Ask MetaFilter posts tagged with garlic

Scape?

availablelight — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 12:17:39 -0800

GarlicFilter. Are these scapes, or just immature bulbs with a stalk attached?? So I read this (which really makes me want to grow my own, by the way) biut it didn't answer my question: what the heck did I just buy from the nice Guatemalan man at the farmer's market?

He kept saying, "garlic leaf, eat like scallion"....but this doesn't look like a scape (twisted, tender, trimmed from the bulb). It's a sturdy, straight, relatively tough 18" stalk...with a small green bulb still attached. (Which he told me was "not for eating.") The stalk is tough and distinctly garlicky, so there's that.

Did this particular farmer misunderstand when/what to trim, or is this something that is also commonly sold/eaten? The texture (and I'm guessing pungency) is so off from a traditional scape I'm not sure if I would try following the same recipes. ( It's not as soft or mild as a scallion, either.)

If you're familiar with this strange object and have culinary advice, please advise. Pics upon request.

Extra points if you can suggest how to use it with pattypan squash.

Picklers of the world unite!

goodnewsfortheinsane — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 18:28:26 -0800

What's your favourite pickle recipe, and why? And what advice can you offer to a novice pickler? I've embarked on a cautious foray into the world of DIY pickles. So far I've mostly limited myself to trying to replicate the ones I grew up with, i.e. Dutch-style gherkins and onions. They're nice, sure, but not very imaginative.

So in the interest of adventure, let's hear it! What's your favourite pickle? And if you know how it's made or if you've made it yourself, please share! I know I'm not alone in my pickle frenzy, so let's not be coy about these things, shall we.

Some personal quirks:
-I like pickled vegetables. Fruit... not so much. Previous successes include gherkins/cucumbers, onions, carrots, sweet peppers, and celery. I'm very open to pickling other vegetables.
-I really, really like strong tastes. Anyone remember boo_radley's story in MeTa a while ago? That's me. Basically, the pickles I've made so far have come straight from hell. This does not please everyone, however, and they don't have to be super hot or sour or garlicky or anything. But I do like strong flavours. More specifically, I'm looking to add some meat to my pickles, or say a darker / more umami flavour.
-Most of what I've made and/or read about concerns European- and American-style pickles. I'd be interested to hear about other varieties, such as those from our Asian cousins.
-Relishes to relish! Let's not forget about these pulpier, more spreadable citizens of Pickleland (which I'm pretty sure actually exists).
-I'm also interested in advice a pickle master would give to a novice, such as "cold infusions are for total wusses" or "the amount of mustard seeds should never exceed the square root of the amount of coriander seeds". Of course, I'm totally making these up, but I'm sure you catch my drift.

Then again, feel free to ignore the above, as certainly your suggestion will benefit someone.

Thanks in advance, fellow pickle freaks, and stay sour!

Garlic and onion growing and harvesting advice

Jupiter Jones — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 06:39:27 -0800

I’m growing garlic and onions for the first time in my new home. Can I harvest the greens from these plants while they’re growing without harming the bulbs? I’m in a colder climate that is very hot in the summer – Winnipeg. I planted the garlic bulbs this spring. I know that ideally one plants them in the fall, but I didn’t own the land then. My understanding is that I won’t get a lot of garlic out of it this year, but that if I leave it in the ground I will get tons next year. Of course, I’m reading conflicting information on this and am confused. I want to cook with the garlic greens as well – how can I go about this without stunting the growth of the garlic bulbs? I’ve got two types – one crappier type with many small cloves that I got from a garden center, and a couple of cloves of a fabulous garlic that I kept from the Farmer’s Market last year. This great garlic forms about 4 cloves per bulb, and they’re huge and flavourful.

Similarly, I’d like to cook with the greens from my onions – Spanish onions and red onions. Can I do this without hurting the bulbs?

Is it healthier to wait after cutting garlic before cooking it?

tractorfeed — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 19:51:53 -0800

Is it healthier to cut garlic, wait a while, and then cook it (as opposed to cut-then-cook-right-away)? I swear I just read an article in the past week or ten days about this, and I thought it was in the NYTimes, but searches there do not come up the the article I thought I read there, and google is giving me Botox hits (??!!??!!). There was something about a reaction to being cut that changes the garlic fundamentally, and you get more health benefits if you cut, wait, then cook.

