Crafting and DIY projects are my jam. I recently saw an article about making fermented honey with ginger, and it sounded like something I wanted to try. Jeff was reading Friday Night Cocktails on Sunday, and he came across a recipe that called for Honey Ginger Syrup. Well, that sealed the deal. I would give it a try.
The recipe requires:
- raw honey naturally has yeast and bacteria (as well as antioxidants) required for fermentation. Commercial honey has been pasteurized, and the pasteurization process that makes it shelf-stable destroys the yeast.
- organic ginger has not been irradiated like commercial ginger. As a result, organic ginger has yeast in it that helps with fermentation, too.
That’s it! Just two ingredients.
First, sterilize the one pint glass jar and its lid by boiling them in water for 10 minutes.
Next, I used the edge of a spoon to remove the skin on the whole piece of organic ginger. Usually, I would use a vegetable peeler, but honestly, the edge of the spoon was faster, did as good a job as the peeler, and I wasn’t risking cutting myself using a spoon. Then I cut the ginger into small dice and put it in the sterilized jar. The ginger pieces should come up half way in the jar.
Pour at least a cup of raw honey into the glass jar. The honey should cover the ginger plus about one inch. Note, the ginger pieces floated to the top, so I used a wooden spoon to stir the mixture. Put the lid on the jar. For the next two weeks, you’re supposed to use a wooden spoon to to stir the honey-ginger mixture once a day.
Make sure you leave a couple of inches at the top of the jar for the liquid that comes out from the ginger during the fermentation process.
After two weeks, the ginger should darken in color. It should also float below the honey that has become more liquidy. You may see small bubbles on the surface of the honey. At this point, you can taste the honey and see if you like the taste. If you do, put the jar in the refrigerator and use it as you like. If you want a stronger flavor or more of a gingery bite, leave it on the counter for more time (though you don’t have to stir it everyday), but taste it to monitor when it has achieved a taste that you like.
That’s it!
I put my honey-ginger mixture together this evening, so I’ve got a couple of weeks to go to see if my “experiment” is a success or a failure.
But here’s my confession and my concern: my raw honey had crystallized, so I heated it to liquefy it again. When de-crystallizing raw honey, you have to be careful that you heat it slowly and at a low temperature so you don’t kill the yeast and bacteria. You should heat the water in a pan to about 110 degrees, remove the pan from the hot burner, and place the crystallized honey in a glass jar in the warm water. Let it sit for as long as necessary for it to liquefy. So, I guess in two weeks I will see if my honey-ginger ferments or stays about the same. If it doesn’t work out, I will toss it and try again with some fresh raw honey! Wish me luck, and I wish you luck if you try it!
Not only can you make honey-ginger syrup for cocktails from this ferment, but you can add it to your tea for more flavor, take a teaspoonful or more if you have a sore throat or are feeling under the weather. You can also drizzle it on fruit or on ice cream.
