Jerusalem artichokes - can the starch be transformed into "normal" starch?

Jerusalem artichokes - can the starch be transformed into "normal" starch by cooking for a prolonged time or burying them in hot ashes......
And do they make acceptable wine?
How do the pickles taste like?

I have not hear of them being turned into wine, but I have heard of them being used in hard alcohol ferments. Sunchoke alcohol(in german, sorry) Usually you just boil the crap out of them, and the starches unwind and start to break into their component sugars(starch = glucose, inulin = fructose). This happens with grains being boiled to be turned into beer(the boiled grain mixture is called mash, and the sugar rich liquid they drain off is called wort). The wort is used to make beer. You would do similar things with the inulin in the sunchoke. I don't know how long it would be, but here is a discussion about it... Page about making homebrew "topinambours", a type of german alcohol made of sunchokes.

I have cooked them based on a podcast of Paul's that was talking to some ladies in the Puget Sound area about them. They said cook it for over 24 hours to caramelize them. So I setup my slow cooker, put one of those collapsable steaming baskets in it(the basket needed to collapse because it would be too wide for my pot otherwise. I loaded it up with sunchokes, and filled the slow cooker with about 2 inches of water(just BELOW the level of the basket feet). I cooked them on low for 24 hours.(refilling the water at the 12 hour mark).  They came out "perfect". By perfect I mean they were a beautiful brown all the way through(Maillard_reaction) and tasted like an overly sweet, but earthy tasting sweet potato. I just ate them plain. They come out being too sweet to use as a potato/sweet potato replacement, but not quite sweet enough to be desert on their own.

I never made them again, because I could have made 24 cheesecakes in the time it took to cook them, and I would have been happier.

Sunroots are awesome when lacto-fermented!

I haven't actually made Jerusalem Artichoke wine myself however my friend makes the most beautiful golden coloured wine from them and it tastes amazing.  I will request more  details.

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Sunroots are awesome when lacto-fermented!

Joseph, do you do this just like sauerkraut?  I've made that a couple times, but just put cabbage and salt in a crock, weighted it down and waited  Is this the same or do you add other ingredients? I would love to try it.

Todd Parr wrote:
do you do this just like sauerkraut?  I've made that a couple times, but just put cabbage and salt in a crock, weighted it down and waited  Is this the same or do you add other ingredients? I would love to try it.

Here's a recipe we've had that was really lovely with lots of garlic and ginger yumminess with none of the usual prevailing weather conditions

Jerusalem Artichoke Pickle

1½ pounds Jerusalem artichokes, broken into nodes, thoroughly scrubbed, and cut into ½-inch dice
1 teaspoon ground dried turmeric
1 ounces garlic (about 8 cloves), chopped
½ ounce fresh ginger, minced (about 1 ½ tablespoons)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoons pickling salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1½ cups water

Toss together the diced Jerusalem artichokes, the turmeric, the garlic, the ginger, and the cumin. Pack the mixture into a jar with a capacity of at least 6 cups. Dissolve the salt and sugar in the water. Pour the brine over the Jerusalem artichokes; it will not cover them at first. Add a brine bag (a gallon freezer-weight plastic bag containing 1 tablespoon salt dissolved in 3 cups water) or another suitable weight.

The next day the brine should cover the Jerusalem artichokes. If it doesn’t, add more brine mixed in the same proportions.

Wait several days before tasting the pickle. I found it perfect after a week: The brine was sour, and the Jerusalem artichokes pleasantly, mildly spicy and still crunchy.

When the pickle has fermented enough to suit your taste, store the jar in the refrigerator. Keep the Jerusalem artichokes weighted so they won’t take on a grayish cast.

Kerry Ceilidh wrote:

Todd Parr wrote:
do you do this just like sauerkraut?  I've made that a couple times, but just put cabbage and salt in a crock, weighted it down and waited  Is this the same or do you add other ingredients? I would love to try it.

Here's a recipe we've had that was really lovely with lots of garlic and ginger yumminess with none of the usual prevailing weather conditions

Jerusalem Artichoke Pickle

1½ pounds Jerusalem artichokes, broken into nodes, thoroughly scrubbed, and cut into ½-inch dice
1 teaspoon ground dried turmeric
1 ounces garlic (about 8 cloves), chopped
½ ounce fresh ginger, minced (about 1 ½ tablespoons)
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoons pickling salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1½ cups water

Toss together the diced Jerusalem artichokes, the turmeric, the garlic, the ginger, and the cumin. Pack the mixture into a jar with a capacity of at least 6 cups. Dissolve the salt and sugar in the water. Pour the brine over the Jerusalem artichokes; it will not cover them at first. Add a brine bag (a gallon freezer-weight plastic bag containing 1 tablespoon salt dissolved in 3 cups water) or another suitable weight.

The next day the brine should cover the Jerusalem artichokes. If it doesn’t, add more brine mixed in the same proportions.

Wait several days before tasting the pickle. I found it perfect after a week: The brine was sour, and the Jerusalem artichokes pleasantly, mildly spicy and still crunchy.

When the pickle has fermented enough to suit your taste, store the jar in the refrigerator. Keep the Jerusalem artichokes weighted so they won’t take on a grayish cast.

Thank you.  I made a copy of that to try when I harvest them this fall.

Todd Parr wrote:Joseph, do you do this just like sauerkraut? [...]  Is this the same or do you add other ingredients?

Yes, just like sauerkraut. 1.6 pounds of shredded vegetables to 1 tablespoon salt. With the caveat that everything is always creolized at my place... So my lacto-fermented vegetables are blends of vegetables... I really like adding onions for flavor, and beets or carrots for color.

Lacto-fermented sunroots

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:

Todd Parr wrote:Joseph, do you do this just like sauerkraut? [...]  Is this the same or do you add other ingredients?

Yes, just like sauerkraut. 1.6 pounds of shredded vegetables to 1 tablespoon salt. With the caveat that everything is always creolized at my place... So my lacto-fermented vegetables are blends of vegetables... I really like adding onions for flavor, and beets or carrots for color.

Lacto-fermented sunroots

That looks excellent.  I may try it with red cabbage and some tillage radish too.

Thanks so much! I will brine a part and the recipe with the 24 hrs sounds great too, but I will simply put them on the woodstove. I first had the idea of putting them inside the fire but this seemed to be quite unpractical. Please.. I want the winer recipe!! BTW in Grmany this stuff is called topinambour and the spirit they make out of it is called the same. Acutally in case you really can do something nice with it...it is so easy to grow. The box I dug out grew in a patch 1 1/2 sqm a place I try since years to rid of the Jerusalem artichokes!