A bulb whose entire character depends on how it is cut and how it is cooked — the same clove gives a raw pungency that dominates a dish or a sweet nuttiness that disappears into it.
Where it comes from
Garlic was domesticated in Central Asia and spread very early through the Near East, the Mediterranean, India and China. Most cultivated garlic no longer sets viable seed and is propagated from cloves, so a variety is a clone.
Like onion, garlic makes its flavour on damage. Crushing brings an enzyme and a precursor together to make allicin, which is what garlic tastes of. Finer cutting means more cell damage and more allicin — which is why crushed garlic is far more aggressive than sliced, and sliced far more than a whole clove.
Varieties
- Softneck — Stores longest, many small cloves, the usual supermarket garlic and the type that plaits.
- Hardneck — Fewer, larger cloves and more flavour, but a much shorter shelf life. Sends up a scape.
- Elephant garlic — Not garlic at all but a leek relative. Very mild.
- Black garlic — Whole bulbs held warm and humid for weeks. The sugars and amino acids brown slowly — sweet, balsamic, no pungency at all.
- Green garlic and scapes — Immature plants and flower stalks. Mild, grassy, seasonal.
In the kitchen
Garlic burns much faster than onion because the cloves are small and sugary, and burnt garlic is acrid enough to ruin a pan. Add it after the onion has softened, not with it.
The green germ in the centre of an older clove is bitter and worth removing when the garlic is going in raw. In a long-cooked dish it makes no difference.
Whole cloves roasted in their skins go sweet and spreadable because no cutting means almost no allicin — it is a different ingredient from the same bulb.
Choosing and keeping
Garlic stored in oil at room temperature is a genuine botulism risk: it is low-acid and the oil excludes air. Refrigerate it and use it within a few days, or acidify it.
Sprouting is not spoilage; softness, browning or a sour smell is.
Dishes with garlic
Snezhankastrained yoghurt with cucumber, garlic, dill and walnutsMoroccoBissarasilky dried fava bean soup with olive oil, garlic and cumin; winter warmer
Moros y cristianosBlack beans and rice cooked togetherPortugalAçorda alentejanagarlic-coriander bread soup topped with poached egg
ChimichurriParsley, garlic, oregano and vinegar sauce for grilled meats
MabangaSmall lagoon clams cooked with garlic, onion and palm oilGarlic is tagged on 320 dishes from 114 countries in the atlas. These notes are written from general knowledge and carry no per-fact citation — see About.