According to National Geographic, below are the oldest written and published recipes and instructions for preparing artichokes. Prior to the written records, even to this day, many recipes are word of mouth, from mother to daughter in older times and shared between neighbors or just handwritten and shared.

John Evelyn, in his Acetaria: A Discourse of Sallets (1699), lists several ways of preparing artichokes. The heads, he writes, are, “being slit in quarters, first eaten raw, with oil, a little Vinegar, salt and Pepper.” (They go well, he adds, with “a Glass of Wine.”) While tender and small, these are also good “fried in fresh Butter crisp with Parsley.” The bottoms can be baked in pies (“with Marrow, Dates, and other rich ingredients”), and in Italy, he adds, artichokes are broiled, basted with “sweet Oyl” and served up with orange juice and sugar.

George and Martha Washington grew globe artichokes,

at Mount Vernon (see Martha’s Harty Choak Pie recipe, below), and Thomas Jefferson grew them at Monticello. Jefferson’s Garden Book lists the “first to come to table” and “last dish of artichokes” from his crop over a thirty-year period from 1794 to 1825.

From Martha Washington’s Booke of Cookery:

• To Make an Harty Choak Pie

• • Take 12 harty choak bottoms yt are good & large, after you have boyled them, take them cleere from ye leaves & cores, season them with a little pepper & salt & lay them on a coffin of paste, with a pound of butter & ye marrow of 2 bones in bigg pieces, then close it up to set in ye oven, then put halfe a pound of sugar to halfe a pinte of verges [a sauce made with green herbs] & some powder of cinnamon and ginger – boyle these together & when ye pie is halfe baked put the liquor in & set it in ye oven againe till it be quite bak’d.

Cardoons, Sherdoons, and Artichokes - 1759

There are four recipes in a cookbook, Cardoons, Sherdoons and Artichokes, in William Verral's book: A Complete System of Cookery[1]. London: 1759

The link to the above cookbook will take you to the Library of Congress, where you can view it in its entirety.

The History of Artichokes

Cardoons, Sherdoons, and Artichokes - 1759

Artichokes History

Footnotes