[Sca-cooks] candied ginger

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Feb 23, 2009, at 12:39 AM, Stefan li Rous wrote:

> I can understand why you would want young ginger and ginger which  
> has been sitting around so long that it has dried out, but I didn't  
> think ginger was a "seasonal" item. Or is it showing up now in the  
> NY supermarkets for some other reason, similar to the fruitcake  
> ingredients showing up in the late fall in anticipation of customers  
> buying them to make fruit cakes for the Yule season?

Do they actually show up only in the late fall? I ask because many  
serious fruitcake makers have already made whatever fruitcakes they're  
going to make by Thanksgiving at the latest: it takes about a month  
for them to fully develop their flavor; two is better.

As for the seasonal nature of the pink-tinged young ginger, as far as  
I know it shows up in markets in January and July because those are  
when it's harvested in the Southern and Northern hemispheres,  
respectively. It's like apples in New York or Pennsylvania in  
September or October; it's not timed that way because that's when  
people want to make pies.

> I've found candied ginger which is both actual slices of ginger that  
> has been candied, and pieces where it appears the ginger has been  
> ground or powdered and then mixed with sugar syrup since it doesn't  
> have any of the fiber of the other. I prefer the former.

Is it conceivable you simply aren't noticing any fiber, but it's  
there? I ask only because baby ginger is a lot less fibrous than the  
older stuff (think of the ginger eaten with sushi), and even less  
visibly so when cooked in sugar syrup. I suppose it's possible to make  
the kind of processed candy you describe, and it would not be  
unprecedented in similar practices like the melon cakes that no longer  
contain any actual winter melon, just a candy-like goop that formerly  
was candied melon, then  a small amount of melon in a gum-like, ultra- 
heavy syrup, and now goo with little or no melon.

Adamantius






"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter