Aspartame In Pickled Ginger

[GlorifiedRice]

I started going to Assi Plaza Asian Mkt in Lansdale, Pa specifically cause they carried Hana Brand Pickled Ginger.

Hana brand did not have Aspartame.

I had 8 jars in my fridge for years and finally finished it and needed to buy some more so imagine my shock when

I went to buy more recently and it now contains Aspartame!

UGH!

What to do, what to do!

I was able to find Roland Brand on Amazon that was made with SUGAR, and bought the 8 pack.

Im kind of annoyed at all these companies because its not mentioned on the jar front and there are people with PKU who

can get very ill if they consume aspartame. I had a school mate who died after someone tricked him into eating something

with it in it!

Can we start a petition or something?

Are there any brands besides Rolands that are pink and dont contain Aspartame?

TY

[andiesenji]

This is frightening for me because aspartame causes cardiac arrhythmia in me. I came very close to having a pacemaker installed twenty years ago because of the stuff.

Thanks for the warning.

I am going to pickle my own ginger, just to be on the safe side.

[nakji]

I don't think it's too hard to pickle your own, as long as you have a good source of decent ginger. It won't be that pink colour, but that doesn't affect the taste. I think Washoku has a recipe for making it; curiously enough, so does Mark Bittman in "How to Cook Everything".

[andiesenji]

I have a good source of ginger - I grow my own. Half was just harvested and is stored in tubs full of sand in a shed (no light) and the rest will remain in the ground, covered with at least a foot of packed straw and that covered with a tarp, over the winter. This has worked out well for many years. If I run out, I can always have some dug out of the ground as needed.

I have a fermentation crock that is empty at present and I think I am going to use that for pickling ginger. I have a recipe in one of my preserving/pickling books that makes several pints and I plan to can it in half-pint and 4-oz jars.

As I recall, this process allows the pink or red color to develop on its own without the need for food coloring.

[nakji]

Yes, the recipe Bittman lists is for a quick pickle - not meant to be canned, thus it doesn't have time to develop the pink.

Do you pickle thin stems of whole ginger, or do you slice it, gari-style?

[andiesenji]

Yes, the recipe Bittman lists is for a quick pickle - not meant to be canned, thus it doesn't have time to develop the pink.

Do you pickle thin stems of whole ginger, or do you slice it, gari-style?

I sliced it very thin using my big Cuisinart and the extra-thin slicing disc because the deBuyer mandoline I now have does not produce slices quite as thin as I want.