Ginger root is packed with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory benefits, and its warm, slightly spicy flavor adds a punch to both sweet and savory dishes. But picking fresh ginger can be a gamble—it’s tough to know exactly what to look for to ensure you’re picking the freshest piece.
The first thing you should look at when picking through ginger is its skin. “When choosing ginger, look for plump, firm, unwrinkled products,” Vivian Villa, chef and founder at unbutter.ca told Health.
Fresh ginger has smooth, unwrinkled, taught skin. As it ages and loses moisture, the skin on ginger becomes rough, shriveled, and dry, which indicates that the ginger is past its prime.
As ginger ages, it loses moisture, resulting in dehydration and a lighter weight.
When picking out ginger, notice how the piece feels in your hand. Fresh ginger feels dense and firm, not light and soft. “The weight of the ginger should feel dense, if it is too light the ginger has likely dried out,” Kristen Carli, MS, RD, dietitian from WOWMD told Health.
Lighter pieces that look shriveled signals that the ginger root has lost most of its moisture from sitting in storage or on the shelf too long.
Carli recommends using your nose when shopping for ginger. “Pick out ginger with a spicy smell,” she said. “ If you don’t smell anything, it’s likely the ginger has gone bad.”
A ripe ginger root should smell spicy, warm, and bright. If you barely detect a ginger smell or catch an “off” or moldy smell, the ginger isn’t worth buying. This is especially true if the ginger lacks a spicy smell and also shows signs like wrinkled skin or dehydration.
Compounds that give ginger its characteristic smell, like gingerols, decrease over time, which is why old ginger will have less flavoring power than fresh ginger.
When sorting through ginger root, pass on pieces that show any of the following::
- Soft or mushy areas
- Any kind of mold
- Slimy spots
While ginger with small defects, like isolated soft spots, can still be used after trimming off the imperfection, pieces that have widespread issues should be avoided or discarded.
The color of ginger can vary slightly, but fresh roots always have a light-brown to beige color. Avoid pieces with spots of discoloration, which is a sign that the ginger has gone bad.
Additionally, fresh ginger has thin skin. Thick or woody–looking skin develops when the ginger root has sat in storage and indicates that the piece isn’t fresh.
Although this trick only applies once you’ve brought the ginger home (or if the store lets you snap off a small piece), it’s still worth knowing.
Fresh ginger should break cleanly with a crisp snap to reveal bright yellow flesh with a strong, gingery aroma. If it bends instead of breaking, feels rubbery, or has dull, discolored flesh or an off smell, it’s likely past its prime.
After you’ve brought your ginger home, there are a few ways to keep it as fresh as possible while enjoying it in your favorite recipes:
- Refrigerate it: Store unpeeled ginger in an airtight container or bag. When stored in the fridge properly, fresh ginger can last up to 3 weeks.
- Freeze it: You can place whole, unpeeled ginger or chopped ginger in a freezer-safe container or bag and keep in the freezer for up to 6 months.
- Only peel what you need: If you have a large ginger root, only break off and peel what you need. Leaving the skin on the root will help preserve and protect the ginger’s texture and taste.
- Wrap peeled ginger in plastic: Before placing peeled ginger in your fridge, wrap it in plastic wrap to preserve its moisture.
- Avoid leaving ginger out on the counter: At room temperature, ginger will only last up to 5 days before it starts to dry out, lose its potency, and become fibrous.
- Dehydrate it: For long-term storage, you can dehydrate sliced ginger using a food dehydrator or your oven.
You can use fresh ginger to add flavor to soups, curries, sauces, marinades, dressings, and even smoothies. Fresh ginger can also be folded into baked goods, like sweet breads, pies, and cakes, and combined with honey, lemon, and hot water to make a soothing tea.
