Processing Methods and Technical Key Points for Honey-Crisp Ginger
This product is a wet-type candied fruit. Although it is mainly purely sweet in flavor, because the product is crisp and has a strong fresh tender ginger flavor, it is a popular candied snack. The processing technology is as follows:
1. Raw material: use the youngest part of fresh young ginger, cut into pieces about the size of a thumb, pink in color; the raw material appears delicate and small and is expensive.
2. Peeling: each piece of young ginger is about 1-2 cm long, and the ginger skin can be removed by manual rubbing.
3. Color protection and hardening measures: soak in 0.1% calcium dichloride and 0.1% sodium sulfite solution for 8 hours.
4. Preparing sugar liquid: the ratio of white sugar to raw material is 0.8:1. Prepare the white sugar into a 40% sugar liquid, add 0.1%-0.2% citric acid, 0.5% salt, and 0.05% potassium sorbate.
5. Sugar penetration: after boiling the above sugar liquid, add it to the young ginger and soak while hot. Use the multiple sugar penetration method. Every 1-2 days, heat and concentrate the sugar liquid separately, increasing the concentration by about 5% each time. After concentration, pour it back while hot to continue soaking. Repeat this operation every day or every other day. The production cycle is about 10-15 days. When each piece of ginger appears semi-transparent after absorbing sugar, it indicates that sugar penetration is close to saturation. At this time, the sugar liquid concentration reaches above 60%. Continue soaking for another 1-2 days, and sugar penetration is complete.
6. Drying: scoop the ginger pieces out of the sugar liquid, spread them on a drying tray, and place them in a 65 degrees Celsius drying room or dryer to dry until the moisture content reaches about 26%.
7. Packaging: exquisite small-box packaging.
Product quality: the ginger pieces are round or oval granules about 1.5 x 1.5 cm in size, pink in appearance, semi-transparent; in the semi-dry state, they are crisp when eaten, sweet with a slight sourness, slightly spicy, and have a relatively strong ginger flavor.