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How to Choose Good Ginger: Aroma, Freshness, and Everyday Kitchen Uses
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Quick Summary
Learn how to choose good ginger, what freshness looks like, how to store it, and where ginger fits best in tea, cooking, and everyday kitchen use.
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Ginger goes into almost everything in a Kerala kitchen: tea, curries, chutneys, pickles and home remedies. Good ginger makes a real difference. Here's how to pick it, store it, and when to use dry ginger instead.
How to choose fresh ginger
| Check | Good sign | Avoid |
|---|---|---|
| Feel | Firm and heavy for its size | Soft, spongy or light |
| Skin | Thin, smooth, slightly shiny | Deeply wrinkled or shrivelled |
| Snap | Breaks cleanly with a crisp snap | Bends or feels fibrous |
| Smell | Sharp and lemony when scratched | Weak or musty |
| Inside | Pale yellow and juicy | Dry, grey or with dark rings |
| Mould | None | Any white or blue fuzz |
Young ginger, with very thin pinkish skin, is milder and juicier, good for pickles. Mature ginger is more fibrous and hotter, good for curries and tea.
How to store it
- Whole, unpeeled: in a paper bag or container in the fridge's vegetable drawer; it keeps a few weeks.
- Cut pieces: wrap the cut end or keep in a closed container in the fridge and use soon.
- Long term: freeze whole pieces and grate straight from frozen.
- Ginger-garlic paste: keep refrigerated in a clean, dry jar and use within a week or so.
Fresh vs dry ginger (chukku)
Dry ginger is sharper and hotter. It's used in chukku kappi, payasam and some masalas. As a rough guide, use about a third as much dry ginger powder as you would fresh ginger.
Everyday uses
- Crushed into tea with cardamom on a rainy morning
- Julienned in Kerala stew and moilee
- As ginger-garlic paste in curries
- In inji puli, the sweet-sour ginger pickle of the sadya
Ginger has reasonable evidence for easing nausea, and many people find it soothing when they have a cold.
We don't currently sell ginger, but it pairs with everything we do sell. Try it with our cardamom in chai, or black pepper in pepper tea.
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