artichoke - choke

I don't eat the "choke" part because for one, it's part of the Thistle or Sunflower family. Who wants to eat Thistles?

Here's a nice site with plenty of info on Artichokes.

Artichokes

The choke of the canned artichokes is okay to eat, although you may not enjoy the texture. I usually cut it out if I'm making a dip or dish to serve to company, but I don't usually bother if it's just for myself. The artichokes are cooked and canned with citric or ascorbic acid added. Citric or ascorbic acid (vitamin C) would both tenderize the flesh and the choke and keep the vegetable from discoloring. I still pick over the canned ones pretty well because occasionally the outer leaves are tough and the bottoms fibrous.

Marinated ones in a jar or from a deli have lemon juice or vinegar (or both) added, so they're tender enough eat out of the jar.

With fresh artichokes (and I have one in the fridge I cooked last night), I always remove the choke. It's just not soft enough to be palatable. The artichoke is in the fridge because it was large and needed more time to cook than I had before dinnertime. I let it finish cooking, cooled it and put it in the fridge. I'll dip it in a wonderful lemon-tahini dressing I buy (Drew's) and enjoy it cold- without the choke!

Ever wonder what an Artichoke would look like if you let it grow?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/23825407@N00/4542268/

ricib,
Does that mean you eat the rest of the artichoke? Because if you do, you're still eating a "thistle". Who want's to eat them? Anyone who likes artichokes, millions of people around the world. Many countries eat the blanched stem of the Cardoon, also in the same botanical family.

liv4fud,
As Mezzaluna said, it's fine to eat canned artichoke chokes. They're not poisonous. Technically, you can eat them for sustenance. But the more mature they are, the tougher they are making them very unpleasant to chew and swallow. If you get baby artichokes, you can simply trim off the top cone of petals at the point where the yellow meets the green, cut off the stem level with the base. Quarter the remaining if desired. Cook as desired, and eat the whole thing.

chrose,
Always the gardener... they are beautiful, aren't they?

edited for spelling

hahaha, yeah mudbug, I guess you got me there. I do eat the rest of the edible parts of artichokes.



I plead hangover from the night before. :eek:

Artichoke is on all the diets I want to be on, so I'm exploring it.  I purchased my first fresh artichoke... I baked it today for an hour with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sea salt, and onion powder.  I considered the choke when I got to it. 

 

Like you, I considered that they are intact in the canned version, but I learned from online tutorials that you were supposed to remove them (except in baby artichokes).  I couldn't find an answer as to why.  It was described as "fuzzy", but I didn't experience it that way.  It seemed like just a ton of smaller versions of the petals of the heart, so I carefully tried a bit.  I loved it, and ate the rest.  It still seemed like just immature petals, and it was tender enough the way I cooked it to not be prickly. 

 

Scooping out the heart and choke and serving just the outer petals seems pretty ridiculous to me, but then, that's why I'm learning how to cook the thing at home, I spent $2.50 on this thing, and I'm getting every penny I can out of it!  I would maybe create a dip with the heart and choke and serve it in the artichoke bowl, but the idea that it's being thrown out sickens me.  I'm too frugal for that. 

Eat it if you don't want to throw it out. I grew up eating a ton of that stuff, I was being told it was going to "wash me from the inside" and was good for digestion, no idea whether or not that was true but I've never had a problem with it except for the taste/texture which can be unpleasant on older, bigger artichokes. If you don't like it, scoop it out. If it's tender enough and you enjoy eating it, go for it. If you're going to have some friends over for dinner, scoop it out.

 

You can also eat the celery leaves, the beet leaves, the carrot leaves, etc... a lot of the stuff people throw away on a daily basis is considered food to many others.

Wow it has a face and gray hair.