Cocktails with Fresh ginger root
Fresh ginger root is an aromatic, pungent spice, used in the bar for juice, muddled flesh and syrup.
How it's used
Peel it with the edge of a spoon, which follows the knobs a peeler cannot. For juice, grate it fine and squeeze through a cloth: the root is fibrous and a blender gives you pulp. Heat changes it as much as drying does, so a cooked syrup bites differently from raw juice in the same drink. Citrus, honey and whiskey are its standard partners, and a Penicillin uses all three.
Substitutes for Fresh ginger root
Bottled ginger juice
The easiest swap: add a few drops at a time until the drink has the heat you want.
Ginger honey syrup
Where a drink has sugar or honey syrup, it replaces that one for one. Simmer 100 g of sliced ginger with 360 ml of honey and 120 ml of water for five minutes. Chill overnight and strain.
Ground ginger
A quarter teaspoon replaces a teaspoon of grated root. It tastes sharper and lacks the citrus note. Double-strain to catch the grit, though a light haze stays.
Galangal
Not a substitute: it tastes of citrus, black pepper and pine, with no warm ginger heat.
Storage
Whole and unpeeled in the fridge it keeps a couple of weeks and shrivels instead of rotting. Cut or peeled it dries out in days. It freezes indefinitely and grates straight from frozen, which is the easiest way to keep it if you use it in small amounts.
