Really? Peeling garlic is now too time consuming?

Indy Jeffrey: It is when you make something like 40 clove chicken...especially when your bf is a garlic fiend and requests more cloves!

I think it is. Especially when you just want to quick throw a decent meal together in 15-20 min. I buy the peeled garlic as well. The cloves tend to be fairly uniform in size to which is nice.

The time it takes to peel garlic is not in question, the question is whether or not frozen and thawed garlic is up to fresh standards. I often see the tubs of peeled garlic for a bargain, and would LOVE to have a big container of peeled cloves - cheaper, faster, and perfect for making large batches of spreads, garlic bread, etc.

However, I do not buy them because a roomate and I used to share a tub at the beginning of a semester. One year her boyfriend knocked our fridge setting to VERY cold and ew ew ew....the garlic turned weirdly translucent, took on a chlorinated taste, yuck, all within 24 hours. I think I'll stick with fresh, because I did not like the results of semi-frozen garlic.

I don't have fresh garlic at hand all year round and when I do, if I buy enough for the year it will go bad in a blink.
What I use it's garlic mini cubes (knorr) which taste decently and they last all year long on my shelf

I'll have to try it, thanks! I can see how fresh garlic would be much better, and I know it doesn't take that long to peel. But time is really short during the week so every minute saved helps.

About once a week I peel two heads of garlic, one for mincing and storing with a little bit of olive oil in the fridge and one for storing a whole cloves in the fridge for larger recipes.

Super easy, cheaper, and once you know how to peel you can do it realllly fast.

I do freeze garlic (and ginger) on occasion, BUT I always chop it first, if you freeze the whole clove it will be weirdly mushy when thawed and trickier to cut/chop. Make sure the cloves are fresh when you chop and freeze them. I then just put it in a freezer bag and break off chunks as needed for recipes. It's a great time saver.

A trick I've used is to mince the garlic and then mix it with a fair amount of olive oil and then freeze it. The olive oil helps protect the quality of the garlic, and if you get the proportions right, prevents it from truly freezing, so you can fairly easily spoon out what you need. I doubt this would work with whole cloves, but it is a viable option for long term storage.

You don't have to freeze it! The jars of peeled/ chopped/ paste whatever you fancy that you find at the store will last, in my experience, fairly indefinitely in your fridge. Freezing is fine I'm sure but not necessary unless you're totally crunched for fridge space (I'm the other way around)

But YES, fresh and prepeeled garlic do taste different. Fresh garlic, if it makes sense, tastes fresher. More pungent. BUT, for majority of cooking where I'm not showcasing garlic flavor and just need a clove or two, the predone stuff works awesome.

Do you have a blender/chopper? Chop all the garlic, and make a garlic sausage out of it by wrapping it in saran wrap. Freeze it. When you take it out next time, you can slice parts of it so that when you drop it on the pan or melt it, it'll be already chopped for you.

I think based on all the tips I won't be buying the peeled jars after all. Seems like the way to go is "batch peeling" on the weekend, storing a few peeled cloves in the fridge, and chopping and freezing the rest for later in the week. :-) Many thanks!

In all seriousness, Alexandra, how are you peeling your garlic that you are finding it too time consuming? When I smash the garlic with the flat of my knife, which allows me to remove the skin in one large piece, it also does much of the mincing work. I find that if I have a good "smash" it actually takes less time to mince it. When I used the whole, peeled garlic in a tub at my parent's house, I found that I was mincing much longer (at least 25-30 passes with a chef's knife as compared to the 10 or so when smashed), because I was starting with larger chunks and the clove itself wasn't as crisp. I wholehearted believe that people would cook with fresh ingredients more for themselves if they had the proper knife skills to make the prep work easier (if that makes sense).

In addition to what I said above, a clove of garlic will stay fresher longer if it remains in it's skin and as a whole bulb, so that might play into your decision, as well. I use a lot of garlic, but one bulb can last at least 3 weeks in a cool, dry place (as I found out when we went to the beach for 2 weeks and the garlic was fine when we got back), which seems more fitting when you're cooking for just 2 people.

well, Alexandra, I have *exactly* the answer to your question, because I have frozen many a Whole Foods tub of peeled garlic. It is absolutely fine and works perfectly well like raw garlic if you cook them (leave them out on the counter like 5 minutes and they're almost fully defrosted. You can def chop them up like defrosted garlic). I m sure you could use them raw as well, but the consistency wouldn't be as firm as non-frozen garlic. It seems to render some moisture as it thaws. So, in a nutshell, yes to whole foods peeled garlic going in the freezer!

it's = it is
its = belonging to it

Oops.

@keeperrox: You are right about knife skills. I've not yet figured out how to smash the garlic with a knife - it's a little intimidating, just like when you see a chef on TV take out an avocado pit by "spearing it" with the tip of a chef's knife. @deleteme: Thanks. I would definitely cook previously frozen garlic, and use the fresh stuff raw.

Try Michael Psilakis' "Garlic Confit" recipe. It keeps for several weeks in the fridge and uses 3 cups of peeled garlic cloves:

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/recipe?id=10211676

Storing chopped garlic in olive oil (or any oil for that matter) is a good way to get botulism. The risks are lower with freezing but still there.

