thistley sort of vegetables , and an exotick plant , and are managed in the garden as celery or endives , by being mouldred [mounded] up as they grow in height to make them white. The French make use of this in some sort of sauces in the first course dishes instead of celery , &c. But for an entremets , or second-course dish , they generally do it in the following manner: One large one is enough for a small dish; cut the white part only in pieces about two inches long , blanch it in water , and if you have a braize tie it up , and stew it very tender in that; if not take broth , season it high and stew it in that; take it out upon a cloth , and pull off the skin on both sides , and put it into a sauce piquant , as before mentioned; let stew softly twenty minutes or half an hour , squeeze in the juice of a lemon or orange , and dish it up. This> is very good sauce for roast beef or mutton.
Sherdoons , a la Benjamele. Des sherdons , a la Benjamele This is a plant of our own , and grows common upon dry banks and barren ground , but worth nothing for this use till improved by the gardener , which is done by transplanting , and earthing up to whiten , and when peeled , and brought to market , looks more like fine endive than a common thistle. The English always plain boil it , and have butter only for sauce; but foreigners with the sauce above or a brown sauce of cullis or gravy; boil it in a little broth , pepper and salt , but not tender; pour that from it , and put your white sauce , let stew a few minutes , squeeze in an orange or lemon , and dish it up. Whole heads of celery and endives are often done in the same way for these extremets; and most foreigners eat heartily of them.
Fry’d artichokes marinaded.
Des artichaux marinez and frits. Trim them to the sound part of the bottom , and cut off the small leaves round , cut the points of the others to about an inch above the bottom , cut them in small pieces , and take out the choke or seedy part , lay them to soak in a marinade of white wine and vinegar , &c. often moving them; prepare a batter of beer and butter , dry them well , and fry all at once , and fend them up upon a heap of fry'd parsley. Fry sometimes with flour sticking to the marinade , and sometimes without any.
Bottoms of artichokes , with a brown sauce. Des queues d' artichaux , sauce brune. Cut off all the black and soil from the bottom , trim round the sides , but not through the heart of the leaves , cut off the tops of the leaves almost to the bottom , so as to leave a hollow; when your choke is taken out , boil them in water till you find the inside , put them into cold water , and with your finger scrape it out to make 'em white and tender; prepare a hot marinade of boiling water , a lump of butter and flour mixt , a bit of sewet , a lemon peeled and sliced in a little salt , an onion and a bunch of herbs; a little a little soup-pot is best for this; when it is well mixt and boils , put in your bottoms , and let them simmer sideways till very tender , and they will grow white as a curd; for your sauce take a ladle of cullis , and add to it such sorts of herbs as you like , pepper , salt and nutmeg; boil all a little while , take out the bottoms upon a cloth to drain , dim then up , squeeze the juice of an orange or lemon into your sauce , and send to table.
Here seems to be a vast deal said upon such a trifling matter; but I have been in hundreds of kitchens where there never was a cook that could cut an artichoke-bottom genteelly , or make it white; and there cannot be a prettier dish; and you may serve them to table with a white sauce of any sort , or with plain butter only.
Verral , William. A Complete System of Cookery. London: 1759
Image of Cardoon from William Robinson’s The Garden: an illustrated weekly journal of gardening in all its ... , Volume 23. London: 1883