Artichokes au Gratin

A historical recipe from The best vegetarian dishes I know, by Jeanne Jardine (1910).

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A historical recipe

The best vegetarian dishes I know, by Jeanne Jardine (1910). Project Gutenberg eBook #70164.

From an old book: a historical recipe, not current advice. Its methods, additives and storage may be unsafe by today's standards.

Ingredients 1 ingredient

Keep children and pets away from the hob and the oven, and keep oven gloves and a lid within reach.

Oven and hot trays. Use dry oven gloves for trays and dishes: a hot tray looks just like a cold one. Open the oven door away from your face and let the first rush of heat out.
Boiling water and steam. Turn pan handles inward, away from the edge of the hob. Lift lids away from you, and pour hot water away from your body: steam burns too.

Jerusalem artichokes, white sauce, grated cheese, butter, dried breadcrumbs.
Method.--Peel some artichokes and with a vegetable cutter shape them into little balls (the size of a large marble) and cook them in salted water until they begin to get tender, then drain them at once and put them into a saucepan containing some warm butter (dairy or nut butter may be used), which has been seasoned with salt, pepper, nutmeg, and a few drops of lemon-juice;
cover the pan and let them simmer for about ten minutes.
Prepare a thick white sauce (see recipe on page 106) and add a tablespoonful of mild, grated cheese to each half pint;
pour a small quantity of the sauce over a buttered gratin dish and arrange the artichokes in it, then cover them with the remainder of the sauce;
pour the remains of the butter in which the artichokes were cooked over the top and scatter over it a moderately thick layer of finely sifted, dried bread-crumbs mixed with half the quantity of grated cheese, and bake in a quick oven until evenly browned.
If the flavour of onion is not objected to, a small, well-boiled Spanish onion passed through a sieve and added to the sauce is an improvement to the dish.