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Pickled Jerusalem Artichokes
Boil the artichokes as directed for Jerusalem Artichokes, drain, and put them in a stone jar. To every quart of artichokes allow one pint of cider vinegar, one bay leaf, one slice of onion, four whole cloves and a blade of mace. Put the vinegar in a porcelain-lined kettle with all the other ingredients, stand it over a moderate fire and bring slowly to boiling point; then pour it over the artichokes and stand away to cool.
They will be ready to use in twenty-four hours, and will keep two weeks.
A quick vinegar pickle rather than a preserve — the two-week keeping time in the original assumes a cool larder, so treat it as a refrigerator pickle.
- The vegetableJerusalem artichokes are sunchokes, the knobbly tubers of Helianthus tuberosus, unrelated to globe artichokes. A quart measured as whole tubers is roughly 1 1/2 lb.
- Boil them barely tenderThis is the hinge. Sunchokes can soften quickly, so test often; roughly 10-15 minutes in salted water, testing with a skewer, leaves them firm enough to stay crisp in the vinegar. Overcooked tubers turn to mush overnight.
- PeelingSome older books assume peeled tubers. The skin is thin and edible if scrubbed well, and peeling raw is fiddly — cook first, then slip the skins off if you want them bare.
- Nonreactive throughout"Porcelain-lined kettle" means do not boil vinegar in bare aluminium, cast iron or copper. Stainless or enamelled steel; a glass jar in place of the stone one.
- A blade of maceOne whole piece of the dried aril from nutmeg, about the size of a thumbnail. Roughly 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground mace, or substitute a small pinch of grated nutmeg.
- Vinegar strengthUse cider vinegar at 5 percent acidity, the standard bottled grade. A pint to a quart of tubers should cover them; top up with more hot vinegar if any sit above the liquid.
- Moderate fireBring the spiced vinegar just to a boil over medium heat so the aromatics infuse, then pour it over the tubers while still hot.
- KeepingThis is not canning — there is no processing step and no measured headspace. Cool, cover, and refrigerate; the original allows two weeks.
- Yield and servingAbout a quart, enough for a relish dish serving six to eight. Good with cold meat, or chopped into a potato salad.
- One digestive noteSunchokes are high in inulin, which many people find gassy. Small servings are advisable.
Jerusalem artichokes are a North American plant, cultivated by Indigenous peoples long before European contact and carried back to Europe in the early seventeenth century, where the name is often said to be a corruption of the Italian girasole, sunflower, rather than to have any connection with Jerusalem — though the derivation is disputed and other proposals exist. In late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American cookbooks they occupy an odd middle ground: cheap, absurdly productive in the garden, and slightly suspect at the table, which is why so many recipes for them are pickles and relishes rather than main dishes. Pickling in spiced cider vinegar was one common treatment for a firm, bland root, and a jar of it did the work that a bottled condiment does now, brightening a plate of cold roast meat in a household that expected something sharp alongside it.