Behind the Knife - Chef Toolboxes Tell All

It’s only one of several garlic tools I use, but I do use one. It “purees” garlic to a good consistency for blending into sauces. A microplane works similarly but I find it’s a little more time consuming.

I don’t have issues with the fraction of a clove that’s wasted.

Skin that’s hard to remove is a sign that the garlic is underripe – or so I’ve been told.

You could just mince the garlic then use a bench scraper to crush it into a fine paste. Just put the blade onto the minced garlic, press and drag. You can do it with a knife, but why would you want to drag your knife blade across your cutting board.

Also, was it Goodfellas where the guys in prison were slicing garlic paper thin with a razor blade, or am I completely thinking of the wrong movie?

I’ve given up on my garlic press and now use a microplane. Since I’m usually grating ginger for the same dish it’s no more work to clean up.

I like David’s idea of using a bench scraper.

Being a food network junkie, I have watched several of the chefs and my own Mother when she was alive take a french knife on the flat side and give each clove a good whack. The skin/paper comes off easily and then chop to your desired consistency. Again with the back and flat side of you knife scrape up the garlic from the cutting board. Works fast and great every time. The only problem a person could have is not whacking the garlic hard enough, but a second whack does no harm.
So my favorite garlic tool…. a good french knife.

Whack-n-mince is the way to go. You do need to be careful though.

Since Charmian brought up ginger, has anyone ever used one of those ginger grating plates? If so, did it work well?

And as for the bench scraper idea, I have one called the Bash and Chop, where the metal is rolled up into a handle that allows it to lay perfectly flat on your board. It lets you really pulverize that garlic into a paste. I love mine, and they’re only about 5 bucks.

And speaking of great kitchen gadgets, I bought a pastry blender over the weekend that will actually stand up to being used. Its a heavier gage steel than the ones you normally see, and has only 4 blades instead of 5. It’s made by Norpro. They had Norpro’s with 5 blades right next to it, and the 5 blades bent with barely any pressure. the 4 blades I couldn’t bend at all. Definitely the way to go. Do I feel bad for bending the other one in the store? A little, but I want to make sure that the equipment I buy is quality.

Ah, David, you’ve inspired me to write a whole new post, which will be going up shortly.

Question: Re: The Bash & Chop: Is that your own name for it? Or is that an actual name?

The Bash and Chop (actual name) is made by Progressive. It’s actually quite amazing. It even has a little ruler on it. Great for dividing dough, scooping up chopped veggies, or as previously stated turning cloves of garlic into a flavorful mush.

Also, in your new post, you spelled my last name wrong. Don’t worry, everybody does. I’m glad I’m so inspiring.

Best little product ever; the Garlic Zoom. Open the top, put in the garlic, run it up and down on its little wheels a few times (the more you do it, the more finely sliced the garlic). Open it up, tip out the garlic, rinse to clean. No garlic smell on your hands. http://www.firebox.com/product/2280/Garlic-Zoom?via=ser

When they taught us to use garlic in my high school cooking class (oh how time flies), they simply said to crush it with our chef knives, and that garlic presses were useless. It’s basically a ricer, if I remember correctly—isn’t it?