This is just a little heads up for some folks who never made and or eaten artichokes whole like this before. I read through some of the reviews and noticed that some were trying to eat the whole leaf. what you do is remove a leaf, dip in butter or sauce and scrape the fleshy part off with your teeth. Discard the rest of the leaf.I hope this helped.  -  25 Jan 2008  (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)

The best way to clean chokes is set them in the sink & cover with cold water for a 30 mins or so. Then take a shape knife & cut the stem back with an even cut so that they can stand upright in your pot or steamer without falling. After you cut the stem off, take kitchen shears & go around each choke & snip the tips of each leaf to remove the tiny stickers at the tops of each leaf. Run back under cold water again & now you can safely spread the leafs back some without getting pricked! Pull the center back & reach in with the tips of your fingers & pull out all of the little tiny purple leafs that are near the heart in the very center, they are too small to eat so remove them now to avoid a mess while eating them later. With the centers cleaned before cooking gives you an area to insert a fork into the heart to check for doneness, (beware of steam) when it goes in without any effort then they are done. I set them on a paper plate or some paper towels to cool some & this also helps remove any excess moisture so you don't end up with a puddle on your dinner plate. Artichokes are a little involved to clean & cook, so I now clean & cook four at a time & stick them in a big zip lock until we are ready to eat them. They last for quite a few days with no problem in the frig. I then set each artichoke in microwave proof (cereal size) bowl and nuke them for a minute or two to knock the chill off right before we are ready to eat them. Although these things taste excellent cold too!!  -  16 Mar 2006  (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)

Steaming makes these the perfect texture. Like others, I added plenty of water (the water level was flush with the bottom of the steamer). In addition to slathering the artichokes with butter and garlic before steaming (great idea!), I also added slices of lemon and minced garlic to the water. I steamed them for 45 minutes and made two sauces to dip the leaves in--one with butter, garlic and lemon, the other with mayo, a little bit of balsamic vinaigrette and pepper. My husband loved these and so did I! Will definitely make again...  -  02 Apr 2005  (Review from Allrecipes USA and Canada)