How to pickle Jerusalem artichokes

How to pickle Jerusalem artichokes? I believe many of you don’t know how to do it yet, so let me explain it to you in detail.

Jerusalem artichoke pickles

In October, there is a bumper harvest of manna, Jerusalem artichokes and other fruits on the market, which is a good season for making pickles.

Pagoda vegetable, also known as Manluzi, was originally called Grass Silkworm, also known as "ground ring". It is a perennial root plant belonging to the Lamiaceae family. The underground rhizome is spiral-shaped, tender and fiberless, and can be used to make pickles. This product is native to China, distributed in various places, and cultivated in low-lying wetlands near water. The stems, leaves and roots can all be used as medicine.

It is sweet, flat and non-toxic.

The whole plant contains stachydrine, choline, and stachyose. The rhizome contains protein, fat, stachyose, amino acids, stachydrine, and trigonelline.

Function: Promote blood circulation, dispel wind, relieve fatigue, relieve pain, and detoxify.

Jerusalem artichoke, also known as: Yangjiang, Jerusalem artichoke, devil ginger (Helianthus tuberosus L)

It is a perennial herbaceous plant of the family Compositae. Its roots, stems and leaves are used as medicine. It has the effects of treating fever, intestinal heat and bloody diarrhea, and bone injuries.

I have loved pickles since I was a child. I remember that the pickle jar in my hometown was always full when I was a child. My grandmother pickled various vegetables for me. My favorite ones were pickled cucumbers, Jerusalem artichokes, and eggplants. At that time, they were pickled with soy sauce. Later, I moved to the city and there was no soy sauce jar anymore. I rarely made pickles. I often went to the supermarket to buy pickles. My favorite was Ganlu, but I thought it was a little expensive.

At the end of October and the beginning of November, I bought some Jerusalem artichokes and honeydew, washed them, and pickled them myself.

This is my first time pickling something like this. I read some methods online and started to do it. The general process is:

(1) Wash and drain.

(2) Use salt to kill the water and drain.

If conditions permit, air-drying for a day or two will also produce good results.

(3) Place in a small glass bottle and add the seasoning. The seasoning should cover the Jerusalem artichokes or honeydew, otherwise it will easily go moldy.

I have to say something about this seasoning. I used a very simple one, just a lot of soy sauce, sugar, and vinegar, nothing else. There are various ways to make it online, including adding onions, ginger, aniseed, peppercorns, etc. I think it depends on personal taste.

It is worth noting that in professional pickled vegetable recipes, people boil the seasonings, usually soy sauce (/light soy sauce) + sugar + water + (vinegar) + (others), boil and cool, then add to the bottle, pickle for one or two days and eat. This method should be safer and taste better, because the canned food you see in the supermarket has very thin liquid inside, and I don't think it is possible to be full of light soy sauce like mine.

As for bottles, glass ones are easier to find, so I often use glass ones, and I can see the changes in the pickles, so I don’t know if they are moldy. Clay pots are also good, but don’t use plastic or metal ones, which are particularly easy to cause the pickles to deteriorate and produce toxic and harmful substances. (I don’t like to save bottles, so I don’t understand when I see Sister Guo and Grandma Maomao always save so many bottles and jars, so I secretly threw them away. This time I need to use them, but I really don’t have them, so I can only search for ready-made ones from Grandma Maomao’s house.)

(4) Seal the bottle and place it in a cool, ventilated place. You can eat it after a while. Pickles can be stored for a long time and can be eaten for a year.

The first time I made it, I made a few bottles at random. After pickling for about a month, they were all well-seasoned. When I took them out to eat, they were very crisp. Even if I added two or three spoons of vinegar, I couldn't taste the vinegar. I think I could add more sugar, haha. When I make it again next year, I will try to boil the seasoning and use nectar as the main ingredient. It is my favorite pickle.

What I didn’t expect was that Maomao loves to eat it so much that he would ask me for some whenever he sees it. There’s nothing I can do because I can only provide a limited amount each time since it’s a bit salty after all.