I did not know how to cook garlic until I was 20 years old. In fact, I didn’t even know you could. The only garlic in my house was garlic salt and garlic powder. And then I went to work in an Italian restaurant.
Garlic can be added to just about anything IF you know how to treat it so it doesn’t overpower.
Once you learn how to cook garlic, you’ll never buy jarred garlic again, and your family will thank you.
How to Cook Garlic: The Anatomy of Garlic
A head of garlic is also called a bulb of garlic. When you buy garlic, the head itself should be nice and firm and the skin should be white, dry and papery. There is the root end that is brown and about the size of a nickel. The top of the garlic head is pointy and sometimes has an inch of dried tops still visible. Each head is made up of dozens of cloves. Each clove is covered with skin that needs to be removed before you can chop, mince, or slice it.
How to Cook Garlic: Preparing the Clove
Kitchen rules state that the smaller your preparation of the clove, the stronger the taste and smell grow. Therefore, putting the clove trough a garlic press will release the most oil and juice, taste and aroma. Most recipes don’t call for a lot of pressed garlic. If you have youngsters that suspect you of trickery, this is the best way to add raw garlic because it is too small to pick out of sauce.
Do you remember Clemenza making sauce in the Godfather ? He was slicing the garlic with a razor blade. Some old school Italians swear it’s the only acceptable method of preparation. When you are learning how to cook garlic, you’ll find that every chef has his favorite way, and you should try all of them.
Cracked garlic is self explanatory. Take the peeled garlic and whack it with the board side of your chef’s knife. If the recipe calls for chopped garlic, just run your knife through the cracked garlic a couple of times.
And sometimes Mother Nature is perfection on her own. A clove of garlic, straight out of its skin and tossed into a pot is all you need to add another layer of flavor to your dish.
How to Cook Garlic – In Pasta Water
Bring a little pan of water to the boil and drop in your cloves. It takes approximately ten minutes to cook a clove of garlic to softness. To boil or not to boil garlic can cause a heated discussion amongst cooks. Some say that it ruins the garlic. Some say that boiling takes the “bite” out of it, and allows people with digestive issues to eat it.
How to Cook Garlic – In the Skillet
You do not want your garlic to brown or burn under any circumstance because it will turn bitter. Start with the onions or any other vegetables in a little olive oil. Let them start to glisten and sweat a little before you add your garlic cloves. However, if the recipe doesn’t have any other veggies in it, you can just go slow with the garlic. Start on low heat and keep it there. Don’t get side tracked. If you do burn it, singe it or brown it, toss everything out and start over. And wipe the pan out. Burned garlic will ruin anything in the pan with it.
How to Cook Garlic – In the Oven:
This is by far the easiest way to cook garlic, and the most flexible. Take your whole head of garlic and knock all the loose paper skin off. Now, don’t peel it, just get rid of any dry bits that are on the verge of flaking off. With a sharp knife, cut the pointy end off the head, NOT the root end. You are trying to get down to the tips of the cloves. Usually it will be about 1/3 of the total head.
Place the head of garlic, cut side up, on a piece of aluminum foil. Drizzle the garlic with a tablespoon of olive oil. Let it sit for a few minutes and then pour on another tablespoon of olive oil. Bundle up the foil over the top of the garlic head.
Baking temperature and time can be whatever works for you. If you are already using the oven to bake a casserole or a roast, you can throw in your garlic packet too. Roast the garlic at 350-400 degrees for 30 to 60 minutes.
Allow the garlic head to cool. The individual cloves will squeeze right out of their skins.
And what can you do with roasted garlic? What can’t you do? Roasting garlic makes it very mellow and succulent. You can eat it just the way it is. Or, you can smash it and:
·(the Alice from Arlo Guthrie’s song Alice‘s Restaurant) once said, “Tomatoes and oregano make it Italian; wine and tarragon make it French. Sour cream makes it Russian; lemon and cinnamon make it Greek. Soy sauce makes it Chinese; garlic makes it good.
