Taming raw garlic

[Paul Bacino]

Ie-- for marinades as such.  Raw un-cooked.

 

Was playing with a Asian marinade w/ raw garlic.    The post linger palate effect seemed a bit acrid.

 

Is raw garlic good on its own?  I grow garlic, maybe mine is turning.  I'm out 5 months.  or should I poach it it ?

 

B

[heidih]

How are you prepping it? Smashed, chunks, press? Pus it varies in strength depending on variety, how processed for storage. 

[pastrygirl]

If there’s lemon or lime juice in the marinade, mix that with the garlic first and let it sit a few minutes. Or just use less ;) 

[MokaPot]

You can grate the garlic super fine. I have grated raw garlic on the finest Microplane grater and put it into salad dressings (vinegar is one of the ingredients). The garlic ends up garlicky but mild. I think the vinegar, etc., cooks the garlic.

[jmacnaughtan]

 

3 hours ago, Paul Bacino said:

Ie-- for marinades as such.  Raw un-cooked.

 

Was playing with a Asian marinade w/ raw garlic.    The post linger palate effect seemed a bit acrid.

 

Is raw garlic good on its own?  I grow garlic, maybe mine is turning.  I'm out 5 months.  or should I poach it it ?

 

B

 

I get the same thing in space pastes for curries - unless I cook the hell out of them, I find it hard to get rid of the acrid garlic taste.

 

19 minutes ago, MokaPot said:

You can grate the garlic super fine. I have grated raw garlic on the finest Microplane grater and put it into salad dressings (vinegar is one of the ingredients). The garlic ends up garlicky but mild. I think the vinegar, etc., cooks the garlic.

 

 

I find the exact opposite - grating it fine makes it the most powerful (because it ruptures all the cells?).

 

Now, I dice it finely like an onion into, well, very fine dice. They add fragrance but don't dominate, so much so that I now dice a couple of cloves and add them at the beginning, middle and end of a preparation.

 

Also try degerming the garlic - apparently the green shoot is where a lot of the acridity comes from.

[Okanagancook]

Here's some advice from Food52:  https://food52.com/hotline/22601-how-to-tone-down-garlic-taste

@Paul Bacino I wonder if the acrid taste came from the stir frying procedure where perhaps the garlic went into the Wok at too high a temp and burnt it slightly?

 

And from Serious Eats:  https://www.seriouseats.com/2017/02/make-the-most-out-of-garlic-chopping-acid-heat.html

 

[KennethT]

I always degerm my garlic - especially this time of year when the garlic I can buy is 1/3 germ.  I use raw garlic all the time - it's very common in SE Asian food, combined with lime juice and fish sauce.  I've never noticed any bitterness this way.  Also, the less it is crushed, the less bitter it will be - so I second the idea of dicing rather than smashing/chopping if you would like a milder garlic flavor.

[kayb]

I find raw garlic too "garlicky," but I also find raw onions have an acrid onion taste I don't like. I find soaking onion slices/rings in ice water for 30 minutes takes care of that for a dish in which I want raw onion. Wonder if the same would hold for garlic?

 

[blue_dolphin]

Alon Shaya has a hummus recipe in his cookbook where he lets the crushed garlic marinate in lemon juice for at least 30 minutes, then strains it out.  It adds a nice, fresh raw garlic flavor without the harshness that sometimes intensifies over time as hummus sits. I've been using that trick in other recipes. 

[Okanagancook]

I've seen that before too...Alleppo's recipe for hummus as this as well as recipes in Zahavav.

[Shelby]

When I buy peeled garlic from the Asian market (cheap and whole lot of it) I freeze the whole cloves.  I think freezing reduces the strength of it a bit.

[heidih]

1 hour ago, Shelby said:

When I buy peeled garlic from the Asian market (cheap and whole lot of it) I freeze the whole cloves.  I think freezing reduces trhe strength of it a bit.

t

Those pre peeled cloves are quite mild. I think the acid ideas above make sense as well as the "de-germing". People taste differently. I enjoy bitter and strong so the acrid in garlic at times plays into that. We all have our personal taste space.  Oh and when a garlic press was left here it created. longer and stronger sharp taste - so the crushed small bits more pungent.  (love that auto correct leaves in stoner as not a typo).

Edited February 7, 2020 by heidih (log)

[liuzhou]

On 2/7/2020 at 8:54 AM, heidih said:

love that auto correct leaves in stoner as not a typo

 

So it should. It has other meanings. "One who stones or pelts with stones (esp. so as to kill)"  or "One skilled in precious stones".

 

I find that the garlic in China is milder than anything I had in Europe. I had to adjust many recipes. Today, almost exclusively buy and use  独蒜 (dú suàn), a single headed variety from Yunnan province, but common here and in Sichuan, too.

 

 

I know it is available in some Asian markets in the US. Milder and so easy to peel. Just give it a dirty look and the skin falls off.

Whole peeled cloves of raw garlic are often found on the tables of smaller restaurants in some parts of China, especially in Xi'an, for customers to munch on. Seen the same in SE Asia, too.

 

Edited May 28, 2020 by liuzhou (log)

[Anna N]

8 hours ago, liuzhou said:

, a single heade variety

My favourite garlic when I can get it. No smashing about to get the cloves apart and chasing them around the kitchen.  No struggling with the skin. All the pluses of garlic with none of the cons.  🙂

[Wholemeal Crank]

ZAP YOUR GARLIC

seriously: faster, easier, better taste.  TRY IT!  I haven't chopped garlic in DECADES.  And I use a lot of it.

 

Microwaving whole cloves of garlic makes prepwork a breeze, takes less time than peeling and chopping, and a whole a lot less time to do it than to show how to do it! It gives oven-roasted mellow garlic flavor in a few minutes, and makes the garlic press an instrument of joy. Many cooks turn their noses up at pressed garlic because it is 'crude' or makes the garlic 'too strong' compared to larger pieces that cook more gently. Zapping it first TAMES THE FLAVOR so that you're adding mellow sweet nutty garlic wonderfulness to your fresh sauces (I was prepping for hummus in these videos) as well as cooked preparatons and not overwhelming Ka-POW! to your food. Add the zapped, pressed garlic after sauteeing to other ingredients to avoid scorching; it is already cooked so doesn't need that tricky step of taming in hot oil with all the risks of scorching. Try it, and you'll never go back to the slow peel & slice & dice again.

 

Finally put a video together on my non-commercial youtube channel.

Edited May 27, 2020 by Wholemeal Crank
Fixed link (log)

[Alex]

It was processing, now it looks like you removed it.

[Wholemeal Crank]

Had to redo upload, processing wasn't ever going to finish

 

Corrected link above

Edited May 27, 2020 by Wholemeal Crank (log)

[Paul Bacino]

@Wholemeal Crank    I'll give it a try!!

Paul

 

[Eatmywords]

I guess I knew the micro could do this but never really thought to give it a try.  I'll do so.  Love the precise clove spacing - big cloves in the middle, little to the perimeter! 🤪

[Wholemeal Crank]

Try it, I think you'll love it