Preserved ginger (_Condition Zangibaris_) is prepared by cleaning the
green root, which is dug when young and tender and full of sap, before
it is hard and woody, and scalding it until it is sufficiently tender.
It is next put into cold water and peeled and scraped gradually, an
operation which may last three or four days, the water being changed
often. After this it is put into glass jars and covered with a thin or
weak syrup which, in two or three days, is changed for a richer syrup.
Sometimes even a third syrup is poured off for the fourth and yet
thicker syrup, but not often. The syrup will be very thick and the
ginger will be bright and nearly transparent. The following rule for
making preserved ginger is infallible: Let the young tubers boil for
twenty-four hours, then peel off the discolored and hard parts. Next
boil one pound loaf sugar in six pints of water and pour the syrup over
twelve pounds of the cooked ginger in a jar. Let it stand for one week,
when the syrup is drawn off and the ginger is again boiled and treated
to another syrup like the first and left to stand another week, when
again the syrup should be drawn off through a fine sieve. Return the
ginger to the stone jar and pour over it the final syrup, made of twelve
pints of boiling water and twelve pounds of loaf sugar, boiled and
stirred until it is as thick as good honey, and will drop slowly from a
silver spoon, the ginger having been previously covered with boiling
water and allowed to remain until cool. It is next placed in the bottles
or jars for which it is intended, in small pieces, as closely as they
will pack, up to the cork, so that there will be no room for air. It is
then corked with a good, new cork. Candied ginger is dried, sprinkled
with sugar, and is imported in boxes.
In order to powder ginger root it must first be passed through a cracker
machine, as it is called, to reduce it to a proper size for feeding in a
mill. The mill consists of a roller provided with very coarse teeth,
which revolve through similar stationary teeth; the material is retained
by a semi-circular perforated plate until it is reduced to the size of
the perforation, or about the size of a coffee bean, when it is then
ready for the burr stones.
In ground ginger little of its structure is seen beyond the starchy
grains which can readily be distinguished by their shape and by their
fibrous, vascular bundles which are easily traceable. In the unscraped
ginger the outer horny layer is to be seen, but not distinct in its
character at any time, and when scalding of the rhizomes takes place,
the starch grains are swollen and it is more difficult to find the
foreign particles. Good powdered ginger should have the fibers taken out
by sifting.
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