which Pliny professed to be ashamed: “thus we turn into a corrupt feast the earth’s monstrosities, those which even the animals instinctively avoid” (Book19) The name is a corruption, via Italian, of the Arabic al’ qarshuf, meaning “little cardoon”; food historian Charles Perry suggests that the large buds we know today, several inches in diameter, were developed in the late Middle Ages in Moorish Spain The artichoke The “heart” is the flower base and corresponds to the fleshy portion of the strawberry and fig Thistles are members of the lettuce family and so relatives of salsify and sun-chokes, all of which share a similar flavor The edible parts of the artichoke are the fleshy bases of the bracts, or protective leaves, and the heart, which is actually the base of the flower structure, the upper part of the stalk The “choke” is made up of the actual flowerets, which if allowed to bloom turn a deep violetblue The small artichokes sometimes seen in markets or in jars come from flowering stalks low on the plant rather than the main stalk They grow very slowly, and so are picked at an immature stage when there’s little or no choke inside The qualities of the artichoke are largely determined by its copious content of phenolic substances, which manifest themselves immediately when the flesh is cut or tasted raw Cut surfaces turn brown very quickly as the phenolics react with oxygen to form colored complexes, and raw slices are noticeably astringent thanks to the reaction of phenolics with our salivary proteins Cooking minimizes both effects By disrupting the cells, it causes the phenolics to bind to a host .. .the bracts, or protective leaves, and the heart, which is actually the base of the flower structure, the upper part of the stalk The “choke” is made up of the actual flowerets,... an immature stage when there’s little or no choke inside The qualities of the artichoke are largely determined by its copious content of phenolic substances, which manifest themselves immediately when the flesh is cut or tasted... which if allowed to bloom turn a deep violetblue The small artichokes sometimes seen in markets or in jars come from flowering stalks low on the plant rather than the main stalk They grow very slowly, and so are picked at