Thread: The Great Artichoke Debate!

On Dec 4, 5:01*am, Andy <a...@b.c> wrote:
> The Great Artichoke Debate!
>
> The world seems to have decided artichoke hearts are leaf-edged with a
> bit of heart they're attached to.
>
> I was raised that the heart was, after the leaves were eaten, and the
> choke scraped away, the heart.
>
> At the market hearts are leaves-edged. The "heart" of the matter is
> called "bottoms" and they're pretty hard to find.
>
> I guess it comes up to a matter of terms.
>
> Heart should represent the "tenderloin" portion of the thing. Be it meat,
> vegetable or mineral.
>
> Artichoke hearts in it's known form is such a letdown, imho.
>
> There, I said it!!!
>
> With that said... as kids, we were chored with snipping the tips of the
> leaves to remove the prickers with kitchen shears. In my "modern" age, I
> just hack off about 1/3 of the top! Does away with all the most of the
> prickers and then when the artichokes are pulled open, it hastens the
> cooking time, and sit flat when steamed top side down...
>
> ...or just buy canned "bottoms," to easily get down to the "heart" of the
> matter, that is if you don't mind the citrus brine flavor that won't cook
> off after rinsing and boiling.
>
> Comments welcome

Suggesting that canned/jarred artichoke hearts are a reasonable sub
for fresh is absurd. Even you admit that there's no way to remove the
nasty taste.
>
> TGIF.
>
> Andy

--Bryan

Food Snob® <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> On Dec 4, 5:01*am, Andy <a...@b.c> wrote:
>> The Great Artichoke Debate!
>>
>> The world seems to have decided artichoke hearts are leaf-edged with
>> a bit of heart they're attached to.
>>
>> I was raised that the heart was, after the leaves were eaten, and the
>> choke scraped away, the heart.
>>
>> At the market hearts are leaves-edged. The "heart" of the matter is
>> called "bottoms" and they're pretty hard to find.
>>
>> I guess it comes up to a matter of terms.
>>
>> Heart should represent the "tenderloin" portion of the thing. Be it
>> meat, vegetable or mineral.
>>
>> Artichoke hearts in it's known form is such a letdown, imho.
>>
>> There, I said it!!!
>>
>> With that said... as kids, we were chored with snipping the tips of
>> the leaves to remove the prickers with kitchen shears. In my "modern"
>> age, I just hack off about 1/3 of the top! Does away with all the
>> most of the prickers and then when the artichokes are pulled open, it
>> hastens the cooking time, and sit flat when steamed top side down...
>>
>> ...or just buy canned "bottoms," to easily get down to the "heart" of
>> the matter, that is if you don't mind the citrus brine flavor that
>> won't cook off after rinsing and boiling.
>>
>> Comments welcome
>
> Suggesting that canned/jarred artichoke hearts are a reasonable sub
> for fresh is absurd. Even you admit that there's no way to remove the
> nasty taste.
>>
>> TGIF.
>>
>> Andy
>
> --Bryan


Bryan,

You need to read better. I suggested no such thing.

I was mearly pointing out the (imho) mistaken meaning between artichoke
hearts and bottoms.

Best,

Andy

On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:01:30 -0600, Andy wrote:

> The Great Artichoke Debate!
>
> The world seems to have decided artichoke hearts are leaf-edged with a
> bit of heart they're attached to.
>
> I was raised that the heart was, after the leaves were eaten, and the
> choke scraped away, the heart.

Those are artichoke bottoms, not hearts. You out to be familiar
with bottoms, asshole.

-sw

"Sqwertz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]..
> On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:01:30 -0600, Andy wrote:
>
>> The Great Artichoke Debate!
>>
>> The world seems to have decided artichoke hearts are leaf-edged with a
>> bit of heart they're attached to.
>>
>> I was raised that the heart was, after the leaves were eaten, and the
>> choke scraped away, the heart.
>
> Those are artichoke bottoms, not hearts. You out to be familiar
> with bottoms, asshole.
>
> -sw


Depends... you can buy items canned, bottled or frozen labelled as artichoke
"hearts" or "bottoms". Or you can buy whole artichokes with leaves you peel
off after you've cooked them... then you get down to what? The heart? or
the bottom? Semantics

