Can You Freeze Ginger? Whole Root or Grated Paste

Bought a hand of ginger and only need a thumb’s worth? Put the rest in the freezer. America’s Test Kitchen freezes peeled pieces as its standard method, and when it tested that against other options for four weeks, the frozen ginger kept its flavor and grated easily.¹ You grate it straight from frozen, no thawing, and published freezer times run from 3 to 5 months. Puree frozen in teaspoon cubes can go straight into the pan.

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.

Why ginger freezes well

ATK explains that fresh ginger has enzymes that break down its starch and pectin over time, and freezing (like alcohol) holds them back.¹ In its test, ATK put frozen peeled ginger up against peeled pieces kept in the fridge in vodka, sherry or plain water. After four weeks, all of them had the same ginger flavor, and the frozen, vodka and sherry samples grated equally well. The sherry ginger picked up sherry flavor, and the ginger in water went mushy and tangled in the grater. ATK’s verdict: freeze it, or keep it in vodka.¹

Freezing also makes grating easier. ATK’s tip is to freeze ginger for exactly that reason, which helps because ginger can stay fibrous when you mince it or grate it coarsely.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 come from food publications, not storage studies, and none of them says how it got its number. We haven’t averaged them. You’ll see figures of nine months or more online, but 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 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, and Tasting Table starts with fresh, unpeeled root. When you need some, grate off what you need and put the rest back in the freezer.

Peeled pieces. This is ATK’s go-to: freeze the peeled nubs. It saves you a step later. We didn’t find any comparison of how peeled and unpeeled ginger hold up 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 Portion it by the amount your recipes usually call for and a cube can go straight into the pan. Small mounds of grated ginger frozen on a lined baking sheet, then bagged, work the same way.

You’ll often read that grated ginger is juicy enough to freeze into cubes without added liquid. Could be, but we found no source for it.

Using frozen ginger

Grate it frozen. Food Network says you can grate frozen ginger without thawing, and ATK freezes ginger specifically to make grating easier.
Drop cubes in directly. Puree cubes go straight into stir-fries, sauces, curries and soups.
If you have to thaw it, Tasting Table suggests microwaving in 15-second bursts.³ The common advice to microwave it “for a few minutes” has no source we could find.
Flavor. People often say thawed ginger is milder than fresh. In ATK’s four-week test, frozen ginger kept the same flavor.¹ We found no test over a longer period.

Freeze or refrigerate?

The fridge is fine for the short term, but published times are all over the place:

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 recommends 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 past 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
Layla Khoury-Hanold, How to Store Ginger, Food Network Kitchen. foodnetwork.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶
Molly Harris, To Make Ginger Root Last Longer, Store It In The Freezer, Tasting Table. tastingtable.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³
Megan Ginsberg, The Best Way to Grate Ginger, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³
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