I can't take credit for this, I saw it on a cooking blog recently. But there is a super fast way to peel a whole head of garlic in about 15 seconds, without even hardly touching it. This really works too, I tried it several times. You get two metal bowls of the same size (ones with a bit of a lip are even better). Then you take a whole head of garlic and press down on it with the palm of hand to break it apart into multiple cloves. Throw everything into one of the bowls, then flip the other bowl over and place it on top, so you've got like a metal globe with the garlic inside. Then you just shake the heck out of this for about 15 seconds. When you open the bowls almost all, if not all, of the garlic will be peeled. Give it a try sometime! I keep the cloves in the fridge after I do this to keep them fresh and it makes cooking with fresh garlic so much easier.
Ohiotom, I have never heard of this before. I just had to peel a whole lot of garlic to be ground into paste this morning. We use a lot of garlic here and we microwave it for about 10 seconds on thaw and it is easy to peel off those cloves of garlic. This sounds even more easier. Let me try, but I doubt its efficacy. Have you tried this yourself?
I'll have to give this a try sometime. I usually slice the whole head, slice it in two and then roast it. Once it is roasted you just gently squeeze from the bottom part of the cloves and they pop right out. If the two bowl trick works, it would be a good way to have fresh garlic without smashing the cloves first and save me a lot of time by not roasting them. Thanks!
That's a new way of garlic peeling for me! I've never heard or seen such a method before. I always thought the easiest way was to crush the garlic cloves with the flat of a knife and peel off the loosened skin. I'll definitely be trying this out the next time I need to prepare minced garlic. I do this about once every two weeks or so where I'll peel and mince a whole bunch of garlic and store them for use while cooking or making garlic bread! If this new method works, it'll definitely save me a whole load of time!
I've always smashed the cloves with the flat side of my knife. I've used this method for a long time and now I'm pretty fast. I am curious about this new technique. I've never heard of it, and it does sound a little sketchy, but I'd be willing to give it a try. I'll post on the thread again afterward and let everyone know how it works.
Hey I tried this and as I suspected it didn't really work. My arms started to ache with all that bowl shaking , just some bits of peels were flying around.. did I get somethin g wrong in here? Anyways the kids did have a good laugh at me shaking the bowls around like that
No doubt this is a very particular method. I had never heard, but I'm going to put into practice the next time I have to cook with garlic. Another way, although not so simple is to put garlic soaked with hot water and leave an hour or two. You will see that the skin comes effortlessly and rarely have to use a knife to remove it. If you peel too much at once, and not going to use the same day, dry them well, put a paper towel in the bottom of a glass jar, and store covered in the refrigerator. The paper prevent spoilage by moisture.
Another easy way to do this... Break the head of garlic put your knife ontop of it and press, It breaks it likt this After that take the small cloves and do the same thing once you hear the pop it will come right out of the peeling.
The two bowl trick sounds great, however, I have always used a couple of cloves at a time. I find if you take the clove out of the whole, then place it on a chopping board, then whack a knife on it flat side down, it crushes the garlic, making it easier to chop or put it right into a garlic press, this is a good way if you don't want a lot of garlic smelling up your fridge. I find that containers keep the smell of garlic well and truly inside the actual plastic. It does tend to linger on the breath. The best way to get rid of that smell is to chew some parsley. or mint leaves. As the smell of it goes to your sweat glands for a couple of days.....It does linger around for a while.
This exactly what I do. I have been doing it for a long time and it's no big effort at all. I saw it done on a cooking show and have been doing it ever since.
Separate the garlic from its cloves and then get some large slicer like the palm of your hand. Put the garlic under by means of making it flat then push it with all of your weight and then poof, flattened garlic with some strong aroma, remove the rest if the unwanted skin and there you go ready to use.
This is great ! All of these methods sound much easier than what I have been doing . I pull everything apart, then take my knife and cut off the bottom, and then the top, and then peel, and it takes me FOREVER ! It sounds like the bowl thing didn't work so great, but the flat of the knife and smashing them seems to be about what most of the rest of you do, so I will try that next time. I had actually about given up on fresh garlic, and get the chopped up stuff in the jar to use instead, but I much prefer fresh.
