Peel a Head of Garlic Quickly

[4meandthem]

I tried this method on Fri with 2 heads of garlic and only about 5-6 cloves came free of their paper. I shook it several times but nothing.

I did poach my cloves in olive oil and will never roast whole heads again.
The cloves cooked more evenly and you dont get your hands messy squeezing the whole head to smear some on toasts. I also got the added benefit of the oil to brush my bread with and drizzle on my grilled veggies.
A lot less garlic went to waste too.

 

[jpe]

The salad twirler doesn't work - at least not for me

Tried 2 bowls and half came out OK - the rest loosened - will certainly affect the calorie damage if you then eat garlic fries

Basically a lot of work - maybe dependent on how fresh the fresh garlic is.

+++

In any case - what is to be avoided at all costs is commercial powder or garlic salt.

Abominable - the lot.

But you can slice and dry cloves pretty nicely - they keep wonderfully - and you can also stick them in a coffee bean grinder and get great own powder.

But keep the slices locked up - my 2 yr old grandson got hold of them and chomped a bunch of them - one whiff and he could have had a Serbian passport inimediately!

(I was once on a Belgrade train and all the Serbs across from me in the compartment were chewing garlic cloves like candy)

 

[FrankZ]

So I tried this. It worked ok, but not as well as I might have liked. It takes longer than 10 seconds to pick out the peeled cloves.

I think velocity and distance might help, really big bowls. I had to use a bowl and a lid since I don't have two bowls that would match up that are of any real size.

 

[Steve Kroll]

While playing with this technique, one thing I found that really helps. Ok... two things really.

First, it makes a difference how fresh the garlic is. This seems to work much better with fresh garlic bulbs.

Second, if you take a sharp knife and cut away the root before smashing the bulb on the counter, it helps the skin separate more cleanly. The root is what seems to provide the most resistance to the skin coming off cleanly.

Though this probably adds another couple of seconds to the whole process.

 

[Andy M.]

While playing with this technique, one thing I found that really helps. Ok... two things really.

First, it makes a difference how fresh the garlic is. This seems to work much better with fresh garlic bulbs.

Second, if you take a sharp knife and cut away the root before smashing the bulb on the counter, it helps the skin separate more cleanly. The root is what seems to provide the most resistance to the skin coming off cleanly.

Though this probably adds another couple of seconds to the whole process.

Be realistic. No one has the time to do all that intricate extra work!