Taking the Fart Out of "Jerusalem Fartichokes" Aka Sunroot or Topinambour

in #gardening5 years ago (edited)

Topinambour

Though this plant, also known as Jerusalem Artichoke, Sunroot or Sunchoke, is making a revival, I have heard much negative press about this forgotten, yet increasingly popular root vegetable. Largely the negatives reside around the side effect of flatulence due to its inulin content (the same characteristic that has earned it the title of a nutraceutical) and the flavor.

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Last night Ini and I made our first harvest of these tubers that are in the sunflower family. A wild plant native to the Americas, they were first tended and selected by Native Americans in the eastern part of the continent, yet now they are popular all over the world after early Europeans brought them home with them.

We have already written about the plant and showed you some very sexy photos of the plant in bloom here so today I want to focus on the roots, their preparation towards the easiest of fartless dishes and ways we can reduce that fartaffect overall.

 

Because last night, let's just say I was nearly gassed out of my house between Ini and the dog and my own digestive tract was doing the rumble and "letting wind" -- I have a personal stake in the matter.


 

And as their perennial nature of self propagation, ease of growing, and health benefits, I am not even close to giving up on this plant.

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Digging them was like digging for treasure and as we collected the smaller heads and filled the hole with a big head and spread them around the property, we realized what an easy staple food crop this truly is.

Only, how to prepare it and reduce the gas?


Acidify

As one article says,

I learned that indigestible polysaccharides such as inulin can be converted to digestible sugars by “acid hydrolysis.” In layman’s terms, that means bathing the inulin in something watery and acidic. Lemon juice, perhaps?
and furthermore,
“Boiling Jerusalem artichokes in an acid such as lemon juice or vinegar will hydrolyze the inulin to fructose and small amounts of glucose,” Rastall advises.
 

Ferment

Here’s another solution: Traditional fermentation-style pickling also removes sunchokes’ gaseous effects – while retaining their artichoke flavor. Gardening mavens Linda Ziedrich and Rose Marie Nichols McGee developed a game-changing recipe that yields completely gas-free Jerusalem artichoke pickles that keep all their wonderful crunch and taste.
 

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Build Up A Tolerance

His fix for the overdose of inulin in Jerusalem artichokes? Build a tolerance. “Rather than avoiding all inulin, I suggest that people consume small quantities on a regular basis,” he notes. “Their gut microbiota will adapt – the proportion of beneficial bacteria will grow, while the gas-producing bacteria will diminish – and after a while they will be able to eat Jerusalem artichokes without discomfort.”

The Long Cook


Another site adds this helpful tidbit,

In On Food and Cooking (2004 edition), page 307, Harold McGee indicates that the... erm... flatulent effects of sun chokes (also called Jerusalem artichokes) are due to complex fructose-based carbohydrates that are not digestible by humans. > Long, slow cooking allows enzymes present in the fresh of the tuber will convert these fructose over time. McGee recommends 12-24 hours at 200 F / 93 C.
And also,
"About half of the remaining indigestibles can be removed by boiling in a large volume of water for 15 minutes."

Storage

Harold McGee addresses this subject in his excellent book, The Curious Cook (1990). He explains the Jerusalem artichoke in great detail in the chapter titled, "Taking the Wind out of the Sunroot." His conclusions are (a) the quantities of the responsible carbohydrate are somewhat dissipated during cold storage of a month or more.

Late Harvest

As one of the other answers outlines: the most accepted remedy is cold storage or late harvesting. When left in the groud during the winter, the tubers transform the inulin, thus enabling us to effectively digest the Sunchokes. This means that if you are growing your own, you can just harvest the tubers on the day you eat them, provided you do so late in the season.

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First Things First

This is so exciting. Ini and I dug up a bunch of sunroots today and last night and will be selling some on the @homesteaderscoop for SBD! We bought these from a reputable nursery and they are select varieties!

First things first, I have some wonderful fodder here to experiment with. I think, to start, we'll try the fermented aspect. As you know, we're going on a 10 day meditation retreat shortly and will start a couple batches of classic lactofermentation using these sunroot and some salt (and other herbs and spices, and perhaps vegetables, as the mood strikes.)

 

The sky is the limit when it comes to learning how to most effectively partner with perennial vegetables. One thing is for certain, I feel the joy of life moving through me as a I work with this plant and I feel the familiar happiness and wonder at thinking of all of the humans whose hands this vegetable has passed through and how it has traveled all over the world (via humans and yes of course rodents, which are known to move little tidbits around gardens everywhere-- and the plant will grow from the smallest tidbit!)

