Sorry … garlic is almost automatic for me at this point when I cook, it’s almost like salt and pepper … I never think of it.
And I’m at the point where I buy about 20lbs of garlic from my local farmer every fall (I just bought my supply a couple of weeks ago) to last me the winter.
I keep mine in a very loose burlap bag which my farmer gave me years ago … then I hang the bag on a hook from the ceiling in my basement (about six feet off the floor) where humidity lingers about 50-60% year round … no natural light and temps are about 17-20 Celsius year round.
I learned that hanging is better because everything gets equal amounts of air. If you sit it on a shelf or near the floor, the bottom layer will get damp fast and give no air circulation. My farmer said that he had a few customers complain that their supply of garlic went bad midway through the winter … he suspected that they kept their bags on the floor or on a shelf.
Last year I kept 20lbs starting from about October and I used the last of it at about June the following year with only about three or four bulbs going bad … and bad meaning they just shrivelled up and dried out.
None of it sprouted. I don’t think garlic does that as easily as potatoes or onions.
It took me years to learn all this and even so, I don’t think I know that much about it … just enough to be able to keep a big bag of garlic in my basement all winter. The best thing is to hang the burlap bag (which is very coarse and lets in lots of air) … and keep a bit of cool temps (15-20 Celsius) and humidity at about 50% (in the late summer and fall, my basement is at about 60% but then dips to about 40% mid winter) … and keep it all away from sunlight as the sun means that the room temps will change and fluctuate … I don’t have an expensive setup, I just have an old dry basement in a small old house with an electronic temp and humidity gauge.
And if you can find a good farmer … buy it all in bulk, as much as you can afford, it’s always cheaper that way.
And just follow simple cooking advice on how to use garlic from old chefs like Jacques Pepin … simple straight forward cooking
I’m not exactly a gourmet cook, I’ve just been learning how to cook for years. One Italian friend of mine recommended that I should always try to get fresh garlic as much as I can because it is better. Canned, preserved, precut, minced, bottled garlic … or even dried, dehydrated garlic is not the best … not only does it not have as much of a strong garlic flavour, most of it comes from Asia and specifically China where it is produced cheaply and under very shady circumstances.
Watch a Netflix documentary series called ‘Rotten’ … Season 1 Episode 3 is titled ‘Garlic Breath’ … and it details where a lot of cheap prepackaged garlic products come from … namely cheap Chinese prison labour where in some factories, prisoners are not allowed any sharp objects to peel the garlic by hand so they have to resort to using their fingernails, which they eventually wear out and then later resort to using their teeth.
After watching all that … I really took my time to search for a local farmer and pay double the amount for fresh garlic and I just buy the stuff in bulk now because it’s cheaper in the long run.
I had no idea, thanks for the docu recommendation. Thankfully I’ll nearly always use fresh unless a recipe requires dry & it feels needed, like dry rubs. I will certainly be checking where any non fresh garlic comes from in the future. Happy cooking!!
Yeah … it took me a while to get my garlic setup … at first I bought grocery store commercial garlic but then noticed that much of the time, it’s really cheap Chinese garlic. I’m not totally against Chinese products … the thing that gets me is that I really have to wonder how I can buy such cheap produce when it has to be shipped to me half way round the world in Canada! Not to mention that this cheap Chinese garlic is usually not that potent or tasty.
At first a few gardener friends gave me samples of their home grown garlic and man … when you grow your own garlic and tend to the soil and keep it well tended all year, it produces really potent, tasty and strong garlic. I can chew Chinese garlic and get a good taste of garlic and not be bothered by it much … I did the same to a friend of mine’s home grown garlic years ago and nearly choked on a piece because it was like fire in my mouth.
If you ever get the chance in the mid summer, find a local grow op or farmers market when they get their first crop of garlic. It will be a bit expensive but the garlic that time of year is like gold and it will be worth it. They even sell the long green stems of the garlic called SCAPES and you use them in cooking like green onion. And the home grown garlic is potent. You can literally just just one clove at a time per recipe, compared to trying to use an entire head to get that garlic taste.
