Actually, I think you get different things from the same garlic depending on whether you crush or slice. Of course, if you’re in prison with a lot of time on your hands and a razor blade, you can slice garlic really, really thin. But I gather you have to be a made man to get privileges like that.
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I do this also in addition to buying bulbs, but you have to use a ton of it. Any prepared garlic will lose quite a bit of the essential oils, even pre-peeled garlic (which I’ve only seen in restaurants). Of course, I sincerely believe that even garlic does not have enough garlic in it. More, please.
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Yeah and under blind taste tends crushing with presses leads to descriptions like “farty” and “acrid”.
Apparently doesn’t matter for long cooked applications. But I don’t likes my garlic farty.
You can get it by the jumbo jug at most super markets. You won’t lose any “essential oils” it tastes and functions the same so long as you use it before its starts to spoil.
Pre-chopped jars are usually past their prime. Again nothing to do with essential oils. But they tend to be well oxidized, even a little fermented. Leads to some off flavors. And it starts to taste duller and blander the longer the jar is opened.
Not too sure about that. I worked at an Italian restaurant that would not use pre-peeled garlic, meaning I had to do that by hand almost daily, Very time consuming. And I do think that exposing a clove to air will cause it to lose some flavor in time. So, maybe not ‘essential oils’ but essential something. Also, there is the whole problem of just how fresh the bulk bulbs you buy are. Old ones go bitter. I can eat a raw clove easily from fresh garlic (and like it). And then again, garlic is seasonal and different varieties are sold at different time. You may have sometimes seen purple-tinged garlic which is different from white garlic. OK, I am really gonna have to bone up on some of this, but I at least partially know what I’m talking about.
I get it in the big jugs. We use a LOT of garlic in our home cooking. Garlic rice, Indian food, lots of Filipino food, etc., etc. So our garlic from the jug doesn’t spoil. However, if you don’t use it quickly enough… it definitely goes bad.
You’re thinking of volatile compounds/aromatics. Which will offgas from certain food items (especially when heated) over time.
But alliums like garlic and onions. Don’t produce most of their important flavor compounds until you start breaching cell walls. Which is why you get different flavors based on how they’re cut.
Pre cut alliums will get very strong, and very acrid quite quickly. Before their flavor rapidly drops off. The chemical reactions responsible peter out and the important flavor compounds start to turn into other things as they’re exposed to oxygen. Some of those things can taste pretty nasty.
The prepeeled stuff doesn’t really have the ability to do any of that. Since its cell walls haven’t been breached. Its known for being milder. Often due to the variety of garlic used. Or since its older (older garlic will do this even in the skin its just faster all exposed to air). But if its fresh as hell (and I used to be able to get it from a place that peeled in store every few hours) it tastes identical. I’ve checked.
Personally I don’t buy the stuff as I can’t blow through a container before it spoils without making a lot of dishes that involve hand fulls of full cloves.
I get that. Actually, I think a whole lot of restaurants do. I’ve certainly worked in a few. Garlic is such a weirdly delicate thing.
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Thank you for an informative reply. One thing I’ve learned from kitchens is that you never, EVER, know enough things about it.
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I crush garlic with my teeth. The saliva helps to soften the piquancy without losing any flavor.
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It’s also curved like a banana. Just look at it.
I agree. It’s kind of like cow bell.
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OK, it’s behind a paywall and it’s Murdoch, but this article (Sunday Times) explained that (in UK at least) Chinese garlic has other chemicals added in processing/drying (like bleach to make it white, among others) and is concave at the base with no root base visible (how to tell which is which) and the older any garlic is the more it will give you garlic breath/fartiness etc. Fresh European garlic (no concave base) that is NOT from some cold store (they store it and dry it and release it to supermarkets during the year to ensure continuous supply) is much more likely to avoid these farty/bad breath, etc. problems.
“and my fingers stink for days.”
I find washing while using a piece of stainless steel like a bar of soap helps get the scent off. A fork or such will do or you can buy “special” hunks of metal in those tatty gift catalog from Spencer and such if they are still around.
Well that’s a different issue. I’m talking about tasting like farts. Tasting acrid and bitter.
I’m not about to trust too many British newspapers in science. Most of them are full of the dumbest, most fearmongering science out there. Particularly when it’s over concerns about foreign vegetables ruining your classicly British white man’s breath.
But different varietals of garlic do taste different.
Purple garlic. Variously described as Chinese, Mexican, Italian or other things. It’s really just a different varietal that’s grown world wide and preferred in some countries. It’s K own for being milder and less pungent the. White garlic. Which gets labeled English, American, European, among other things. And I’ve seen plenty of reliable sources recommend purple if your afraid of stinky breath or don’t like strong garlic.
The thing with the garlic presses is they break up a lot more cells than any form of cutting (or even a mortar and pestil). Creates a lot more of the sulfer compounds that are responsible for the “hot” burny taste you get with alliums. They’re also the thing in onions that make you cry.
That’s a feature.
Well I think you can trust this one as it was not “news” (fake or otherwise) but was in the magazine and the author is a well known and trusted food writer.
No, perhaps I should have been clearer, I (and the article) was about garlic grown in and imported from China and that grown in Europe, and was (being the Sunday Times) aimed at a British audience.
Hope that’s cleared things up for you, even if it was apparently about something other than what you were referring to - all grist to the garlic (discussion) mill, eh?
I rarely advocate anything to anyone but thoroughly agree with you on these knives.
I bought the 8-inch chefs knife for my mum with arthritis an xmas ago after falling in love with Victorinox boning knives on a tally boning chain.
It’s probably my best gift ever given (appreciated every day) and there’s zero chance of losing grip - even with fat saturated hands. Their quality and comfort cannot be overstated.
I rebel instinctively against unitaskers.
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