If any doubt exists as to the age of the artichokes, they had better be tested with a fork.

Immediately they are tender they should be drained and served.
Old artichokes must be treated like old potatoes, _i.e._, put originally into cold water, and when they come to the boiling point allowed to simmer till tender; but these are best mashed.

When the artichokes have been drained, they can, of course, be served quite plain, but they are best sent to table with some kind of sauce poured over them, such as Allemande sauce, Dutch sauce, white sauce, or plain butter sauce.

They are greatly improved in appearance, after a spoonful of sauce has been poured over each artichoke, if a little blanched chopped parsley is sprinkled over them, and a few red specks made by colouring a pinch of bread-crumbs by shaking them with a few drops of cochineal.
Another very nice way of sending artichokes to table is to place all the artichokes together in a vegetable-dish, and, after pouring a little white sauce over each artichoke, to place a fresh-boiled bright green Brussels sprout between each.

The white and green contrast very prettily.
JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES, FRIED .-- Peel and slice the artichokes very thin; throw these slices into smoking hot oil in which a frying-basket has been placed.