This is way too much work. What about a cheap garlic press and a good squeeze? Probably no more than 2 seconds.
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Way slightly less work than what I’ve been doing. 
To answer your question … the garlic press leaves like half of the garlic still in the press and none of it especially well mushed either. The only reason this video takes more time than the press is because he’s demonstrating several techniques.
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I know what you mean and the one’s that I used in the past were like that, but there are really good one’s out there that can poke all the garlic through the grid without wasting much. I managed to find one on aliexpress for like $4. I do admit that you have to make sure you peel the cloves really well, because the skins don’t go through it very well.
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By the time I’m done peeling it the non-Jacques Pépin way, I may as well have done it by hand with just a knife (and garlic lol @anon24181555 ) anyway. Besides, there’s something fun about doing it with knife work. The press looks like it’d be fun but I’m always left
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I do admit this guy does have a good way of peeling garlic. Peeling is my least favorite part of working with it too. You get that skin and garlic smell on your fingers and it does take time.
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Its significantly easier if you put a little coarse salt on the smashed cloves before masticating them with the knife. The little extra grit helps to break up the fibers in the garlic a little better.
This will work in a cocktail shaker too. It doesn’t work quite as well, but its suitable for smaller volumes of garlic than the bowl trick. One of the critical things is that there has to be space between the bowls. The cloves need to knock into the wall and each other. If they’re pinched between the 2 bowls you’re just waving table ware around. If you don’t have bowls that nest properly you can toss a plate over one of them.
If anyone’s curious. Serious Eats did a test of various ways to mince/finely break down garlic:
Highlights include garlic press garlic being described as messy and “farty”. One of the few times I’ve ever seen anyone bother to taste test the results of those things against other methods. Notably a mortar and pestle gets you the same level of garlic intensity without the mess or “farty” notes and more thorough break down.
Microplaned garlic is apparently harsh and bitter to the point where its out and out bad. But long cooking (several hours) largely erases the flavor differences.
My take away is: Garlic Press, no. Microplane, hell no. Mortar and pestle, yes please. Otherwise I’m sticking with waving knives around.
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I’ve been looking all over for that article. I couldn’t remember where I’d read it. Thank you!
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The answer to that question is almost always Serious Eats. Even if you didn’t read it there it was likely ripped off or aggregated from them. And on the off chance some one does cover a subject independently or before they get to it SE almost always did it better.
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For 15 years, I have been using a pre-dotbomb swag pyrex coffee mug to separate the cloves from the skin and crush the garlic - kinda like the company did to its employees.
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Which also happens to often be the exact lifetime of a cheap garlic press.
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I had to produce lots of fresh chopped garlic for an Italian restaurant (and none of the pre-peeled Sysco crap). I was taught to break the bulbs, clear away most of the dross and then soak the cloves in cold water for about 30 min. This softens the skin nicely and allows you to peel with a paring knife moderately quickly while removing the stem. And, as I found out the hard way one day, prevents the chemical burn you can get when playing with large amounts of garlic.
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10 seconds of effort is “too much work”? I guarantee you I could mash up an entire head of garlic this way faster than you could with a garlic press (and I can do it even faster in the mortar and pestle). And as the article I previously link to points out the garlic press make it taste bad.
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Rub your fingers on stainless steel. (Not your knife.) The kitchen faucet works well. I don’t know the precise chemistry of it, but the sulfur compounds responsible for the smell are attracted to steel more than skin.
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This time, vertical video would have been appropriate. That or a tighter closeup of the cutting board.
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Even if that is true, the cleanup for a garlic press is always messy and cumbersome, your seconds of time gained will surely be lost there.
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I am in awe, and now have a plan for Saturday afternoon.
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I don’t understand. There’s no screaming or racial epithets. Is this a cooking show?
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Sad heavy knife x broadsides and a back sweep goes to just breathe at a Whole Foods’ bakery a bit, do all-garlic fall planting, plot making a garlc stretch rayon fab (why should it just be bamboo?) for fun.
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I use a similar knife method, with the addition of some course salt as already mentioned in the thread. With the salt you don’t really need the rocking knife chopping to finish it off, I just use the top-part of the knife (similar chef’s knife as in the video), bent onto the chopping board to add extra force, dragging the knife towards me with a twist of the wrist (you can use the fingers of your other hand on the dull edge of the blade for extra force/stability if required), releasing it, and repeating, gathering up the mush into one spot again with the edge of the blade when required.
When making a curry I usually puree a couple of bulbs with the same weight in ginger in a food processor, with a bit of water and some oil, then freeze what I’m not using in those plastic takeaway condiment containers to save time for later curries.
A whole bulb roasted is great as well, good base for a roast veg salsa, or to add to a soup. Always break up a bulb and throw it in as part of the veg trivet for any roast as well, essential along with the onion for any gravy.
Garlic presses are terrible, you have to drag out the half of the clove that remains stuck in the contraption and chop that manually anyway. Complete waste of time.
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