Dave Smith wrote:

> This time I boiled the peeled and slice ginger root for 40 minutes,
> poured off the water and then added equal parts water and sugar and
> let it boil for another three hours, cranking the heat up and let it
> boil down to a thick syrup. I poured it through a sieve, let it
> drain, then put the ginger sliced on a couple of cookie racks to dry
> and cook, over cookie sheets with wax paper to catch the drips. After
> the stopped dripping I put them in the oven with the light on
> and let them dry for about 18 hours. They were nice and dry and I
> put them in a Tupperware container with some granulated sugar and
> tossed to coat.
> Given that the ginger was 97 cents a pound, and I used three cups of
> sugar, and ended up with more than a pound of candied ginger, and it
> costs $16.95 a pound at the bilk store.....

I think all this can be explained - needed cooking time is related to
the thickness of your pieces of ginger. We cut ours about as thin as we
can by hand, and find that 90 minutes in simple syrup does the trick. 3
hours seems way overkill unless you've got some pretty chunky ginger
pieces which, if that's what you like, is what you'd have to do. The
thinner pieces also end up tasting sweeter since there's more surface
area, hence more sugar to ginger in your mouth.

Our procedu

1. We put the equal parts sugar and water on the heat while we're
peeling and cutting the ginger. Once the liquid is clear, we add the
ginger, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for about 90 minutes.

2. I strain them pretty thoroughly, usually positioning the strainer
over the kitchen sink and letting the ginger sit for 10 minutes or so,
shaking and stirring once or twice to make sure all the water drips
out - this also lets it cool enough to handle.

3. Then we put a layer of sugar on the parchment or wax paper, put the
ginger pieces on, and turn them a few times to coat, after which we let
them dry until, well, until they're dry.

-S-