Back to Our Roots

These days, you may use ginger to add a little kick to your lekach, a traditional Ashkenazi honey cake. But Jews have been eating ginger—as a food and as a medicine—for thousands of years. The Talmud states that the spice benefits the entire body (Pesachim 42b). In the past, ginger was said to be a beneficial treatment for all kinds of ailments from nausea to rheumatism. The Jews of Cochin, India, liked to soak a cloth in ginger juice and use it to treat headaches, and muscle or joint pain. Yemeni Jews, on the other hand, used ginger and honey to relieve coughs or hoarseness, and claimed a mix of cinnamon and ginger improved your eyesight.

Ginger is thought to originate in oceanic Southeast Asia, where it has been cultivated since ancient times. Both the rhizomes and the leaves were used as a flavoring and for religious purposes, especially to ask for protection from spirits. Confucius is said to have eaten ginger with every meal. It was often grown in pots onboard Chinese ships and given to sailors to prevent scurvy. It was one of the earliest spices used in southwest India, which is now the largest producer of ginger in the world.

Ginger was also known to the ancient Greeks and Romans, who imported it from the East via the Red Sea or overland through present-day Iran, Syria, Jordan, and Israel. Two-thousand years ago, in his Roman cookery book, Apicius recommended adding ginger to a variety of stuffings and stews, such as peas a la Vitellius—boiled peas mixed with ground peppers, lovage, ginger, hard-boiled egg yolks, honey, liquamen (fermented fish sauce), wine, vinegar, and olive oil. To the ancient Romans, ginger was considered a luxury and a symbol of wealth. In the Middle Ages, ginger was widely used in Europe for medicinal purposes. It was also said to help treat the plague, maybe because it promotes sweating.

Today ginger is widely used in Chinese, Korean, Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese, and other Asian cuisines. In India, fresh or dried ginger appears in numerous curries and dhals, gravies, spice mixes, and drinks like masala chai and sambharam—a south Indian yogurt drink that also includes chilies, curry leaves, and salt. Powdered ginger is also made into kaflu—a mixture of gum resin, ghee, nuts, and sugar that is given to pregnant women and nursing mothers. In Japan, fresh ginger is often grated and used to flavor tofu or noodle dishes, or made into gari—a marinade of fresh ginger mixed with sugar, vinegar, and water that is traditionally served with sushi, to cleanse the palate. Ginger is also used to make a candy called shoga no sato zuke. In Burma (or Myanmar, as it is called today), pickled ginger is used to make a spicy salad called gyin-thot that includes all kinds of seeds, legumes (usually roasted or split soybeans), fried garlic chips, shallots, and chilies.

Fresh ginger is readily available in the West these days. When choosing ginger, the hands should be plump, not shriveled, with firm flesh that is not too fibrous. Fresh ginger has a milder flavor than dried ginger, with a somewhat less-spicy taste. Fresh ginger also makes a delicious herb tea—especially when combined with lemon and honey—that is widely used to treat colds and sinus infections.

Ginger is also very good pickled in vinegar. In fact, there is a shop in Delhi in northern India that sells 20-year-old pickled ginger that is said to be extremely pungent (a bit like the Italian herbal digestive Fernet-Branca) and is said to cure any illness.

Once the skin has been scraped away, fresh ginger can also be preserved in alcohol, especially vodka, dry sherry, brandy, sake, or rice wine. The process is very easy: Place the ginger in a clean glass jar, cover with alcohol, and refrigerate until needed. It should keep up to three weeks in the refrigerator. Not only does this preserve the ginger, it will also give you the bonus of ginger-infused alcohol. If left unpeeled, fresh ginger can also be stored in the refrigerator for up to three weeks, unless it looks wrinkled or starts to become moldy, in which case it should be thrown away.

In the United Kingdom, ginger is often made into drinks like ginger ale, ginger beer, and ginger wine, or made into “stem ginger”—also know as candied or crystalized ginger—which is usually preserved in sugar syrup. In European and American cooking, ginger is generally used in its powdered form to make cakes and cookies like gingerbread, parkin, and ginger snaps, as well as a variety of puddings, creams, and sweet sauces. Powdered ginger is also very good sprinkled over fruit, especially melons and peaches.

Ginger has many health benefits. It is said to help lower blood pressure, ease arthritis and period pains, soothe aching muscles, and ward off germs, especially viruses and bacteria like E.coli. Ginger tea is also said to be good for morning sickness and motion sickness, and may help reduce nausea after chemotherapy. Ginger is packed full of antioxidants that are thought to help prevent heart disease and lung disease, and is said to promote good health in old age.