Behind the Knife - tools, food, and the secret lives of chefs

I have never been very good at garlic prep, as a matter of fact, the last time I attempted it, the knife slipped and I nearly cut my finger off. I buy refrigerated minced garlic these days.

We were having a family reunion, and my mother and I were supplying the main dishes while others brought salad, veggies and dip, etc. One of my dishes was a beef stew. Unbeknown to me one of my brothers added like eight crushed garlic bulbs without first tasting that I had already added garlic to the dish. My family does like garlic, but even this dish was too much to be eaten as it was.

I am half Italian, so prepping garlic is a daily task I do happily. I have gone through several garlic presses. When my son was 4, he somehow got a hold of my press and put an M & M in it. Fortunately, I dislodged it before it got minced! There is truly NOTHING that minces garlic the way I like other than a garlic press.

tweeted http://twitter.com/cdziuba/status/10782157246

i love my grader i use it for everything mverno@roadrunner.com

Nothing too exciting about garlic in my kitchen, but I did have a friend over the other day. I was making dinner while we visited. She was watching me with my garlic press and she asked me what I was doing. She had never actually used “real” garlic before only garlic powder or salt. I couldn’t believe it.

I was making speghetti and absent mindedly put the whole garlic head in the sauce. I learned from this error that garlic flavor is best in much smaller amounts.

I’d love to win the cookie press; mine is over 30 years old! My garlic story is a study in disappointment: I bought a garlicZoom chopper and it DOESN’T WORK! It is a good idea but it doesn’t do the job.

My son dropped a jar of minced garlic on the floor once…stinky stinky! I use a normal garlic press, but I’ve always said it’s the greatest invention EVERY! I use my trusty Pampered Chef garlic press…it’s my friend!

One year a friend gave my husband a jar of pickled garlic cloves- he ate half the contents as though they were peanuts- he had the “runs” for the rest of the whole day!

I have a metal garlic press I got years ago, I don’t know who made, or where I bought it, but it works great to mince garlic. I don’t even have to peel the cloves for it to work. And no, you can’t have it(haha).

I just whack mine with the flat of a chef’s knife and chop it up. My fingers get a little scared.

I accidentally sliced a little bit of my finger off trying to dice the garlic really tiny! Now I’m not so picky how tiny it is! lol!

I’d love to win the cookie press; mine is over 30 years old

I was feeling goofy one day and after I had chopped a lot of garlic, I dabbed my fingers behind my ears and asked hubby if I smelled sexy. Apparantly, I did. I don’t know if that’s a funny or “worst” story, but it is true.

I have a metal garlic press from “Pampered Chef” that I just love and works great.

I don’t have anything, sorry. I also buy the refrigerated minced garlic – it’s good!

I too am a fan of the Pampered Chef garlic press. Works great….no need to peel and even comes with a handy plastic part to help clean the press.

I have my mother’s antique garlic press. It works like a charm and I have never had a problem mincing garlic.
I also have a terra cotta garlic baker that is teriffic.

I tweeted http://twitter.com/cstironkat/status/10849159558

When I was just learning to cook, I made spaghetti sauce with garlic, not realizing that my mother HATES garlic-she walked in the house, and smelled it immediately-we practically had to fumigate before she agreed to live there!

i can never get my garlic press to work worth a darn, i wind up having to scoop the minced garlic out of it and stinking of it for the rest of the evening

I use so much garlic that I’ve become a wizard at a twist and peel technique using just my fingers. From there I just chop with a knife to the desired consistency.

I have used the Kitchen Aid stand mixer with the Paddle attachment. Place the whole bulbs into the bowl and turn it on low. This will break up the cloves and begin the process of removing the skin.

Speaking of garlic you have to try the Black Garlic. I had some @ Catersource 2010. It was fantastic.
Here is the link:

http://blackgarlic.com/

I don’t really have any funny garlic prep stories other than reeking like garlic for a couple days because I had to chop so much. I don’t have a kitchen tool that works wonderfully for garlic. I just use the knife smash technique which works okay,

The kitchen knife smash is the best idea in a long time. I love garlic and it is so much easier that way.

I put to much garlic in a recipe by accident.

I just wack it with the back of a knife and I am good to go.

I’m horrible at garlic so I have my husband do it and he hits it with the knife.

I always use my knife to deal with garlic, put it flat on the garlic and smash my hand down on it…it peels and half-chops it for me, learned that from Rachel Ray!

I’m a fan of Pampered Chef, it works great!

One Thanksgiving, when my mother-in-law (a good cook) was visiting us, I wanted to buy some of those small potatoes, because they work well with the potato salad my family likes. Well i was in a hurry. Imagine my chagrin when I was ready to cook the potatoes, to find out that I’d purchased GARLIC instead!! Talk about being embarrassed.

A friend of my parents was getting married. His bride-to-be asked to borrow my mother’s large wooden salad bowl for ice cream. Being told it had had garlic rubbed in it didn’t deter her. On returning it she did say the ice cream seemed to have an ‘off’ flavor.

For as much garlic as I use, I should be an expert on how to prep it, but I’m not. I just whack it with the side of a knife and get to mincing. I do sometimes end up just roasting a bulb so I don’t have to do any chopping.

Peeling garlic use to be a huge problem for me because of carpol tunnel. I take a can of veggies out of the cabnet smash the garlic bulb. Than i pick it up and roll it on top of a moist dish cloth it helps get the skin off.

waitressdani (at) hotmail (dot) com

Actually, the funniest story involving garlic happened when I first left home. A recipe called for one garlic clove. I didn’t know what a garlic clove was so I added the entire garlic bulb…..pungent meal!

