Have you ever tasted a Jerusalem artichoke? It is a root vegetable and sometimes called sunroot, sunchoke, or earth apple. It’s related to the sunflower and native to central North America. The name ‘Jerusalem’ is derived from the Italian word for sunflower, ‘girasole’.

Jerusalem artichokes have very thin skins and bruise easily. This is why you won’t find them in grocery stores. I often go to Farmers Markets and have never seen any there, either. Maybe I haven’t have been in the region they grow in or looked for them in the right season. 

The plant can grow to be 5 feet to 10 feet tall. It has yellow flowers and the tubers are often elongated and uneven, resembling ginger root. Jerusalem artichokes are perennial, growing year after year. But they are an aggressive plant, so you may want to plant them in containers unless you have plenty of room and don’t mind them spreading.
How to grow Jerusalem artichokes

INFORMATION BELOW COMPILED FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS:

THE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE
This plant is well known for its tubers, cultivated not only as a garden vegetable, but also as an agricultural crop. By many it is much esteemed as an esculent, when cooked in various ways; and the domesticated animals eat both the fresh foliage, and the tubers with great relish. By some, they are not only considered nourishing, but even fattening.

USES OF THE JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE
This being a tuberous-rooted plant, with leafy stems from four to six feet high, it is alleged that its tops will afford as much fodder per acre as a crop of oats, or more, and its roots half as many tubers as an ordinary crop of potatoes. The tubers, being abundant in the market-gardens, are to be had at little more than the price of potatoes. It is used as a salad, is boiled and served as a vegetable, and is also pickled.  They can be preserved in sand for winter use. Seasonable from September to June.

BOILED JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES
To each gallon of water allow one heaped tablespoonful of salt. Wash, peel, and shape the artichokes in a round or oval form, and put them into a saucepan with sufficient cold water to cover them. Let them boil gently until tender, about 20 minutes after the water boils. Take them up, drain them, and serve them in a napkin, or plain, whichever mode is preferred. Send to table with them a tureen of melted butter or cream sauce, a little of which may be poured over the artichokes when they are not served in a napkin.

The water Jerusalem artichokes are boiled in becomes quite a thick jelly when cold, and makes an excellent foundation for sauces.

MASHED JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES
To each gallon of water allow one ounce of salt, fifteen or sixteen artichokes, one ounce butter, and pepper and salt to taste. Boil the artichokes as in the preceding recipe until tender. Drain and press the water from them, and beat them up with a fork. When thoroughly mashed and free from lumps, put them into a saucepan with the butter and a seasoning of white pepper and salt, Keep stirring over the fire until the artichokes are quite hot, and serve.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES ‘AL BLANCO’
Clean and cut two dozen Jerusalem artichokes into pieces about half an inch long, wash and put them into a stew-pan with half an ounce of fresh butter, and a quarter of an ounce of white pounded sugar. Put them on a slow fire for a few minutes, add four tablespoonfuls of white sauce, eight of veal broth (or milk), and simmer until the Jerusalem artichokes are soft, then skim, mix the yolk of an egg with two tablespoonfuls of milk, pour it into the stew-pan, stir quickly, and serve hot. The Jerusalem artichokes must be well cooked, but not reduced to a pulp.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES IN PURÉE
Wash well and boil twelve Jerusalem artichokes in three pints of water with one ounce butter and one tablespoon salt. When soft, chop them up. Meanwhile cook slowly in a stew-pan one sliced onion, a little celery, half a turnip, two ounces of butter, one of ham, three or four bay leaves, and a little grated nutmeg. Put in the artichokes, stir, and add one tablespoon flour and one pint (or less) milk to form a proper thickness when boiled. Pass through a fine hair sieve* and serve hot.

*hair sieve – a strainer with a wiry fabric bottom usually woven from horsehair.

STEWED ARTICHOKES
Wash and pare some Jerusalem artichokes, and part them in two. Boil them in a small quantity of gravy till almost done, and the liquor nearly consumed. Then add some cream, a piece of butter rolled in flour and a little salt, all in proportion to the number of artichokes. Stew them gently for ten minutes, and serve them up with sippets* of white bread fried.

*sippets – bits of dry toast cut into a triangular form.

JERUSALEM ARTICHOKES WITH WHITE SAUCE
(To be served with the Second Course as a Side-dish)
Take 12 to 15 artichokes, 12 to 15 Brussels sprouts, and 1/2 pint of white sauce.
Peel and cut the artichokes in the shape of a pear. Cut a piece off the bottom of each, that they may stand upright in the dish, and boil them in salt and water until tender. Have ready 1/2 pint of white sauce, made by recipe. Dish the artichokes, pour over them the sauce, and place between each a fine Brussels sprout: these should be boiled separately, and not with the artichokes.

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