Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2019/03/07/best-garlic-crusher.html
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Learn to use your chef’s knife and throw all the gadgets away. Although this is better than those hard to clean presses.
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I know how to use my Chef’s knife. I went to culinary school. I use one of these because 1) my partner can use it (who didn’t go to culinary school), 2) I can use it on a smaller surface. Not everything on my cutting board needs to be garlic-tinged, nor do I necessarily want to clean that surface and my knife if don’t want garlic in everything.
I use my chef’s knife if I want pureed garlic, because a little salt and the side of your knife is magic for pureed garlic. But that’s totally different than what the tool produces, with a different strength, texture, and use case.
Posts that amount to “You don’t need this, you’re just not good enough at X” are, IMHO, elitist virtue-signalling. If someone wants to have a dedicated tool to do something, It really isn’t going to mess with anyone else’s day. And they probably could care less that others (apparently) think less of them because of it.
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Unless you have a chef’s knife with tiny little holes to press garlic through, I don’t think you’ll have much success making crushed garlic with it. Diced garlic, sliced garlic, or chopped garlic, sure! But you need a press of some kind for crushed garlic bits. I’ll likely pick up one of these presses, because everything I’ve gotten (or gifted) from Joseph Joseph has been exceptionally well designed and well made.
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but then your fingers will smell like… #justboingboingthings
The whole “rub your fingers on stainless steel under running water” thing really is some sort of voodoo chemistry magic. It really does work, provided you rinsed off the sticky garlic goo from your fingers as well. 
They even sell little stainless steel bars shaped like soap for this wizardry:
https://www.amazon.com/Amco-8402-Stainless-Steel-Absorber/dp/B000F8JUJY/
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Keep reading!
You can even buy special stainless steel odor removers shaped like bars of soap, to do the same thing. But it’s cool that the garlic-crusher tool Mark recommends will do the same thing.
Ah , scooped by @orenwolf 
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and not that easy to clean.
Understatement? On my BoingBoing?
What heresy is this?
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But this tool is multi-function. It will also work on shallots, potatos, ginger, eggs, beef, pork, pedants, unruly children, arthritis, rheumatism, ED…
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I know where the garlic goes…
Jeez…how many times are you going to post about this thing, Mark? I have one and I love it (as it creates uniform chunks…and yes, I do know how to use a knife), but does this really warrant multiple posts on BoingBoing?
It does if it has an Amazon affiliate link in it!
Looks like Mark took 2016 off from flogging the garlic rocker to try using a chef’s knife on garlic…
Gotta say, though, repetition works. Now I totally will remember this garlic crusher.
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I happen to lean towards recipes that require garlic, so (being interested in related utensils and tricks) I purchased one of these. (That was several months ago.) It works great as long as you remember to remove all remaining skin around the clove… not just the papery portion but the very thin translucent,. easily overlooked portion that tends to stay stuck to the clove. Easily done… zero sweat… but I’ve found that the aforementioned thinner (inner) skin can immediately clog the crusher’s holes, with that preventing parts of the clove from making it through the crusher openings.
Happy crushing!
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I hope you didn’t wash those. They can keep the vampires away!
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I have one, and was very disappointed, especially at that pricepoint. I really had to work to hard, and there was way too much waste left in the holes which were hard to clean even with a brush. I really wanted it to work as it looks so nice, but the edges for cutting were far to dull to be able to cut the garlic neatly. I am back to my knife.
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