Has my garlic gone bad?

flibbertigibbet — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 18:51:44 -0800

Quick! I need some advice. My purple-stripe garlic has the normal white cloves under the, uh, papery-skin, but when I cut into the cloves near the place where they sprout, the inside is fluorescent green, in a halftone-like pattern. I've never seen before in purple-striped garlic (or any other garlic) -- although, this is only my second try with purple-striped garlic. Has the garlic gone bad? Or is it just a lot of sprouts?

Why does this town smell like garlic?

nekton — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 08:44:37 -0800

There is a stretch of highway 25 in Wareham, MA (south of Route 195) that consistently smells like garlic, and I have no idea why or where the smell is coming from. The garlic smells "appears" suddenly about 2 miles south of the intersection with 195 (GMap of area) and fades about a half mile before 195. I have attempted to track the source of the smell (on side roads next to the highway) and haven't been able to find it. There are multiple cranberry bogs on either side, but I have never encountered another bog smelling like this.

What could this smell be? Where is it coming from? (Is it keeping the vampires away?)

I just ate 30 cloves of garlic. How do I not kill my coworkers?

moooshy — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 18:25:25 -0800

[GarlicFilter] Whenever I consume garlic, I smell like garlic for a week. I love garlic, and I don't want to stop eating it. What can I do to a) detox from the latest garlic-consumption and b) not smell like garlic in the future after making delicious stir-fry?

Bulk Garlic Recipes

Ambrosia Voyeur — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:29:49 -0800

What are some good recipes that use up a lot of garlic? Bonus points if they keep well or can be frozen, because I'm talking about 2 pounds of peeled cloves, here. I made skordalia already and will do some baba ganouj and hummus.

Also, does anybody know how to prevent garlicky farts? Because I got those once from eating a lot of garlic (like, half an elephant bulb) and it made my next workday a study in mortification. Relentless waves of farts. That smell like garlic. Only with some fart mixed in. Not cute.

How do I grow garlic?

iurodivii — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 19:14:03 -0800

Can you help me grow garlic? I harvested it from my grandfather's garden and wish to continue its lineage. It is of the variety of smaller-with-purple-tints garlic, cloves about the size of a golf ball.

I know my best bet is planting single cloves but I would like to maximize my potential harvest. Do the top of the plants, the seeds that look a bit like popping corn, grow when planted? If so, what is the best way to plant them?

The Search for Forgoza

jake — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 21:29:46 -0800

Is my favorite food unique to one store, or is it made elsewhere under different names? An unavoidable stop during visits to my hometown of Kendall, FL is Norman Bros. Produce, to buy a half-dozen pans of "Forgoza Bread".

Here is a copycat recipe - it's essentially a pie pan filled with dough roughly mixed up with garlic, herbs, and onions. It's very soft and chewy throughout (slightly focaccia-ish top crust) and you just eat it out of the pan, by the fingerful. The very thought of it is driving me mad with lust right now.

I haven't found anything like it anywhere else, in 5 different cities I've lived in across the US. Google searches for "forgoza" all link to the same recipe, and I don't even know where to start looking for alternate names it might have elsewhere, or similar types of bread. I've tried following that recipe, but it's less than perfect - it doesn't seem to "congeal" into a lumpy mass that you can pull apart, and if I cook it long enough that the inside isn't raw, the top gets too dry. It's supposed to be moist and moderately oily. Seems beyond my meager baking skills, but I'm probably making the dough wrong.

They won't ship me a crate of it, the bastards. Maybe I can convince a family member to do so, but I'd rather find a local "pusher".

So before I give up hope and settle for the health-friendly option of only having it once every couple of years, I'll ask you guys: Does this stuff go by a different name elsewhere, or is this a unique gem?

(note: In lieu of further etymological research, I would also gratefully accept dough-making tips so that I can perfect the recipe on my own, thereby relieving my urges through, uh, masterbaking)

As an unmuddied lake, Fred. As clear as an azure sky of deepest summer.

[expletive deleted] — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 02:08:06 -0800

Why did my garlic turn blue? I was cooking salmon on the barbecue yesterday and when it was done I noticed the garlic had turned bright blue. I looked it up and it seems that garlic in pickling solutions will sometimes turn blue. There are various explanations of this, but the most common one is that in an acidic solution, sulfur containing compounds in the garlic react with even minute amounts of copper to form copper sulfate. This is what I had assumed had happened, because I remembered hydrated copper sulfate being exactly the same colour.

