Ginger - Books - Famous Chinese Shopping City

March 8, 2014


		1 Introduction 2 Culinary uses 3 Economics and distribution 4 Medicinal uses 5 Other uses 6 Gardening 7 Similar species 8 See also 9 External link 10 Notes

Famous Chinese Shopping City Books

Ginger

Wikipedia

This article refers to the plant species Zingiber officinale. For other "Ginger" articles, see Ginger (disambiguation).

Taxobox begin | color = lightgreen | name = Zingiber officinale<br />StatusSecure
Taxobox image | image = Image:Ginger.jpg|200px| | caption =
Taxobox begin placement | color = lightgreen
Taxobox regnum entry | taxon = Plantae
Taxobox divisio entry | taxon = Flowering plant|Magnoliophyta
Taxobox classis entry | taxon = Liliopsida
Taxobox ordo entry | taxon = Zingiberales
Taxobox familia entry | taxon = Zingiberaceae
Taxobox genus entry | taxon = Zingiber
Taxobox species entry | taxon = Z. officinale
Taxobox end placement
Taxobox section binomial botany | color = lightgreen | binomial_name = Zingiber officinale | author = Roscoe
Taxobox end
Ginger root is used extensively as a spice in many if not most cuisines of the world. Though called a root, it is actually the rhizome of the monocotyledon|monocotyledonous perennial plant|perennial plant Zingiber officinale. The active constituent of fresh ginger is gingerol, a relative of capsaicin. When ginger is dried, the gingerol molecules are converted into the much more pungent shogaols. Cooking ginger transforms gingerol into zingerone, which is less pungent and has a spicy-sweet aroma.<sup id="fn_(1)_back">#fn_(1)|(1)</sup>
Image:ARS_ginger.jpg|thumb|right|25.4-pound ginger root

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Culinary uses

Young ginger roots are juicy and fleshy with a very mild taste. They are often pickled in vinegar or sherry as a snack or just cooked as an ingredient in many dishes. Mature ginger roots are fibrous and nearly dry. The juice from old ginger roots is extremely potent and is often used as a spice in Chinese cuisine to cover up other strong odors and flavors such as in seafood and mutton.

Ginger is also made into candy, is used as a flavoring for cookies and cake, and is the main flavor in ginger ale, a sweet, carbonated, non-alcoholic beverage. A ginger-flavored liqueur called Canton (liqueur)|Canton is produced in the Guangdong province of China; it is advertised to be based on a recipe created for the rulers of the Qing Dynasty and made from six different varieties of ginger. Green ginger wine is produced in the United Kingdom traditionally Crabbie's and Stone's, in a green glass bottle.

In Japan, ginger is pickled to make beni shoga and Gari (ginger)|gari or grated and used raw on tofu or noodles.

In Western cuisine, ginger is traditionally restricted to sweet foods, such as ginger ale, gingerbread, ginger snaps (a type of cookie), ginger cake and ginger biscuits.

Powdered dry ginger is used to add spiciness to gingerbread and other recipes. It tastes quite different from fresh ginger, and neither can be substituted for the other.

Ginger has a sialagogue action, stimulating the production of saliva.

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Economics and distribution

Ginger is grown throughout the tropical areas of the world. The most expensive and highest quality varieties generally come from Australia, South India, and Jamaica, while most mass market ginger is grown in China.

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Medicinal uses

Medical research has shown that ginger root is an effective treatment for nausea caused by motion sickness, morning sickness or other illness. Ginger root also contains many antioxidants. Powdered dried ginger root is made into pills for medicinal use. Chinese women traditionally eat ginger root during pregnancy to combat morning sickness. Ginger ale and ginger beer have been recommended as "stomach settlers" for generations in countries where the beverages are made. Ginger water was commonly used to avoid heat cramps in the United States in the past.

The chacteristic odor and flavor of ginger root is caused by a mixture of zingerone, shoagoles and gingerols, volatile oils that compose about 1%–3% by weight of fresh ginger. The gingerols have analgesic, sedative, antipyretic, antibacterial, and GI tract motility effects.

Ginger is on the GRAS list from FDA.

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Other uses

Some members of the BDSM community employ "figging" as part of their repertoire, which features the genital application (typically insertion) of peeled ginger root to create a warming sensation. The practice of "figging" is largely regarded as first reaching mainstream BDSM in 1997 when New Zealand rockstar Samuel Robert Whitehead devoted two songs to it in his garage album "Born to be Ginga". Although the album itself had little international influence the hype it created in New Zealand quickly spread across the globe.

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Gardening

Image:Ginger-flower.jpg|thumb|right|Flowers of the ginger plantGinger produces clusters of white and pink flower buds that bloom into yellow flowers. Because of the aesthetic appeal, and the adaptivity of the plant to warm climates, ginger is often used as landscaping around subtropical homes.

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Similar species

Myoga (Zingiber mioga Roscoe) appears in Japanese cuisine; the flower buds are the part eaten.

Another plant in the Zingiberaceae family, galangal, is used for similar purposes as ginger in Thai cuisine. Galangal is also called Thai ginger. Also referred to as galangal, Fingerroot (Boesenbergia rotunda), or Chinese ginger or the Thai krachai, is used in cooking and medicine.

A dicotyledon|dicotyledonous native species of eastern
North America, Asarum canadense, is also known as "wild ginger", and its root has similar aromatic properties, but it is not related to true ginger and should not be used as a substitute because it contains the carcinogen aristolochic acid. This plant is also a powerful diuretic, or urinary stimulator. It is part of the Aristolochiaceae family.

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