How do you candy/crystalize your ginger?

[Edward J]

For the past while, I've been crystalizing my own ginger--with mixed results. There is a lot of it available, but almost all of it is heavily sulphated--whihc gives me rashes. "The ginger people" in Australia make a fantastic product, but at $4.00 for 150 grams is a bit too much for me. Hence my making my own.

After searching for various recipies, I came up with the following:

-peel ginger and cut into 3/8" cubes

-Simmer until fork tender

-weigh the ginger and add equal amount of sugar, plus a little water.

-Simmer until all water has evaporated and sugar crystalizes.

It's my understanding that this recipie would be shelf-stable. I've done it twice before with no problems, then did a big batch (1 kg), and within a month the ginger had gone moldy.

Am I doing something wrong, or would I be better off candying it?

[prairiegirl]

Buderim Ginger is who I get my ginger from. Have you talked to them?

[GlorifiedRice]

I have candied ginger in Erythritol, just for the record

[dhardy123]

Wybauw has the process of candying ginger in one of his books. PM me if you want the details.

[Edward J]

Yup, F.C. #2 or #3, I have both. This is regular candied ginger, which I will be doing next batch. Right now I have about 2 days left with lemon peel in my "state of the art" candying equipment (1/1 full depth hotel pan with a s/s screen and two dinner plates)

Don't know why I haven't done this before, everywhere I see "crystalized" ginger, which is the method I described above, except with the use of heavy sulphiting--which isn't neccesary when candying in heavy syrup.

Yes, I can buy candied ginger, but that's not "me". I do my own candied lemon and orange peel, dry my own cherries and blueberies, freeze alot of the stuff when possible, make my own marmalade (of which the extra orange peel gets candied) and generally try to do as much work in house as possible.

Am I crazy? Maybe. My logic is, that if I make everything I sell, no one can compete with me because they don't have the same product, and I don't have to play the "how low can you go?" price war. This logic has kept my doors open for the last 4 years now, it's sent several salesmen away muttering curses because I won't carry the same line of chocolates and confections that every drugstore and supermarket carry.

[Toliver]

You could try pm'ing eGullet member andiesenji. I believe she makes her own crystalized ginger as well as candied fruit/peels.

[andiesenji]

I didn't see this topic until this morning.

Click here for the link in RecipeGullet

And click here for an extensive discussion about the subject:

With my method you don't have to use young, stem ginger. Mature ginger, sliced across the grain, then steamed until tender, will candy nicely.

This will give you larger pieces than you can get with stem ginger, nice when dipping in chocolate.

I make it in big batches - cooked in an electric roaster - smaller batches in a Crockpot.

After candying I dry it in a dehydrator but it can be dried at room temp - it should keep without molding once it has dried to the tacky stage and been coated with granulated sugar.

If it gets too dry, just dry it completely in a very low oven and grind it to use like regular ground ginger. Add it to tea, it's lovely that way.

Edited June 2, 2011 by andiesenji (log)

[prairiegirl]

You are not crazy Edward. i love your approach and try to do the housemade artisan production as much as possible. Customers love it when they can get such specialized products. Good luck on the ginger and I am also going to try some batches.

[andiesenji]

As I mentioned above, using mature ginger will give you more flavor than the milder stem ginger, in addition to having many larger pieces.

Steaming it, instead of simmering in water, retains more flavor.

I pulled out some of the large pieces from a recent batch. About half the pieces are this size. Some are larger.

This size makes it easy to cut the ginger into "matchsticks" and if desired, into small dice.

[Edward J]

A big THANK YOU!!!

I'm going to be candying a lot more now.

[andiesenji]

I'm bumping this topic up because I cam across what sounds like a terrific ginger "condiment" for which I can imaging all kinds of uses.

Ginger Confit

First I have to dig up (or have someone else do it) some of the ginger that was planted last spring and has been overwintered under a thick layer of straw.

It says this is a 4-day project. I think I will start it on Sunday, maybe Monday.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I approach this totally differently! I slice my ginger either into smallish cubes or into 1/8" slices (more often the latter since I got a nakiri), then boil it in a syrup of 3 C panela and 3 C water for each pound of gigner, until the liquid has reduced to the consistency of maple syrup; strain and drain the ginger and sit it overnight in granulated sugar. This is, of course, a much spicier product than the one you're describing, but it's incredibly shelf-stable over great amounts of time, and the syrup is a fantastic byproduct (I use it to make my own ginger beer).

I should mention that I'm very lucky to have access to mature gingerroot that hasn't been more than 2 days out of the fields, so even quite old root is still tender.

[judiu]

My mom used to love Ginger Marmalade, as made by an English company, the name of which escapes me now. It came in a crock, not a glass jar, and had quite a kick to it, iirc. This sounds like it might be close, and good!

[andiesenji]

My mom used to love Ginger Marmalade, as made by an English company, the name of which escapes me now. It came in a crock, not a glass jar, and had quite a kick to it, iirc. This sounds like it might be close, and good!

I've got two old jars that held James Keiller & Son Dundee Ginger Marmalade.

The oldest one is stoneware and the "newer" one is milk glass. As I recall the marmalade was quite potent.

I've also got the milk glass jars that held orange marmalade and "Three Fruits" marmalade.

[Annoula]

Andie, thank you SO much for sharing your method! I have just finished making my very first successful batch of crystallized ginger more or less following your recipe, and I'm thrilled to bits! Until now -- that is, over 20 years in Greece -- I've made sure to bring back crystallized ginger from wherever I travel (the States, U.K., and some gorgeous organic stuff from Israel), and accordingly I hoard it like gold to make it last. What a treat to just be able to pop a piece in my mouth whenever I wish to now, knowing I can make another batch when this one goes :-)

And now I'll share one of my very favorite things to do with crystallized ginger (the second favorite being dipped in dark chocolate, of course):

Make a lovely chicken salad with grilled chicken, crisp seedless green grapes, toasted sliced almonds, mayonnaise, cumin, coarsely-ground black pepper ... and pieces of crystallized ginger. It's a wonderful, wonderful combination!

Thanks again, Andie.