I just give my garlic cloves a good WHACK on the cutting board with the side of my knife, and then mince from there. Much faster!

Ok, what was the point of that? Are we training chimps in here?

Can we get a step-by-step on how to boil water next?

Soooo... you guys did ask for knife skills tutorials. I'm just going to be honest and say it's a little discouraging to get snark when we do one! We're definitely working up to more difficult jobs (just broke down a couple chickens on video, for instance), but we thought it wouldn't hurt to demonstrate something basic.

There was definitely a point in my early cooking career when I could have used a demonstration of mincing garlic!

Faith, I can't watch the video here at work, but I definitely look forward to watching it when I get home. I don't know if Emma's method of mincing garlic will be any different than my own, but I'm dying to know her tip about getting the garlic not to stick to my knife. I hate when that happens!

ok, A for effort... But the videographer needs 1/ a tripod because the camera moves much too much for a shot that has no need to move at all. 2/ to learn how to focus, there are definite moment of bluriness. Seriously, in the short time this video lasted, I got sea-sick...

I have to agree with Faith. If this is something you feel you need no help with, please feel free to move along to the next article. We all have different skill levels, let's be kind to those of us just finding our way into cooking.

I have been mincing garlic for many years, but I was very glad to see this video! Especially to see that Emma's garlic sticks to her knife just like mine does, even though she has that special-edged knife. And I love the tip -- I'm going to try it!

Thanks for the great video! We love you all at The Kitchn.

I do garlic the same way I would an onion. Slice down (but not through the root), slice horizontally, then across.

Well I found this useful, if only to find out that I was doing it right all along. I was never sure that I was, because I would call that action chopping not mincing and thought that people were doing something more cheffy!

Pretty much how I do it to but I give it good whack first like previously mentioned.It helps breakdown the piece of garlic and it let's you see if there is any green sprout starting to grow.I like to remove the green if I see it,can impart a bitter taste.

Cut off the ends first but leave the skin on. Rest the flat side of the knife on garlic and give it a good whack. Skin comes right off!

In that recent post where everyone said what they wanted to learn via the Kitchn, several people asked for how-tos on the basics. I think this is perfect for that!

I know I would have loved to see this video a year ago when I first started using fresh (vs. dried/powdered) garlic. I've got it figured out now and can mince a clove (or more) pretty quickly, but at the beginning I had to muddle through it.

I've found that the easiest way for me is to first slice the long way (instead of the short way like the video), then julienne those slices, then chop into mini cubes. Usually that's small enough, but if it's not, then I go over it repeatedly like they do in the video.

And the tip to keep it from sticking to the knife doesn't work for me. :/ I tried it when it was mentioned in the Kitchn before, and it still stuck. Oh well. It's not that big of a deal to just wipe it off with my finger.

Using the edge of the knife to scrap food back and forth is a quick way to dull a knife.

If you're using a honing tool on your chef's knife before you start cooking each meal (recommended) don't waste the effort by scraping food with the edge.

Instead, knock ingredients off your knife by running the blade along the edge of the cutting board to remove sticky ingredients and then use the spine of the blade to move ingredients on the cutting board.

Tips from cooking school!

Every time a recipe requires minced garlic, I always just bust out my garlic press instead. Easier, faster, and less garlicky hands. Is there any reason not to do this? I feel like it also gets the juices out of the garlic immediately.

I wish I could block nasty posters from this blog. If they have a different way of doing things, they can just tell us about it without slamming the poster! I'm pretty well accomplished in my kitchen and find the ideas on this blog very interesting and informative. Sometimes I may already be aware of the subject, but so many others are not. So just let us enjoy it and lay off of the bitter tones. Most of us are here to enjoy new ideas. If you already know it all...start your own site. Sorry for taking so much space up for the enjoyable bloggers. Just had to get that out.