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After we dig, we select out the largest and healthiest of the variety and replant it where we recently dug. Can you spot the sunroots?

 

How do you like to eat Sunroot? Start small and let our bodies, which aren't used to high amounts of inulin, get up to speed with this nutraceutical and it sounds like we'll be off to a better start.

 

Let me know your favorite ways to eat it in the comments below!


Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://www.ozarkmountainjewel.com/2018/11/29/taking-the-fart-out-of-jerusalem-fartichokes-aka-sunroot-or-topinambour/

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i did read that one and yes it's a good one to follow if you're looking to experiment! we'll likely just put 1.5 tablespoons of salt per quart of water for our first lactoferment trial!

Awsome. I was going to experiment next year with ferment them to see if it would work. Now I know it dose. Thanks so mucn for the info.

omg...I could only imagine the suffering in that cabin last nigh lol You made me laugh out loud with your description. I would imagine fermentation would be a smart route although the slow cooker combined with other root vegetables might be nice as well. I hope you'll share your results with us, love you ox I bet you're excited about your much needed retreat ;)

hehe i almost threw them both out... yes! i want to bring some for christmas but would be sad if they were confiscated in the airport. i'm excited to ferment them. they're so easy to grow! and yes, we are quite excited! getting everything prepped to leave for a bit :) love you!

oh haha ...poor you. This is a truly wonderful post sharing solutions for the one major downside of them. We've been there too and I find this hilarious while also being truly sympathetic.

hehehe it really was quite sad. and it was one of those nights that i woke up around 2 am staring at the moon and stars and just getting inundated with gas while i lay awake... lol it was really horrible and prompted this post! sooo have you found anything that worked? lol, i am totally not giving up on this amazing plant... but help!

ok, well. I don't LOVE them. It's the texture. I hate that watery sort of texture. I don't suffer as badly as everyone else seems to. Perhaps it's because I am a hardcore vegetarian ...since forever .. and eat a lot of different foods that have inulin? I think that is key, eating small amounts and building up a tolerance. A few slices ...you know what I mean?

I had a dog that has perpetual gas and my son was the gassiest kid known to man (haha) so I am pretty tolerant to noxious odours.

I've fed them to people (my parents) pickled and there was no gas ...so I think fermented might be a good way to start.

Keep me informed. We've got them planted everywhere as a "if the world goes to heck" crop but we didn't even harvest any this year because no one wants to eat them boiled or baked or in any manner that risks a repeat ...

Yeah they’re great to grow and spread so well... but damn that gas.

When I had a permaculture garden and we grew these the first year I enjoyed eating them... but OMFGs!! 😱🤢 the smell... I can’t remember what we ended up doing to mitigate that though.

My main recipe was to use it for a soup.

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that damn gas... geez! yes excellent in soup! but didn't relieve the gas, eh? onto the next option! i think with the hivemind, we'll be able to find the solution. i'll keep ya updated.

Halloe frinds, I take part in your contest, does it qualify, if not let me delete it

hi there please don't delete it, but it's best to be clear on the instructions and you didn't quite follow the rules. we liked your post, but it didn't qualify.

Yes, I read it and translated it on Google, I have followed all the conditions, so I asked where my friend is lacking ...

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ok you or your friend? we enjoyed both of your posts. perhaps something was lost in translation. first of all, neither of you did the "secret code" talked about in the video. perhaps that was due to a complication with language! neither of us speak indonesian so we cannot know what you said in the second half of your video. we appreciate your efforts! your friend did not qualify because he shared a How To video. your video and post shared more of what we were looking for, but again, your video was longer than 3 minutes (we said 3 minutes max).

Hhhhhhhh,,,, apparently this lying edition, I will bring to the community this case, I made a description in English,

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we appreciated your entry and did see your blog entry in english. i think we are still dealing with a language barrier and i'm not quite sure what you mean... "lying edition"???.....

Hhhhh, in terms, there is nothing I read must use English, I will tell the big community about this,

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Well yes this is true. The terms do state that you must explain why you are deserving of delegation and also to use code mentioned in video. While you may have included all of this, we can’t understand it. Thanks again for your effort!

I like the fermentation idea. But I like all kinds of things pickled so don't need much of a reason to go that route.

It's funny, I never heard of this plant before, and today, two blog posts on the same subject... I guess I need to study up on it more.

Thanks for all the info on it, now I know what to expect from it!

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