Good morning! I just did a first run of a cupcake recipe that I want to enter in my state fair this year. If I do say so myself, they came out very well but still need a bit of tweaking.

I used fresh ginger for the first time and had kind of a hard time grating it. Once I realized that the grater wasn't working I put it through my mini food processor. I now know I should have frozen it, and what's left of the root is in the freezer now.

My question is this...is freshly grated ginger always stringy? Or is that a result of me treating it badly? I noticed the stringiness as I was processing it and when I broke open a cupcake, the strings are slightly visible. I'm concerned that they'll be unappetizing...maybe mistaken for cat hair or something (ugh). Should I juice the ginger for round 2, or will it grate without stringiness when it's frozen?

Thanks so much!

what about mincing the ginger? I just baked a chocolate cake that asked for fresh ginger...altho, the julienne was first used to make a ginger syrup then chopped fine to incorporate in the batter... This way, it won't be stringy.

Hope that helps.

Yes it is. That is why you grate it. It breaks up the strings.

I've never tried it frozen. I'll have to try that. I do know that when I freeze ginger it gets limp when it thaws. But this is ginger that has been in the freezer for say two weeks and not overnight. That small amount of time in the freezer is different than a lengthy stay.

sweetpea223, making a syrup is an interesting thought that I may consider. One of the tweaks my recipe needs is a bit more liquid.

LindaF144a, I read on eHow that it is easier to grate the ginger when it's frozen. BUT as soon as I read the part of your post where it says grating breaks up the strings I realized that I was actually shredding it, not grating it . I used a mouli, with the piece of ginger on in its side which most likely exacerbated the stringiness.

Thank you both for your help!