Dave Smith wrote:
> On 03/08/2011 12:45 PM, Steve Freides wrote:
>> We had a thread about this a month or three ago - we've been
>> experimenting and I'm reporting in:
>>
>> Our most recent batch was about 1 cup of peeled, chopped ginger root,
>> cooked in 3 cups of water and 3 cups of sugar for 90 minutes. This
>> made great tasting ginger syrup. Our previous attempts, using less
>> simple syrup, gave us ginger syrup that wasn't sweet enough,
>> although the candied ginger from both processes was the same to our
>> taste. So: 3 cups of water
>> 3 cups of sugar plus more to coat ginger pieces at end
>> 1 cup peeled, sliced (about 1/4" thick) ginger root.
>>
>> Combine 3 cups of sugar plus the water in a pot, heat on high,
>> stirring every minute or two, until the sugar is completely
>> dissolved and the mixture is boiling.
>>
>> Add the peeled, sliced ginger, bring back to a simmer, let cook for
>> 90 minutes or even a bit more, stirring once in a while (every 15-30
>> minutes or so is plenty).
>>
>> Put a large enough bowl under a strainer, pour everything from the
>> pot into the strainer, let the ginger drain for a few minutes,
>> shaking the strainer to help get rid of excess liquid.
>>
>> On a piece of parchment paper, sprinkle sugar, spread out ginger
>> pieces from strainer, turn over once or twice to be sure you've
>> coated all of the ginger pieces. Ginger will be soft - let dry this
>> way as much as you like, move to storage container of your choosing.
>> We like to let ours dry out and have fairly hard pieces of candied
>> ginger, but you can move to an airtight container sooner rather than
>> later and the ginger will stay moist.
>>
>> Ginger syrup is lovely in tea, we find, as well as useful for
>> homemade ginger soda.
>>
>
> When I started doing my own ginger a few months ago I realized that
> there were so many slightly different recipes that it must be just
> about fool proof. Why only one cup of ginger with all that syrup? I
> always do at least a pound at a time.

We don't eat it all that often - a cup of ginger will last, I'd
guesstimate a month or more in our house, so we don't see reason to make
more of it at a time. I have maybe one small piece a day on average.

> I did have a problem drying the ginger enough that the added sugar
> would not dissolve in residual juice.

Yes, we had that, too, which is why the recommendation to put the
strainer over a bowl and leave it for a few minutes, shaking once in a
while, so that the ginger gets rid of all the surface liquid. That
seems to be sufficient. We then also leave it dry on the parchment
paper with its sugar for an hour or three as well - no need to hurry
that part of the process, either.

The amount of ginger syrup we ended up with was quite small because a
lot of the water cooked off, but that's OK for us because we don't use
the syrup that often. Overall, the amount of water, sugar, and ginger
seems right for our needs but, as they say, your mileage may vary so
everyone ought not to take my suggestions as etched in stone tablets.

-S-