Why I’ll Never Store Garlic Another Way After Seeing This Brilliant Hack

Ashia Aubourg
Ashia Aubourg
From the moment I started remixing ramen noodles into gourmet meals and spending hours watching cooking shows as a puny six-year-old, I knew I found a deep passion for food. While I realized — after taking on a two-year high school internship in an award-winning kitchen — that a…read more
published Dec 11, 2024
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Overhead shot of two loaves of garlic bread, the loaf on the left is sliced into six slices.
Credit: Photo: Vicky Wasik ; Food Stylist: Rachel Perlmutter

Peeling, chopping, and mincing garlic can bring on such a headache. And if you adore the umami allium, you’ll probably find yourself tossing it into all kinds of dishes on a weekly basis. Recently, a creator shared a technique for making this process much easier, and no, it doesn’t involve shaking the cloves in a jar, smashing them with a hefty knife, or soaking them in hot water; this trick is much simpler and so smart that you’ll wonder why you hadn’t tried this hack out sooner.  

Joanne Molinaro (@thekoreanvegan), the author of The Korean Vegan Cookbook, recently shared a garlic grating hack that’s so easy it doesn’t even require a knife. In the Instagram clip (which has racked up nearly 122K views), the digital creator demonstrates a quick and ingenious trick for freezing the allium and then grating it whenever you need an umami boost in your cooking. 

The upgrade involves freezing whole garlic cloves. Whenever you need to use them, simply pull them out and use a Microplane or grater to shave them into all kinds of recipes.

Place your garlic cloves in a freezer-friendly container so they don’t spoil. You can grate them into your dishes once you’re ready to use them. “I grated the garlic, and it was better than mincing,” Molinaro said. “Because it’s frozen, you don’t lose any precious garlic juice, and it’s easier to grate.” 

Molinaro points out that this hack makes the garlic creamy, sort of like a “sorbet” texture. When you toss it into your recipes, it’ll quickly dissolve and infuse your dishes with loads of umami flavor. 

People on social media are in love with how simple and “genius” this trick is. One person commented, “What an awesome hack!” Another user called out: “Where were you ten years ago? Oh, the amount of garlic I’ve wasted. Thank you for the tip!” And another commenter shared a clever substitution for this technique: “I do this with ginger, too!” they said.

This frozen garlic hack will cut your mise en place time down and preserve your cloves so that they don’t spoil. You can also apply this technique to other ingredients like ginger, chilies, or turmeric.