China Moon Pickled Ginger:

3 lbs peeled fresh ginger, sliced paper thin against the grain
2 quarts rice vinegar
1 cup cider vinegar
1 cup distilled white vinegar
3 cups sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt

1. Cover ginger with boiling water, let stand 2 minutes, drain. Place ginger in large impeccably clean glass jar. (I would use half pint canning cars.)
2. Combine remaining ingredients in non-reactive pot. Stir over moderate heat just until salt and sugar dissolve. Pour over ginger.
3. Let cool completely, cover and refrigerate at least 24 hours before using.

Every pickled ginger recipe I can find is for refrigeration only, not canning. Since so many sources indicate that pickled gingers can be stored in the fridge for up to 6 months why not just make up the small jars of it and gift them with instructions for "Store in the fridge"?

Dave

I am guessing it's a quality issue, not a safety one, as the ginger is sliced paper thin.

Since your recipe is 100% vinegar, you could give it a shot on a trial basis.

The website I linked to below does provide a similar 100% vinegar/sugar recipe with canning instructions. The site is run by a Santa Barbara Master Food Preserver, so that combined with the fact there's no water dilution should assure a safe product. You might want to try her smaller batch to see how you like the results.

Carol

digdirt: The problem is I have a large quantity of ginger now. I have already candied some and made Helen Witty's Preserved Ginger in Syrup (which is just wonderful over vanilla ice cream). I don't really have refrigerator space to store jars until Christmas - and that seems like a long time anyway.

Carol: Thanks for vouching for the link. I had seen this - as well as another canned pickled ginger recipe on another blog - but I tend to be careful about canning recipes off blogs that I know nothing about. I think I will try a small batch to see how things come out.

Elaina

If you do can it let us know how the texture/consistency turns out, ok?

Dave

However, in this case we're talking about ginger in 100% vinegar, not soup thickened with ClearJel, and I just can't see a problem. I might can it if I had sufficient to justify.

I think one reason we're not generally seeing canning recipes for something like pickled ginger is it's not a high-demand product. It makes sense that someone in Santa Barbara would give it a shot.

(This is not a blanket OK to can ginger, as it is a low-acid product. Ginger preserves, for instance, would require acidification not unlike pepper jelly, and I have not run across an approved recipe outside the commercial food preservation world.)

Carol

A couple of caveats - I never get really fresh ginger. What's available at the grocery store probably isn't the best in the world, but it works fine in the refrigerated recipes. And a friend brought me a bottle of Rice Vinegar back from Japan - the only thing I could read on the label was "5%" LOL. It was much stronger tasting (and just overall different tasting) than the 4% stuff we get around here. So that could have been another reason. I didn't use any other types of vinegar in it as in the China Moon recipe, which sounds really good - thanks for posting it.

Hope you try canning it - let us know how it turns out.

Thanks
Carrie

Once again Linda Z to the rescue.

Carol