Garlic ... what to use and why?

I know that many of us do not have enough time on our hands and because of this an entire industry has developed for fast convenient food. The convenience of prepared or partially prepared foods is all around us. You can make instant anything, rice, oatmeal, pudding or even baby back ribs. We can buy precooked and chopped chicken in the meat department of your local grocery store. A bag of salad from Dole Fresh Vegetables is available that includes lettuce chopped and washed; (most of the time?) dried fruits, croutons and dressing … just pour it all in a bowl and mix. This has all happened because we do not have enough time to cook when we get home from work.

As a result of all this need for convenience foods we have seen many new ways to bring garlic to our kitchens. You can by garlic fresh in bulbs. Pre-chopped and bottled in olive oil, cloves separated, pealed and frozen and of course you can buy it as garlic powder and garlic salt.

So the question is this, when do we use what? For the most part I only use three different types of garlic in my house.

Garlic Powder
Peeled-Frozen Garlic Cloves
Fresh Garlic.

I use the garlic powder when I am cooking roasts and seasoning meats before going in the oven or on the grill. I use a lot of the frozen garlic cloves when I am making quick sauces and maybe garlic bread. The frozen/peeled garlic has lost some of its bravado because once it has been peeled it starts to loose flavor. So it works well when I do not want to overpower a recipe.

Most of the garlic I use is fresh. I keep a head or two of garlic in a jar in the refrigerator with a top that has a few holes punched in it. (Similar to what you might do if you wanted to keep bugs in a jar.) The holes let the garlic breathe and it stays fresh longer. I keep it in the refrigerator so it will peel easier. When I am using fresh garlic I peel the cloves, smash it with the side of a French knife and then chop the smashed garlic into a fine chop. This spreads out the flavor in a recipe and also takes out aggressions for the chef!

As far as using the garlic salt I usually do not because then I am not in control of the amount of salt being used in the recipe. I have used the garlic in a jar on occasion but I think I have a problem with using a prepared food like this that will contain preservatives. It tastes ok but it always seems to have a chemical smell to it when I use it to cook.

So that is my dissertation on Garlic. I hope it has helped.

Ciao, Mark