Thank you. :-)

My son used my garlic press as a playdoh tool and put it back in the drawer, found it a few weeks later, completely hard

I’m scared of mincing garlic myself so I never have!

Worst story involving garlic prep :

I used to work in a residential crisis center where they did not allow sharp knives due to our clientelle.

We received a lot of donations, and someone donated a 5 b bag of garlic heads…. our director, deciding to play a joke on me, the hapless free intern, handed me a dull dinner knife and told me to peel and chop it all and put it into this huge jar he gave me.,,

I completed the task.. 5 hours later..

The tool that works so well that no one could pry it from my hands :

A well balanced chef’s knife..

it becomes an extension of one’s hand

I’ve rigged a homemade paddle into an electric drill to use to stir salsa on the past… didn’t work great, but well enough

As a kitchen novice (last year!), I tried to smash a huge clove of garlic using my grandmother’s antique potato masher. The ensuing garlic explosion soaked into my shirt, the wooden counter, the dog, pretty much everything within squirting distance. I couldn’t get the smell off my hands for days— and we won’t even talk about the dog!

Mom used to make cookies using a press, but I’ve never used one, but would like to try

Have a garlic press that i just took out of the drawer to put in a garage sale. Find it much easier and much more convenient to purchase the jars of minced garlic.

use garlic a lot in spaghetti and Mexican food. Normally take the bottom of a glass or bottle to crush it, before chopping.

I have never used a garlic crush utensil. I have always just bought minced garlic. I would love to try one to see the freshness difference.

Well, I’m not stupid, but I’m kind of stupid about cooking. I didn’t understand much about garlic, so when the recipe called for a few teaspoons of crushed garlic, I just threw a whole clove in there. Needless to say, that didn’t work.

The pampered chef garlic press works very well.

I’m a garlic prep dropout. I use the little jars of minced garlic from the produce section.

Regular Garlic Presses have always worked for me! And the giveaway is just wonderful!

I love cooking with garlic, I am pretty basic, just chop and slice. No horror stories, no special tools

Well I dont know how funny this is but many many yrs ago when I first start cooking with garlic I wasn’t aware that a little went a long way and I put too much into my spaghetti sauce to flavor it, you could say it had an aroma of garlic ahaha. NO i havent found any tool but if you use 2 pieces of plastic wrap or waxed paper and put your garlic between that and hit down real hard with a heavy glass or cup bottom it seems to do the trick.

I don’t really have any funny/embarrassing/fabulous garlic stories, but I do have a sick sense of humor and found it hysterical when I would put whole garlic cloves and sliced jalapenos in little slits cut into the sides of meat (brisket, pork loin, etc) and then slice and serve without removing to unsuspecting visitors.
Pretty funny to watch them take that first bite. ;-)

My best tool for garlic is a good old fashioned butcher knife. If you use it to smash the garlic, the peels slip right off. Thanks.

When I was first learning to cook, when the recipe asked for a clove of garlic, we put in the whole garlic instead of just one clove! Good thing we like garlic!

Thanks for the giveaway!

tweet: http://twitter.com/js22222222/status/11484275417

HEY! Somebody else did the same thing I did! A “clove” should be a whole piece. So when they told me to put in a whole “clove” of garlic, I used the whole head. The house REEKED of garlic for days :-)

I still think of this whenever I see a recipe that uses “soda”. How on earth would a new baker know that there is something called BAKING soda. I can see people using Coke! I can also remember a recipe telling me to use a fork tine for something. I had to look in the dictionary to see what a tine was! No wonder people who don’t cook/bake are intimidated by recipes.

I must admit that I’m not great about garlic prep either. I HATE those little garlic presses that you can’t get all the pieces out of after you’re done using it. Take too long to clean! I have often resorted to the bottled garlic (I can hear you shrieking now!) So I’d love to see some posts about some new incredibly easy to use and clean garlic presses! Thanks.

Funniest story, really not so funny-I thought it was a thing for making cookies. My mom had a fit, I messed up her garlic press and made foul tasting cookies.

I once took a meat tenderizer to garlic. I cut the cloves into quarters first. It’s not the most efficient, but it was fun…

Despite not being a very good cook, I don’t have any funny garlic prep stories. The first time I used fresh garlic (versus the minced stuff in the jar) I really wasn’t sure how to use it.

The worst was when I first started using garlic – I was trying to smash it and cut my finger – bad. I now use a wide knife and lightly smash it. It works for me.

I’ve only recently started using fresh garlic and embarrassed to say that I initially thought a bulb of garlic was a clove. When something called for quite a number of cloves of garlic…I looked up a picture on google of “a clove” of garlic and realized why I had chased off all the vampires AND my friends =)~

i put cinnamon instead of cayene pepper
they were the same color

only thing I can think of is I always add too much garlic to sause amking it really strong and you cant take away once you add to much

My Favorite way of dealing with garlic is whacking it with a knife. It works very well.

ardy22 at earthlink dot net

I use a large wooden spoon to break open garlic but there are times where the garlic ends up rolling off the table and the animals come running to see what fell.

I have never been a fan of a garlic press or any of those “handy dandy” tools. I always find that mincing it by hand works best for me.

I whack mine with a spoon I would love to have a garlic press someday

I just whack mine with a knife, peel and chop.

Once I was doing garlic prep and I got so hungry from the yummy smell I ate all the garlic.

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