Home storage options for ginger

Acquiring an amazing root, which has a whole arsenal of useful qualities and unique culinary properties, many housewives do not even think about how to store ginger correctly. They simply keep it in the refrigerator, without any processing, and cut off small parts as needed.

Fresh ginger

In practice, this approach is considered the most irrational. It allows you to save all the data for which they like ginger, for a very short time. At home, a fresh product is recommended to be processed immediately after purchase, giving it the optimal nutritional form. When choosing an approach, it is necessary to take into account the quality of the ingredient, the period for which it must be preserved, the type of dishes in which it will be added.

How to store ginger fresh?

If you just put ginger in the vegetable compartment of the refrigerator, you can expect that within a few days it will retain its original quality. If you pre-pack the root in sealed bags, paper wrappers or food containers, the figure increases to a couple of weeks. The main thing is that the minimum amount of air remains in the tank.

Ginger in a sealed bag

Tip: It is highly recommended not to peel the tubers from their dense skin. The presence of a natural protective layer will significantly facilitate the storage of the ingredient and prevent the appearance of mold and dark spots on their surface.

If it is very important to leave the product fresh for as long as possible, then you should use the option of storage in the freezer. In this case, tightly wrap the root with cling film, pack it in a plastic bag with a tight fastener, release excess air and remove it into the selected compartment. So he can lie for several months.

In the freezer, storage of shredded product is also allowed. We clean the tuber, grind it, portion it out on a surface covered with parchment and keep it in the freezer until the composition hardens. Then we transfer it to containers, which we close and again send it to the cold. Subject to all technical recommendations, such seasoning will retain its spicy taste for about six months.

Dry and pickle a fragrant product

Properly dried ginger can be stored at home for about two years. The procedure itself is quite troublesome, but the result is worth it:

1. Rinse thoroughly and dry. The peel is not removed, it is removed only if there are obvious signs of decay.
2. We cut the product into very thin slices, put it on the cooking parchment in one layer. We turn on the oven and heat it no more than up to 50ºС. We place the design in the oven and leave it for about an hour.
3. After the specified time, we take out the pan and turn each slice over. Put the ginger in the oven for another hour. We get the finished product, make sure that it is well dried and cool.
4. It is best to store ginger in dried slices at room temperature in an airtight glass or plastic dish.

Dried ginger

If the ginger root is pickled, then it will lose some of its properties, but it will acquire an interesting and unique taste. Today, chefs offer several dozen types of marinade, suitable for this purpose. It is only necessary to prepare the mixture you like, pour transparent slices of ginger with it and let stand in an airtight container for at least two weeks.

Very often, vodka is used as a marinade (it practically does not affect the taste of seasoning), white wine, lemon juice, rice vinegar, sake, sherry or rice wine. The finished product can be stored for up to two months. The marinade left over from the used ginger will serve as an interesting additive to various dishes, sauces and fillings.

Pickled ginger

Features of storage of ginger cooked in sugar filling

When using sugar syrup, storing ginger can not only preserve the properties of the product, but also get an incredibly tasty additive to tea. The procedure for preparing an affordable delicacy is as follows:

1. First, prepare the syrup. To do this, pour a glass of granulated sugar with a glass of drinking water and mix thoroughly.
2. Peel the ginger root and cut into thin slices. Pour them in syrup and put the mass on the fire. Bring the dish to a boil, reduce heat to a minimum and boil the composition, stirring constantly, until the syrup begins to pour from a spoon in a thin continuous stream.
3. The composition is removed from the stove and left at room temperature until it becomes only slightly warm. Then we take out ginger medallions from it and lay it out on a table covered with parchment paper.
4. Sprinkle each plate or roll in icing sugar. Parchment is placed on a baking sheet and poisoned in the oven, heated to 50 ° C for several minutes. Ginger should only dry slightly.
5. The resulting dessert is laid out in a clean glass container, tightly closed with a lid.
6. Do not immediately cook too much candied seasoning. Although it is consumed very quickly, and long-term storage is not scary for her, after a few days the taste and aroma of such a dish is slightly dulled.

Candied ginger

It is strictly not recommended to buy pickled, dried or candied ginger in the finished form. Manufacturers of such ingredients often use preservatives or other harmful chemical additives to enhance the taste of the product, maintain its strong aroma, maintain an appetizing appearance and extend the shelf life. It is better to choose the appropriate processing option and prepare fragrant seasoning yourself.

Candied ginger

Despite the naturalness of ginger, at the first signs of the appearance of rot, mold, softening the surface of the tuber or changing the smell of the finished dish, it is necessary to throw it away. The component contains substances that, when entering into a chemical reaction with a number of components, are capable of forming unstable chemical compounds that are harmful to the human body.