what is the best variety of jerusalem artichoke for eating?

I have never ate a jerusalem artichoke in my life nor have I ever seen any in the store for sale but I have read they are hard to digest and give you a lot of gas and are best to feed animals.Is this true.Surely there is a variety that is suitable for human consumption?

The first few times I ate them, I realised why they tend to get called fartichokes.

These days I grow a lot as I've discovered that they make excellent soup if I add them to chicken stock and cook them up with peas or lentil in the slow cooker and then blend them up until smooth. If you cook them long enough, the after-effects are minimal.  I love the flavour, and they are very, very easy to grow.

I've also heard that fermenting them reduces the gas, too.

If cooking them in vinegar makes them sweet, as I read somewhere, then pickling them in a pressure canner might be a thing.

Link=https://permies.com/t/80/53764/great-big-thread-sunchoke-info#902097

They contain a specific carbohydrate compound called inulin. Our bodies don’t have enzymes to break it down, so the bacteria in your gut break it down instead and make gas.

Long slow cooking converts inulin to other, more easily digestible, carbohydrates hence preventing the problem. If you are farting afterwards you probably need to adjust how you cook them.

Thanks for starting the thread, John.  I want to try to grow these and I wasn't aware of the issue.  I think it still begs the question, are there varieties with less inulin?

Reading this thread made me want to bring a dish of under-cooked sunchokes to my next family dinner, then watch the hilarity ensue.

Here's a  blog entry on growing them under a bucket and eating the resulting blanched sprouts like asparagus.

https://radix4roots.blogspot.com/2010/05/getting-arty-and-chic-with-helianthus.html?m=1



No mention of inulin induced discomfort.

I grow them for emergency rations,  green manure and fodder,  but I think they would take to lactose fermentation like a duct to water.
In fact,  I bet they could make for a great kvass  like drink.

I only have one variety,  so I'm no help there.  

Doesn't Mr.  Lofthouse grow a bunch of different sunchokes?

I fermented a batch last year and they were great. With curry powder.

They were tangy and crunchy. I must do it again.