Jill

On Sun, 6 Dec 2009 05:43:14 -0500, "jmcquown" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>"Sqwertz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]..
>> On Fri, 04 Dec 2009 05:01:30 -0600, Andy wrote:
>>
>>> The Great Artichoke Debate!
>>>
>>> The world seems to have decided artichoke hearts are leaf-edged with a
>>> bit of heart they're attached to.
>>>
>>> I was raised that the heart was, after the leaves were eaten, and the
>>> choke scraped away, the heart.
>>
>> Those are artichoke bottoms, not hearts. You out to be familiar
>> with bottoms, asshole.
>>
>> -sw
>
>
>Depends... you can buy items canned, bottled or frozen labelled as artichoke
>"hearts" or "bottoms". Or you can buy whole artichokes with leaves you peel
>off after you've cooked them... then you get down to what? The heart? or
>the bottom? Semantics
>
>Jill

Often folks hack off the artichoke stems/bottoms and toss them in the
trash. But artichoke stems/bottoms can be carefully trimmed/peeled
and are edible... in fact throwing away the stems/bottoms is throwing
away ~30% of the edible portion of the artichoke. Artichoke
stems/bottoms cook in less time than cooking entire artichokes so
should be cooked separately. Many of those small jars of marinated
artichoke hearts also contain sliced/quartered stems/bottoms (same way
broccoli stems are edible). Since artichokes are sold by count, not
weight, one should choose those with the thickest/longest
stems/bottoms.

Andy wrote:
> The Great Artichoke Debate!
>
> The world seems to have decided artichoke hearts are leaf-edged with a
> bit of heart they're attached to.
>
> I was raised that the heart was, after the leaves were eaten, and the
> choke scraped away, the heart.
>
> At the market hearts are leaves-edged. The "heart" of the matter is
> called "bottoms" and they're pretty hard to find.
>
> I guess it comes up to a matter of terms.
>
> Heart should represent the "tenderloin" portion of the thing. Be it meat,
> vegetable or mineral.
>
> Artichoke hearts in it's known form is such a letdown, imho.
>
> There, I said it!!!
>
> With that said... as kids, we were chored with snipping the tips of the
> leaves to remove the prickers with kitchen shears. In my "modern" age, I
> just hack off about 1/3 of the top! Does away with all the most of the
> prickers and then when the artichokes are pulled open, it hastens the
> cooking time, and sit flat when steamed top side down...
>
> ...or just buy canned "bottoms," to easily get down to the "heart" of the
> matter, that is if you don't mind the citrus brine flavor that won't cook
> off after rinsing and boiling.
>
> Comments welcome
>
> TGIF.
>
> Andy


I love artichokes. I just wish they were more affordable.

Bob

Bob Muncie <[email protected]> wrote in
news:hfhb4h$q5k$[email protected]:

> Andy wrote:
>> The Great Artichoke Debate!
>>
>> The world seems to have decided artichoke hearts are leaf-edged with
>> a bit of heart they're attached to.
>>
>> I was raised that the heart was, after the leaves were eaten, and the
>> choke scraped away, the heart.
>>
>> At the market hearts are leaves-edged. The "heart" of the matter is
>> called "bottoms" and they're pretty hard to find.
>>
>> I guess it comes up to a matter of terms.
>>
>> Heart should represent the "tenderloin" portion of the thing. Be it
>> meat, vegetable or mineral.
>>
>> Artichoke hearts in it's known form is such a letdown, imho.
>>
>> There, I said it!!!
>>
>> With that said... as kids, we were chored with snipping the tips of
>> the leaves to remove the prickers with kitchen shears. In my "modern"
>> age, I just hack off about 1/3 of the top! Does away with all the
>> most of the prickers and then when the artichokes are pulled open, it
>> hastens the cooking time, and sit flat when steamed top side down...
>>
>> ...or just buy canned "bottoms," to easily get down to the "heart" of
>> the matter, that is if you don't mind the citrus brine flavor that
>> won't cook off after rinsing and boiling.
>>
>> Comments welcome
>>
>> TGIF.
>>
>> Andy
>
>
> I love artichokes. I just wish they were more affordable.
>
> Bob


A couple years back... http://i43.tinypic.com/289npv.jpg

Andy