There were a few other explanations of how the colour forms, but assuming that this explanation is correct, where did the copper come from? The other ingredients were soy sauce, rice vinegar, ginger, and slices of apple on a wild sockeye fillet. I cooked it in tinfoil.

I apologize in advance for what is probably a trivial question. It's just been bothering me for a whole day now.

Why has my garlic gone blue?

patricio — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 06:56:14 -0800

Pickling garlic has turned it blue - will it be toxic? A friend recently decided to pickle a huge amount of garlic. She put the cloves in clean jars with fresh chopped red chilles and used distilled malt vinegar with a small amount of white wine vinegar. Everything was fine for about a week, then the cloves of garlic started turning blue. They are now a very bright blue (copper sulphate solution coloured). Has anyone had this happen to them and do you know what might be causing the blue colour to appear? Is the garlic likely to be toxic?

Metal deodorant bars for garlic/onion?

anonymoose — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 21:50:32 -0800

Do those metal deodorant bars made to remove the scent of garlic or onion from your hands really work? If so, how? If not, what does?

Garlic, anyone?

zardoz — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 18:14:50 -0800

I am on an eternal quest to make the perfect tomato pasta sauce. Every recipie I've read says to start with a pan and some olive oil and then fry up onions and garlic. I then dump in my tomatoes--I ususally use whole canned tomatoes, chop them up a bit and let them simmer a while, then season, etc. The garlic is what I'm asking about, because I notice if I do this, the garlic will cook for quite a long time and the resultant sauce ain't so garlicky, even if I've added several cloves--it seems I've cooked away much of the flavor. I've tried adding the garlic later on, but that's not quite right either. How do you ensure your pasta sauce is full of garlic goodness?

Does taking garlic pills really help one's health?

Postroad — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 11:08:54 -0800

Does adding garlic pills regularly to one's intake really help or is this just another fad without merit? I have been told thaty garlic is very good if taken on a regular basis (pill form). But there are so many fads out there that I am not sure if this is but another fad or a dietary addition that truly is worthwhile for the body. Any evidence that it is helpful?

Spread it on toast!

sohcahtoa — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 05:12:40 -0800

How do I make excellent roasted garlic? In the hazy past, I frequented a restaurant that would serve a whole head of roasted garlic. about 1/4th of the top (or bottom?) was cut off, so you could stick your knife directly into each 'cell' and pull out a clove of perfectly roasted garlic, translucent and spreadable like butter. I've experimented with roasting garlic but it never comes out this good.

Is it better to cut off the 'tip' or the 'stem' end? How long and how hot in the oven? Any tips for making it with individual cloves instead of the whole head?

[The restaurant, by the way, was in Boston, served it with a sprig of rosemary, and I totally forget what it was called.]

Vinegar-garlic steamed veggies?

maudlin — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 15:31:36 -0800

Brazilian/Portuguese cooking experts, please holp me! I can't find a recipe for the amazing vegetables I had last night. I had wonderful churrasco (Portuguese barbeque) last night on St. Clair. I expected the chicken to be as great as it was, but the veggies (brocolli, cauliflower, peas) were a revelation. They were either steamed or stir fried to a tender-crisp state and were both garlicky and tart. My husband thought the hot vegetables just had some salad dressing applied, but I am curious if there are some specific recipes out there.

We've already Googled some great recipes for the Portuguese cornbread, chickpea and cabbage soup, and, of course, the chicken, but I've had no luck with the vegetables.

Question number 12994

keswick — Tue, 14 Dec 2004 22:06:46 -0800

What's a good side dish to go with the traditional "Chicken & 40 Cloves Of Garlic" recipe? (A recipe for the sidedish would be greatly appeciated too.)

Question number 12293

jess — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 16:14:24 -0800

It's the 21st century and I'm tired of analog garlic preparation! I love to add fresh -- not pre-bottled -- garlic to almost everything. However, I hate having to deal with a crappy garlic press, which usually leaves my hands covered in garlic juice and big strings of pulp. Can anyone recommend some kind of fancy-pants machine to peel and press cloves for me?