Peeling Huge Quantities of Ginger

[Panaderia Canadiense]

Hi folks! I've been asked to produce about 10 lbs of candied ginger a month, which I'm fine with, but I need some ideas on how to peel that much ginger. For smaller (say 2-3 lb) batches I'm fine with peeling it the old-fashioned way using a small spoon to rasp off the skin, but 10 lbs would take me a week to do that way and I'd probably end up with crippled claws in place of my hands.

Does anybody know of reasonably-priced ginger peeling machines, or have ideas on how I might build such a beast myself (I'm fairly handy mechanically)? My first thought was an expanded-metal drum of some sort that I could tumble the ginger in, but I'm unsure whether that would work.

Thanks in advance!

[thirtyoneknots]

I know a lot of bartenders who would love to know what you come up with.

[YWalker]

I always just use a potato peeler.

[Dejah]

My first thought was the tumbler idea...

Wondering if a small rock tumbler would work...that kind of idea?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I always just use a potato peeler.

Yeah, but for 10 pounds?

[runwestierun]

I don't peel it. I leave the peel on. Am I horrible?

[Panaderia Canadiense]

No, but are you candying the result? Don't you find that it's tough(er)?

Also, I should mention that I'm not working with the sort of pristinely-washed supermarket ginger that North Americans are used to. I get roots that have come straight out of the field and I'm lucky if they've been washed in even the most cursory of manners.

[HeatherM]

There seem to be some interesting ginger peeler washers commercially available that you might be able to scale down if you're building it yourself or having it built. Here are a few that I found. It seems like your tumbler idea is definitely a good starting point.

lab scale washer / peeler

[Will]

If it were me, I'd tend to just waste more ginger and use a knife to peel it, lopping off smaller protrusions (if you wash / scrub it well first, you can use the leftover unpeeled bits for cooking, or to make ginger syrup or other stuff).

[dcarch]

I don't peel ginger, the skin is very thin and will not effect taste.

However, if you must peel, try these:

1. Use a st. steel wool pad to crub the skin off.

or

2. Freeze the ginger and scrap the skin off with a knife.

or

3. using a high speed drill with a 6" diameter st. steel wheel brush to brush the skin off.

dcarch

[Lisa Shock]

My DeLonghi mixer had an attachment available, I never purchased it, that scrubbed the skins off root vegetables. As I understand it, the device was some sort of insert for the mixer bowl which had sandpaper-like sides and when filled with water and vegetables rotated to scrub them.

[Edward J]

I don't know if the poster YWalker was talking about an electric potato peeler or the small knife kind.

An electric potato peeler, found in large commercial kitchens is a tumbler of sorts, a cylinder with rough-coated walls and a spinning bottom that is rough coated as well. Water is introduced, the machine spun, and the peels abraded off. Works well with onions and garlic too, and "back in the day" we would do carrots and parsnips as well. You would, of course, have to remove all knobby bits before running it in the potato peeler.

[cbread]

I just waste a lot and slab sides off with a knife. Wasteful as heck, shame on me, but I decided I hate peeling them.

And ten pounds??? Out comes the knife.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I really wish that I had a camera to show you what I'm working with. Fresh field ginger isn't large enough to do the knife treatment - I'd lose more than 50% of each piece of rhizome, and that's a wasteage that I'm not comfortable with.

I will try the plastic brush in the power drill, though - that sounds as though it will work superbly.

[David A. Goldfarb]

When I see ginger in Asian markets here, where there is a very high turnover, the freshest pieces seem not to have formed much of a skin. The skin appears thin and translucent, and I usually don't peel it when it is in this state. How fresh can you get it?

[Shalmanese]

When I see ginger in Asian markets here, where there is a very high turnover, the freshest pieces seem not to have formed much of a skin. The skin appears thin and translucent, and I usually don't peel it when it is in this state. How fresh can you get it?

That's not freshness, that's age. Young ginger will have a thinner skin.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

When I see ginger in Asian markets here, where there is a very high turnover, the freshest pieces seem not to have formed much of a skin. The skin appears thin and translucent, and I usually don't peel it when it is in this state. How fresh can you get it?

That's age, not freshness. Even very fresh old ginger will have a tough rind on it, although that rind might be a bit softer if it's still less than a day out of the soil...

I believe that I mentioned that I get my ginger about 12 hours from when it's removed from the fields. The past 20 lbs or so have been very small rhizomes, more like setts than proper chunks of the spice. The last 10 lbs I suspect of being at least partially Mariposas Blancas (Hedychium coronarium), and partially Galangal, since there was a huge disparity in piece size and shape as well as core colour. (Not that I mind the Mariposas; it's a touch sweeter than true ginger and candies marvellously. The Galangal I try to separate out as it can turn an entire batch bitter.)

[dcarch]

I don't peel ginger, the skin is very thin and will not effect taste.

However, if you must peel, try these:

1. Use a st. steel wool pad to crub the skin off.

or

2. Freeze the ginger and scrape the skin off with a knife.

or

3. using a high speed drill with a 6" diameter st. steel wheel brush to brush the skin off.

dcarch

OK guys,I just tried all three methods. All three worked very well. Quick and not much waste.

The third method works better with a wheel with softer bristles.

dcarch

[Panaderia Canadiense]

How messy was the dril with the brush?

[dcarch]

Kind of messy. You need to do it in the sink or outside.

dcarch

[Alchemist]

I would get an oyster glove or something like it so you don't peel the skin from your bones if you are going with the drill option.

Edited February 12, 2012 by Alchemist (log)

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I've got mail gloves for filleting shark; I was figuring that those would work fine.

[Chris Hennes]

I imagine that a wheel that can abrade through your chain mail will not do pretty things to the ginger. I'm thinking you're safe.

[Mjx]

My first thought was exfoliating gloves, if you can get hold of some; I use them to clean potatoes (they make them in brown, and marked 'potatoes', for this very purpose, but they're the exact same things, just more expensive), and they make a quick job of it. They are pretty durable, cheap, and take a good deal of the skin off new potatoes (more so, if they've been soaking for 5 minutes or so).

Or, if the skin on the ginger is thickish, perhaps you could use the mail gloves you already have?

[nickrey]

There's always a machine for everything.