Three and a half days in a makeshift 'oven' — then dehydrated for about 3 hours.
Not the same as the RioRand black garlic that I recently acquired.
Not bad, just not the same — similar in some ways but a bit more 'garlicky', not as sweet, not as 'raisiny' as the RioRand.
I'll taste it again after it's rested for a week or two.
Given that they're not the same sub-variety or cultivar of garlic and likely not the same subspecies....there's no telling how similar they'd be even if the same process was followed.
Anyway, my garlic from the garden isn't ready yet, so — because I have the patience and attention span of a gnat — I asked the better-half to pick up some garlic on the way home from work.
Two bulbs of unequal size — one internally malformed.
I should have waited and selected some better stuff, oh well.
I soaked the whole bulbs in water for about an hour.
Wrapped each bulb in moist paper towel (about 3/4" to 1" thick.)
Then wrapped them fairly tightly with foil.
Poked a tiny hole in the foil top and bottom.
To smooth out temperature fluctuations, I put two 7 pound solid aluminum bricks in my small electric smoker — no, smoke, of course. That's for another time.
The smoker was preheated to 185 to 190 degrees and stayed in that temperature range for the entire three and a half days.
I put the garlic in a clay flower pot flipped over on it's base which was set on top of the aluminum bricks.
I turned the garlic over every 12 hours.
I removed the bulbs from the 'oven' this morning at 5:00AM, pulled them apart and dehydrated them for about 3 hours.
Next I'll try the method (or similar) that Kerry posted about above.