Can You Freeze Ginger? Whole Root or Grated Paste

Yes. America’s Test Kitchen freezes peeled pieces as its standard way to store ginger, and when it tested that method against alternatives for four weeks, the frozen ginger kept its flavor and was easy to grate.¹ Frozen ginger can be grated straight from the freezer without thawing.²

At a glance

Question	Short answer
Does ginger freeze well?	Yes. ATK found no flavor loss after four weeks.¹
Peel first?	Either works. ATK freezes peeled pieces; Food Network and Tasting Table freeze it unpeeled.¹²³
Whole or grated?	Both. Food Network gives the same 3 to 4 months for whole root and puree.²
How long?	Published figures run from 3 to 5 months (table below).
Thaw first?	No. Grate it frozen.⁴²

Why ginger freezes well

ATK’s explanation is that fresh ginger contains enzymes that break down its starch and pectin over time, and that freezing (like alcohol) inhibits them.¹ In its test, ATK compared frozen peeled ginger with peeled pieces kept in the refrigerator submerged in vodka, sherry or plain water. After four weeks, all the samples had equivalent ginger flavor, and the frozen, vodka and sherry samples were equally easy to grate. The sherry ginger picked up sherry flavor, and the ginger kept in water turned mushy and tangled in the grater.¹ ATK’s conclusion: freeze it, or keep it in vodka.¹

Freezing also helps with grating itself. ATK’s tip is to freeze ginger to make it easier to grate,⁴ which matters because ginger can stay fibrous when minced or coarsely grated.⁴

How long frozen ginger keeps

Source	Form	Freezer time
America’s Test Kitchen¹	Peeled pieces	Tested at four weeks with flavor intact; no maximum given
America’s Test Kitchen⁴	Wrapped nub	“Prolonged storage,” no figure
Food Network Kitchen²	Whole, unpeeled, wrapped	3 to 4 months
Food Network Kitchen²	Pureed, in teaspoon portions	3 to 4 months
Tasting Table³	Whole, unpeeled	Up to 5 months

These figures come from food publications, not storage studies, and none of them says how it was arrived at. We have not averaged them. Figures of nine months or more circulate online; we found no source for them. On safety, USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service says food kept constantly at 0°F will always be safe, and that only quality suffers with long freezer storage,⁵ so these are quality windows.

How to freeze ginger

Whole, unpeeled. Food Network wraps unpeeled ginger tightly in plastic wrap,² and Tasting Table starts with fresh, unpeeled root.³ When you need some, grate what you need from the frozen piece and return the rest to the freezer.²

Peeled pieces. This is ATK’s standard method: freeze the peeled nubs.¹ It saves a step later. No source we found compared how peeled and unpeeled ginger keep in the freezer.

Grated or pureed portions. Food Network peels the ginger, cuts it into chunks and purees it, then freezes teaspoon-size portions in a small ice cube tray before moving the cubes to a freezer bag or airtight container.² Portioning by the amount your recipes usually call for means a cube goes straight into the pan. Small mounds of grated ginger frozen on a lined baking sheet and then bagged work the same way (common practice).

A widely repeated tip says grated ginger is juicy enough to freeze into cubes without added liquid. That may be so, but we found no source for it.

Using frozen ginger

Grate it frozen. Food Network says frozen ginger can be grated without thawing,² and ATK freezes ginger specifically to make grating easier.⁴
Drop cubes in directly. Puree cubes go straight into stir-fries, sauces, curries and soups (common practice).
If you must thaw it, Tasting Table suggests microwaving in 15-second intervals.³ A common instruction to microwave it “for a few minutes” has no source we could find.
Flavor. A common claim says thawed ginger is milder than fresh. In ATK’s four-week test, frozen ginger kept equivalent flavor.¹ We found no test over a longer period.

Freeze or refrigerate?

For short-term use the refrigerator works, but published times vary widely:

Source	Fridge storage
America’s Test Kitchen⁴	Wrapped in plastic: a few days
Food Network Kitchen²	Unpeeled: up to 1 month; peeled: 2 to 3 weeks

For anything longer, ATK’s recommendation is the freezer or a jar of vodka in the fridge.¹ More options are in how to store ginger.

Not yet measured

How long frozen ginger keeps its flavor beyond ATK’s four-week test.
Whether peeled or unpeeled ginger keeps better in the freezer.
How thawing affects texture, compared with grating from frozen.

Two Ways to Store Ginger, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰
Layla Khoury-Hanold, How to Store Ginger, Food Network Kitchen. foodnetwork.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹
Molly Harris, To Make Ginger Root Last Longer, Store It In The Freezer, Tasting Table. tastingtable.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴
Megan Ginsberg, The Best Way to Grate Ginger, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Freezing and Food Safety, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service. fsis.usda.gov · Regulator ↩

Can You Freeze Ginger? Whole, Grated and How Long It Keeps