Witnessing the century-old traditional ginger jam village in Hue
Việt Nam•08/01/2025
HUE – To have a batch of ginger jam with the right flavor for Tet, long-standing ginger jam workshops in Hue have to be meticulous, the most important step being the ginger stewing step.
Every time the Lunar New Year is approaching, the bustling atmosphere in traditional craft villages makes people excited. In Kim Long ward, Phu Xuan district, near Hue Citadel (Hue city), establishments and households making traditional ginger jam are busy preparing for the upcoming Tet season. These workshops are originally from Kim Long village, famous for many types of traditional Hue cakes and jams. Kim Long ginger jam village has a history of hundreds of years. This is where batches of ginger with the right flavor are made, famous throughout the region. Coming to Kim Long on the days before Tet, you can see the tall columns of smoke rising from the households making ginger jam. Mr. Nguyen Van Dan (66 years old) and his wife and workers are taking turns making ginger jam. Mr. Dan, with his nearly 40 years of experience, is in charge of the kitchen. Mr. Dan said that long-time jam makers in Kim Long often order fresh ginger from Cam Lo district (Quang Tri) and some places in Hue. It is known that ginger from these two regions is not too spicy, not too old, and is the right ingredient to make jam. After the seller brings the fresh ginger to the facilities in Kim Long, there will be a group of people in charge of scraping the ginger, washing it and then cutting it into thin slices. Next, rinse the ginger with water to release the sap inside, then boil the ginger. Boil until the ginger starts to darken in color, becomes supple and tough, then rinse with clean water one last time. The drained ginger will be mixed with sugar and then stewed. The formula of 1kg of ginger plus 1.2kg of sugar will produce 1kg of jam. After stewing, the worker will have to dry the jam, sift the sugar, then put it in a box to dry, and it will take half a day to package it. The most important and difficult step in making ginger jam is simmering the ginger with sugar. The worker must be able to withstand the heat of the furnace, constantly light the fire, constantly stir the ginger, making sure the ginger and sugar do not burn but also avoid crushing the batch of ginger. Ms. Nguyen Thi Be (66 years old, Mr. Dan's wife) said that her family's facility will start making ginger jam from the end of December 2024 and will stop production from January 22-24, 2025. "This ginger jam can be preserved for 3 months and 10 days. In a few days, someone will come to sell it everywhere," Ms. Be said. Kim Long ginger jam is a typical and famous craft of Hue, which has existed for hundreds of years, closely associated with the lives of Hue people since the Nguyen Dynasty until now. Ginger jam is a jam offering to ancestors and is an indispensable jam during Tet and Hue culture. Currently, the ginger jam making craft in Kim Long is still developing and is recognized as a traditional craft village of the ancient capital.
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