Patience and Ginger Confit, Part 4

Finally, after 5 days the ginger is ready to be canned. Sterilize the jars, keep them pristine -- no fingers since you are a mold that will contaminate them -- and fill them with the ginger in its syrup which has been drained and brought to a boil one last time. No cold liquid into hot canning jars.

If you do all of these steps properly -- the chopping, soaking, boiling, boiling, boiling, boiling, soaking, boiling, soaking, boiling, canning -- the ginger will keep for years. Love springs eternal. But once open, once disturbed, once you start to enjoy a jar, it lasts no more than a few months. Your contagion and air itself get inside and break down everything you worked so hard, and waited so patiently, to preserve.

But after five days I think it's always worth it, the effort. If it's this good, it's always worth it. Whether it last a week, a month, or a year, I have ginger confit.