Isaac wrote:

> The one time I bought them here in northern California, they turned out
> eye-crossingly bitter. What did I do wrong? (Open-ended question, I
> know, but it was quite a while ago and I cannot recall how I prepared
> them, but I do know I used a recipe.)

You might not have done ANYTHING wrong.

Bitterness is alleviated in two ways, and you only have control over one of
them: When cardoons are grown, the stalks are supposed to be kept covered
with soil (like white asparagus gets covered; dirt is piled around the
growing plant to keep the sun from it). Second, the cardoons are supposed to
be blanched in boiling water for 15-30 minutes, that water is thrown away,
and then the cardoons are cooked a second time. That blanching is supposed
to remove bitterness (kind of like boiling citrus peel in multiple changes
of water is said to remove bitterness when candying it).

Bob