The Tool Bar: What's Your Garlic Epiphany?
We’ve all had one…or maybe several.
My first one came about ten years ago when I took a big whiff of pre-minced garlic from a jar and realized it didn’t smell anything like the real thing. I swore off the stuff from that moment on.
But peeling the suckers presented a constant problem. If I could, I handed it off to someone else. If not, well, my hypothesis was that no one much noticed…or so I thought.
Sometime last fall, I had my second garlic epiphany: Once and for all, I wanted to learn how to deal with the peels, which stuck to my fingers and cutting board, and made me so frustrated that I was THISCLOSE to accidentally slicing off a couple of fingers since I was also testing a brand-new Wusthof Classic Ikon chef’s knife and getting used to the heft in my hand.
With garlic bits and peel stuck to my fingers, I ran upstairs in desperation and typed in my plea to Facebook and Twitter:
“How do I get the $&*(% peel off the garlic???”
Solutions came quickly and were calm and matter-of-fact in contrast to my agitated state, and basically ran along these lines:
“Smush it with the side of a knife blade and it’ll slide right off.”
Really? It was that simple?
I ran back downstairs, smacked it, et voila.
Why didn’t I already know about this?
Your turn. What’s your Garlic Epiphany? Leave a comment below!
I was taught to use the flat edge of a knife to peel garlic way back in a High School cooking class. For some reason I thought everyone knew that trick…
I don’t cook with garlic often, but I do make an effort to cook with fresh ingredients (including spices) when possible.