[Beginning this week, we'll be rerunning some favorites from The Celluloid Pantry while Nora enjoys a writer's residency at The Ragdale Foundation. We'll be back with all-new posts October 9.]
Every family has its own way of prepping garlic. Some, proud of their knife skills, wouldn't be caught dead with a garlic press; others - the specialists - go for the high-end uni-taskers, swearing by the Zyliss Susi 2.
In Goodfellas (1990), mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) recalls his days in stir, where Paulie (Paul Sorvino) developed a method all his own: "He was in a year for contempt and he had this wonderful system for doing the garlic. He used a razor and he used to slice it so thin that it would liquefy in the pan with just a little oil. It was a very good system."
In the spirit of Mythbusters, we put the razor method to the test. Our findings were somewhat surprising.
Getting the slices thin was the easy part. But when it came to the sauteing, the garlic had a tendency to brown quickly (with no sign of liquefaction), even on low heat. We tried warming up the oil, then turning off the burner before adding the slices. No browning, but still no dice. Maybe it's just a matter of practice only a year's confinement can perfect.
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I love this. Goodfellas is my third favorite Scorsese film (serious praise). One of its most compelling qualities is how food weaves through the whole film, but that garlic recipe always seemed too good to be true. The oil would have be so lukewarm as to be possibly ineffective in order to not burn the oh-so-thin garlic.
Thank you for addressing one of my favorite cinematic food moments. I've always wondered if this would work - maybe creating something between roasted garlic and the normal lightly pan-cooked garlic... It seemed like the perfect dream food. Do you think the kind of garlic and its relative youth might play into the likelihood of success?
Kirsten--good point about the age of the garlic. I'll try again with farmer's market stuff when a new crop comes out in the spring. (I do still want to believe!)
LOVE this scene
but think it's better scriptwriting than actual cooking advice
I also like the Ray Liotta character going back to stir his sauce all the time the feds are closing in
you can liquify garlic by pounding it with mortar and pestle with a bit of salt. or mash it with a fork and salt. great for use in salad dressing.
this tip courtesy of the incomperable Justin Wilson, the Cajun Cook.
INCOMPARABLE
I can cook, and spell
really
Yup, Guido, you've got it. I use my mortar and pestle with garlic and anchovies to make a paste for my ceasar dressing.
I also always use the mortar and pestle to "skin" the garlic, just a quick tap and it slides right off. I first saw cooks doing this in Thailand. It really speeds up prep.
Janel - I love the quick tap method of garlic skin removal. Regardless of my desire to acquire endless kitchen items, there is just no real reason that anyone needs one of those precious garlic peel rollers - right?
Kristen - Actually, I am so stingy with bringing non-food items into my kitchen, I always need to be totally convinced of a tools absolute necessity before giving up precious space. Therefore, I've never used one of those rollers, but the mortar and pestle works perfectly, and with a practiced touch, you don't even crush the garlic, so if you need it whole and looking pretty it's possible.
actually, you can create a roasted garlic like texture with olive oil by essentially braising (or I guess it'd really be a confit) whole cloves in about a cup or so of oil. It requires a super low heat, and a fairly long cooking time, but the oil and the garlic are both delicious at the end.
oh my god
i think i would trade my left pinkie toe for one of those rolly garlic things
they are SOOOOOOOOOOOO amazing
now, i'm an accolyte of the ole' AB (alton brown), and mostly hold to his tenet of not allowing uni-taskers into my kitchen, but the garlic rolly thing is so so SO very necessary
i got mine on sale for $2.50
i bought it mainly b/c it was cheap, and i didnt believe it would actually work, but, lo and behold it worked so well its made me a convert!
i was cooking in my mom's kitchen this weekend, peeling tons and tons of garlic, and it was just so tedious, i skipped out to the mall on sunday morning and bought her one (for $9 no less!)
she used it that night, and like me, is now a convert too!
ann, totally disagree about the rolly garlic thing.
I tried it at my mom's house and was just annoyed.
A good wack with a knife works great.
I did like the metal *soap* that absorbs garlic/onion odors from your hands. So much more fun to test drive the gadgets at other people's houses...
a knife does work well, i agree with that, but i HATE the stickyness that gets under my fingernails from peeling the skin off b/c the whacking breaks open the oils et.al.
i stand by my rolly thing :-)
Guido, a knife can substitute for the metal soap thing, too. Just run the sticky parts of your fingers along the length of the knife while washing it, and the garlic odour comes right off.
Did anyone catch Mark Bittman's article last fall about whole peeled garlic cloves? There's a funny piece of commentary about it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/25/opinion/25sun3.html?ex=1285300800&en=1d458b2db4b0d735&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Bittman's wholehearted approval certainly freed me from any misplaced guilt I may have had about buying those little styrofoam trays packed with huge, juicy cloves of garlic at my local greengrocer's... For cooking garlic, especially, you can't beat it. I don't bother peeling fresh garlic unless I'm going to use it raw - and even then, well...
And for getting garlic and onion odors off my fingers I rub them against the kitchen faucet, then wash with very cold water.
Actually any stainless steel surface will work. Holding a tablespoon in your mouth will help freshen it after eating garlic.
My rubber garlic peeler does double duty (for the Alton Brownist antiunitaskers) since it is just a flat sheet of rubber, die-cut into a decorative garlic-head shape. Its additional function is that it is is big enough to fit over the lid of a jar, to help unscrew stuck jar lids. Success. So, on the other hand, you could also use a rubber jar-lid-helper as a garlic peeler.
May I humbly suggest, Bittman's "chicken and garlic" stew from HTCE. You just throw two head's worth of unpeeled garlic cloves in the pot to cook with the chicken. When it's done, you pinch the garlic with you fingers and it comes out the consistency of butter. It's fantastic on a good crusty bread to go with the chicken. Tasty, easy dish for cold weather days. and..... virtually no peeling at all!
I have a beautiful marble mortar and pestle from Dean & DeLuca (a gift), but it seems to turn garlic green. Has anyone else had this happen? We tried it a couple of times, so I'm pretty sure it was the equipment and not the garlic... but huh?
chrisB
I am soooo with you on the Bittman garlic chicken stew
gorgeous
who knew about the mysteries of stainless and smell!?
and who is going to explain the ionizing forces that make this happen?
I think the story with garlic is how ever you get there,
get there!
I stand by a sharp knife to peel (I assume we mean the husk, not the tiny membranous layer between the husk and the actual garlic).
I cut right at the end and then use the knife like a lever to pull the husk away. Usually comes off in one easy movement.
As far as alternative for a press, I either pound the clove with the flat of my knife or use my mortar and pestle. I try not to beat it to death either way so I don't lose too much of the lovely oil.
Roasting: cut the top 1/4 off of an unpeeled head. Rub it with olive oil. Put it face down on a lightly oiled cookie sheet. Pop into a 250 degree oven for like 2 hours.
When it cools, squeeze the good stuff out like butter. Keeps airtight for two or three days. I'm always tempted to just eat it right out of the husk.
I use the same method as Nicole R - a quick cut to both ends, somtimes a slit down the middle, and it all comes right off. We have a garlic rolly thing, but it was a gift and I never use it - it just seems like another annoying thing to be washed.
Agree with Rosie and Nicole R's method as this is what I do too. If you don't made a solid cut through one of those ends, you'll be able to use the little cut piece to take the rest of the skin off.
I could swear I saw someone else discuss the razor blade thing before and it was discarded as not true, too. Wish I could remember where...