It's not particularly green, but Trader Joe's sells bagged, peeled garlic that is packaged by the head, with four or so heads to a bag. If you don't use a lot over the course of a week, it's cheaper than letting an entire sleeve mold, and I've found the quality and taste to be good.

whole garlic heads should last longer than just 3 weeks. if you buy stuff from the farmers' market that has been properly dried, it should last you all winter. that's how people kept onions and garlic before supermarkets and refrigeration - just kept in a dry cool place.

as for smashing a clove - put clove on cutting board, lie bladed chef's knife on clove, press hand onto side of knife until garlic smashes. even i don't hurt myself doing that, and i am sadly accident prone.

that was "wide bladed". one can assume all knives have a blade. duh.

Thank you, LadyFlambe, for typing what I was thinking:

Don't ever let garlic sit in your fridge with olive oil! Garlic is a low-acid food, and even in fridge temperatures, the botulism bacteria can grow in tiny pockets of water in the oil. Stick to freezing it or just peel it fresh!

I think home freezing is too slow for foods you want to use as fresh, but for a less intimidating way to remove the skin from a clove you could place it on a board and cover it with the concave side of a wooden spoon and press down hard. The cup of the spoon prevents the garlic clove from shooting out across the work surface. Or grab one of those really cheap rubber tubes that you roll the garlic inside of - the skins slip off so easily. No need to buy pre-peeled and you get all of that fresh punchiness!

Sheesh, let's all imply that this person is lazy and dumb and can't peel garlic. Some of us are very busy and everyone's schedule and lifestyle is different - lose the tude, this is a friendly site.

Sidenote, I find peeling garlic to be really, really annoying. My pet peeve of kitchen tasks. I'm good at it, but I stinking hate doing it. Stupid papery skins, why do you have to hide all the deliciousness?

May as well just buy the pre-minced stuff in the jar. That way you don't kill yourself making it at home.

I fear that I am a very strange person indeed. I like smashing and peeling garlic. I only buy what I need. But then I love to cook, so I don't consider it to be a hassle.

I use a few cloves from the jar and make garlic confit from the rest using Breakaway Cook Eric Gower's recipe...... Great stuff! If you are concerned about botulism he suggests adding a Tablespoon of vinegar or some Vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid) to the mix..... You won't notice the difference.......

P.S. Always refrigerate Garlic Confit.........

I have a little stone garlic keeper. Sits on the counter and the garlic seems to keep for weeks this way.

How about asking the guy who's asking for more garlic to peel for you? Two people in the kitchen is faster than one!

I also hate to peel garlic on weeknights, when I'm just trying to get dinner on the table. I confess to using Trader Joe's frozen garlic cubes. 1 cube = 1 clove. I generally don't like the less pungent, acid-y taste of preminced garlic, but these frozen cubes have enough oomph to suffice for weeknight dinner.

Big cooking on the weekend - peeling and chopping fresh garlic all the way. Even when the kitchen ceiling fan blows the papery skins all over the kitchen floor....

Besides the garlic confit... is the Mexican Mojo de Ajo or delicious roasted garlic sauce. Today's post featuring Rick Bayless reminded me of it. He's got some great recipes using Mojo de Ajo on his website.

I used to buy the large Christopher's Ranch peeled garlic at Costco and toss it in the freezer. I'd grab a handful whenever I was cooking garlic. If I needed garlic in a non-cooked dish, I would stick with fresh. It was a convenience that I used for years without noticing any off flavors or issues. It was something my Asian family always did with extra garlic and ginger.

I allowed my subscription to Costco lapse and today use mostly fresh, but that's cause my mom has sent me wonderful fresh garlic from her garden.

I started freezing the large containers of garlic from Costco because I could NOT get through a whole container before it went bad (& I think I eat a lot of garlic). I've frozen about a half container a few times and used it without incident. However, this last time, I noticed the garlic had some weird white, mold looking spots on it. It looked a little too weird & I wasn't taking a chance, so I tossed it in the compost. Not sure if it had been in the fridge too long before freezing it or what.

I've also roasted trays of the same garlic & frozen it with no problem. Let it thaw for a short while & chop ---or add directly to soup, stew, whatever.

I would still use fresh if it were not going in a cooked dish. I do find it a little annoying to peel a lot of garlic ---fingers get sticky, paper skin sticks to fingers.......

Wow!! garlic is important ingredient of a good recipe. I love to eat it.
Natura Cleanse

If you are going to mince it and you have a garlic press, you don't even need to peel it. I just throw as many unpeeled cloves in as will fit and squish out all the good stuff.

I've found myself with an abundance of garlic and used my food processor to mince it, add olive oil & freeze it. It was really handy and I'd definitely do it again. (In fact, I plan to soon--my husband bought a huge bag of garlic at Costco & due to my pregnancy-affected stomach, it's not been used as quickly as it normally would be.)

Dear Indy:

I currently have dexterity problems due to toxic medications that I am on. Recently I've had to resort to using pre-peeled garlic, rather than my beloved fresh garlic.

So, it's not always a matter of laziness, but of dexterity issues that some cooks might have to use pre-peeled jarred garlic.