How to Cook with Garlic

Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 03:20 am

Garlic is a vital ingredient used in many dishes. Whether it is powdered, freshly cut or squeezed garlic can add a great flavor every time. This is one of the many reasons for its use for a long time thought history. In addition to its health benefit.

Garlic is a great addition to so many recipes that chefs all over the world use it daily. That aside what is garlic anyways?

What is Garlic?

Garlic is a pungent aromatic herb that is covered in a papery coat around a round bulb. Under the skin is 10-20 fragrant and potent cloves arranged around the center stem making up the herb.

At this point I doubt there is a kitchen without the papery herb, but past that lets see how to prepare it.

How to Prepare Garlic

First lets look at all the ways to prepare garlic.

1. A minor crushing of the clove is the easiest way to prepare the garlic. Take a knife and place the side of the blade against the clove and give it a weak whack, leaving on the papery skin. This is best for roasting or frying the garlic, this will give the meal a subtle flavor that will accent the other flavors.
2. The second is cutting it into thin slices. While some chefs don’t cut off the root of the garlic clove , it is up to you to whether you want to remove it or not. Now give it a whack like before but this time we peel off the papery skin and slice it up into thin usable slices. Garlic prepared in this way can be a great addition to stews as they will add a subtle flavor to the overall meal.
3. The third way is to cut it like a onion. First we crush the garlic clove slightly to get the skin off. Then we slice it lengthwise along the clove, then through the center of the clove horizontally at least once, you can slice it horizontally as many times as you can to make the slices thinner. Now we dice the clove into fine pieces.
4. Lastly is to crush it slightly to get the skin off. Now we use the side of a knife to crush the garlic into a paste. This will give a different flavor from any of the previous styles of preparing the garlic, and will give the meal the strongest garlic flavor possible with the least amount of the herb.

Keep in mind all of these ways of preparing garlic will each give a different flavor. All of these will be useful in different ways and in complementary meals, so try out one for yourself and see which one works for you!

When should you add Garlic in food?

As early as possible in almost every meal. In stews right after you add the liquid and turn on the heat to allow the garlic to start permeating through the water and into the stew itself.

Try adding it early with many other kinds of meals as it will add the most amount of flavor to the food. Try not to go overboard as some people can only handle a subtle garlic flavor in their food. So a full large pot stew with many ingredients you can likely add a full bulb of garlic as it will compliment the many other flavors in the meal while not being overpowering.

Just how many kinds of Garlic are there?

There is about 500-700 strains of garlic. This is further complicated with some strain of garlic looking completely different in different soil even on the same farm, let alone in the same country or region.

My Thanks

Thank you for reading my post on Garlic, it has been one of my favorite additions to as many meals as I can somehow fit it in. While in my many meals experimenting with it has been a fun journey (abet a bit of a gamble for my family to try my food as I experiment)

While there have been some times I put too much in, it is always interesting for me to think and test how much more flavor I can add as I try to add trying to make a meal better in any way possible.