Where I currently live we get a lot of wild garlic growing everywhere for a month or so a year, the smell is in the air nearly anywhere you walk for a few weeks. I do see some people picking it by the sack full, wonder if that’s similar to what you’re suggesting about the early farm crops. Although I presume the wild stuff is much milder than farm grown. I’ll try to source some from a farm next spring as soon as I see the local wild ones coming out. Cheers!
Plus, for bottled garlic, the preservatives added to it (citric acid I think) make the bits never really soften when you cook them. It’s always easy to tell when you go out to eat somewhere and order something with garlic all over it if they used garlic from a jar, since the garlic always looks like gravel or uncooked cous cous.
I didn’t know the half of that, and I was mildly happier for it :(
Usually Chinese garlic is also a different plant than European garlic. You can notice it by the fact that the roots of the garlic fall off in a neat chunk for Chinese garlic but stay attached for European garlic.
I don’t tend to check individually every time I buy just to make sure, but from what I read and on occasions where source was actually identified so that I could check, almost all the garlic sold here in Australia is from China.
I have not really observed this phenomenon with the roots that you’re describing. Also, it’s kind of hard for me to say what particular characteristics Chinese garlic has because assuming that the garlic I’m buying really is coming from China, then it seems they grow several varieties that all gets sold as just “garlic” because in any given trip to the same supermarket you get noticeably different attributes to the size and appearance and physical characteristics of the garlic sold.
I don’t really notice much difference in cooking with them or eating them though. Occasionally you get some much stronger flavoured ones, but it’s just the same taste but stronger rather than detectably different and often this doesn’t really seem to couple with which type they happened to sell this week. Any attributes of the garlic’s appearance that seem distinct to what’s available this week, don’t seem to reliably signal what it will taste like the next time you see those same attributes again the next time they’re on sale.
You forgot the garlic
Sorry … garlic is almost automatic for me at this point when I cook, it’s almost like salt and pepper … I never think of it.
And I’m at the point where I buy about 20lbs of garlic from my local farmer every fall (I just bought my supply a couple of weeks ago) to last me the winter.
How do you ensure the garlic lasts through winter?
I keep mine in a very loose burlap bag which my farmer gave me years ago … then I hang the bag on a hook from the ceiling in my basement (about six feet off the floor) where humidity lingers about 50-60% year round … no natural light and temps are about 17-20 Celsius year round.
I learned that hanging is better because everything gets equal amounts of air. If you sit it on a shelf or near the floor, the bottom layer will get damp fast and give no air circulation. My farmer said that he had a few customers complain that their supply of garlic went bad midway through the winter … he suspected that they kept their bags on the floor or on a shelf.
Last year I kept 20lbs starting from about October and I used the last of it at about June the following year with only about three or four bulbs going bad … and bad meaning they just shrivelled up and dried out.
Does it start to sprout still, or does the humidity level & hanging it help prevent that as well?
You should write a book about garlic facts, I’ve learned so much from you this thread!
None of it sprouted. I don’t think garlic does that as easily as potatoes or onions.
It took me years to learn all this and even so, I don’t think I know that much about it … just enough to be able to keep a big bag of garlic in my basement all winter. The best thing is to hang the burlap bag (which is very coarse and lets in lots of air) … and keep a bit of cool temps (15-20 Celsius) and humidity at about 50% (in the late summer and fall, my basement is at about 60% but then dips to about 40% mid winter) … and keep it all away from sunlight as the sun means that the room temps will change and fluctuate … I don’t have an expensive setup, I just have an old dry basement in a small old house with an electronic temp and humidity gauge.
And if you can find a good farmer … buy it all in bulk, as much as you can afford, it’s always cheaper that way.
And just follow simple cooking advice on how to use garlic from old chefs like Jacques Pepin … simple straight forward cooking
Fascinating, thanks for all the tips, I’ll definitely up my garlic game going forward…
Wow & I thought I liked garlic, I feel amateur by those standards. Your food must taste amazing & I bet not a vampire in sight too!
