Do I need to peel ginger before use? How to get rid of thin skin?

Ginger is increasingly used in the preparation of exotic and traditional dishes, added to tea, serves as the basis for making refreshing drinks. At the same time, many housewives today do not know how to peel ginger, which unknowingly deprive themselves of an impressive portion of useful components and essential oils.

These substances are located in the precious pulp that is adjacent to the peel, so the right choice of tool is very important. Some people still cannot decide whether it is necessary to completely rid the root of the skin if it is so thin and capricious. As practice shows, the correct answer to these questions is the key to obtaining the desired taste and aroma of the dish.

Do I need to peel ginger to make tea, jam, and other culinary delights?

Before peeling ginger, you need to decide what the product will be used for. In this case, the following rules apply:

1. Ginger for tea, refreshing drinks, sugaring and pickling does not need to be rid of the peel. Otherwise, the product will lose the delicate taste that the cook is counting on.
2. If there is no purpose to use the whole root in the next few hours, then we don’t peel off the skin. It is better to cut off the right amount of product and clean it.
3. The root vegetable, the pulp of which will go directly to food, must be cleaned necessarily. Without appropriate chemical exposure or prolonged heat treatment, the skin will be ordinary dirt, devoid of all useful components.

Tip: It is strictly forbidden to buy ginger root that has already been peeled in the store, even if the product is placed in a vacuum package and looks very attractive. Such products practically do not contain useful components and are absolutely useless to enhance the aroma of tea.

Effective and gentle cleaning methods for ginger root

Peeling ginger begins with preparing the root crop. It must be thoroughly washed in cool water (a warm liquid will negatively affect the condition of the product) and dried. Next, we take a sharp knife and carefully cut off all the bumps and branches from the twisty formation. Small ones can be thrown away, large ones will also be cleaned, but it is better to use them to enhance the taste of jam, tea or lemonade.

Ginger root can be peeled in one of the following ways:

• Using a spoon. The simplest and most gentle processing option, which is effective when exposed only to a very ripe product. During cleaning, only the skin itself is removed and the nutritional flesh is not affected. We hold the root in one hand and a spoon in the other, with the thumb resting on the convex side of the instrument. We begin to scrape the peel with confident movements, we act strictly in one direction. Depth of exposure should be kept to a minimum.

• With a knife or a razor. In this case, one must act in the same way as in the method with a spoon, but the movements must be performed as superficial as possible. The tool should be as sharp as possible. Do not try to peel the root of ginger on the principle of potatoes, so you can remove all the beneficial components.
• Using a peeler. We use the tool in the traditional way, but be sure to control the thickness of the cut skin, it should not exceed 1-2 mm. Only high-quality new peelers or special slicers are suitable for this method.
• Using a metal washcloth. We take a washcloth intended for cleaning pots. It should be new, not used, from a very thin wire.Ginger is placed in a bowl of cool water and after a minute we begin to rub the surface of the product. First we try to act in one direction. Only if this approach does not give the desired result, we begin to rub more intensively and change direction. The main thing is to maintain the same pressing force, otherwise you can cut the root in several places, depriving it of a significant part of aromatic oils.

• Using a dense brush. We take a toothbrush of the maximum degree of hardness, put the ginger root under a stream of cool water and begin to rub the skin with active movements with a light pressure. The approach can take a lot of time, but the final result will be the most optimal. With such an effect, only the extra layers are removed, the pulp remains unaffected, so ginger retains the maximum amount of essential oils and useful components.

These recommendations are conditional. To determine the correct approach, you can try both options for using ginger - with and without peel. Both approaches to the use of the product are absolutely safe for health and do not provoke any side effects.