3 replies to this topic

[Ruth]

These are large artichokes. We halved them without removing most of the leaves. I bagged them with lemon juice and evoo and they are in the water bath at 85°C. They have been there for an hour now but, although we like them with a bit of a bite left in them they do not yet seem to be ready. I suppose I should have trimmed them down to the hearts.
Does anyone have any experience or advice? Should the bath be hotter?

Ruth

[ChefJohnny]

Next time, turn them as you would normally, down to the heart, for 2 reasons: 1) the leaves are quite bitter, and in an anaerobic cooking environment, the bitterness is bound to shine through and 2) less cooking time.

If you I could make a suggestion (and Im not sure you have ever done this) but cooking the hearts barigoule style is the best way. And after cooking, the cuisson (finished cooking liquid) can then be used to cook other things in as well as making a damn good vinaigrette. Thats how we did it at The Laundry. Refer to The French Laundry Cookbook for a recipe.

-Chef Johnny

[nathanm]

The great thing about artichokes SV is that they don't discolor. I agree that barigoule style is great this way...

[kpzachary]

I have cooked both baby and large artichokes this way. I agree 100% with ChefJohnny, you must turn large artichokes all the way to the heart before cooking. I believe that you are at the right temp. The problem may be that you left the tough outer skin or layer on the chokes. This will naturally take a lot longer to cook and will always be tough and fibrous.
I have also cooked artichoke barigoule sous vide. Basically bringing together everything and cooking it in the bag. There is more concentration of flavor and I have had great success cooking it in a low temp, controlled water bath.