I’m not exactly a gourmet cook, I’ve just been learning how to cook for years. One Italian friend of mine recommended that I should always try to get fresh garlic as much as I can because it is better. Canned, preserved, precut, minced, bottled garlic … or even dried, dehydrated garlic is not the best … not only does it not have as much of a strong garlic flavour, most of it comes from Asia and specifically China where it is produced cheaply and under very shady circumstances.
Watch a Netflix documentary series called ‘Rotten’ … Season 1 Episode 3 is titled ‘Garlic Breath’ … and it details where a lot of cheap prepackaged garlic products come from … namely cheap Chinese prison labour where in some factories, prisoners are not allowed any sharp objects to peel the garlic by hand so they have to resort to using their fingernails, which they eventually wear out and then later resort to using their teeth.
After watching all that … I really took my time to search for a local farmer and pay double the amount for fresh garlic and I just buy the stuff in bulk now because it’s cheaper in the long run.
I had no idea, thanks for the docu recommendation. Thankfully I’ll nearly always use fresh unless a recipe requires dry & it feels needed, like dry rubs. I will certainly be checking where any non fresh garlic comes from in the future. Happy cooking!!
Yeah … it took me a while to get my garlic setup … at first I bought grocery store commercial garlic but then noticed that much of the time, it’s really cheap Chinese garlic. I’m not totally against Chinese products … the thing that gets me is that I really have to wonder how I can buy such cheap produce when it has to be shipped to me half way round the world in Canada! Not to mention that this cheap Chinese garlic is usually not that potent or tasty.
At first a few gardener friends gave me samples of their home grown garlic and man … when you grow your own garlic and tend to the soil and keep it well tended all year, it produces really potent, tasty and strong garlic. I can chew Chinese garlic and get a good taste of garlic and not be bothered by it much … I did the same to a friend of mine’s home grown garlic years ago and nearly choked on a piece because it was like fire in my mouth.
If you ever get the chance in the mid summer, find a local grow op or farmers market when they get their first crop of garlic. It will be a bit expensive but the garlic that time of year is like gold and it will be worth it. They even sell the long green stems of the garlic called SCAPES and you use them in cooking like green onion. And the home grown garlic is potent. You can literally just just one clove at a time per recipe, compared to trying to use an entire head to get that garlic taste.
Happy cooking to you as well!
Where I currently live we get a lot of wild garlic growing everywhere for a month or so a year, the smell is in the air nearly anywhere you walk for a few weeks. I do see some people picking it by the sack full, wonder if that’s similar to what you’re suggesting about the early farm crops. Although I presume the wild stuff is much milder than farm grown. I’ll try to source some from a farm next spring as soon as I see the local wild ones coming out. Cheers!
Plus, for bottled garlic, the preservatives added to it (citric acid I think) make the bits never really soften when you cook them. It’s always easy to tell when you go out to eat somewhere and order something with garlic all over it if they used garlic from a jar, since the garlic always looks like gravel or uncooked cous cous.
I didn’t know the half of that, and I was mildly happier for it :(
Usually Chinese garlic is also a different plant than European garlic. You can notice it by the fact that the roots of the garlic fall off in a neat chunk for Chinese garlic but stay attached for European garlic.
I don’t tend to check individually every time I buy just to make sure, but from what I read and on occasions where source was actually identified so that I could check, almost all the garlic sold here in Australia is from China.
I have not really observed this phenomenon with the roots that you’re describing. Also, it’s kind of hard for me to say what particular characteristics Chinese garlic has because assuming that the garlic I’m buying really is coming from China, then it seems they grow several varieties that all gets sold as just “garlic” because in any given trip to the same supermarket you get noticeably different attributes to the size and appearance and physical characteristics of the garlic sold.
I don’t really notice much difference in cooking with them or eating them though. Occasionally you get some much stronger flavoured ones, but it’s just the same taste but stronger rather than detectably different and often this doesn’t really seem to couple with which type they happened to sell this week. Any attributes of the garlic’s appearance that seem distinct to what’s available this week, don’t seem to reliably signal what it will taste like the next time you see those same attributes again the next time they’re on sale.