Choice & preservation

A quality garlic is easily spotted, head should be well rounded, and by a single touch you should feel the firmness of the cloves in it.

To keep it longer, do not put your garlic in the fridge, this would reactivate its germination and its development. The ideal place to store your garlic should be:

• dry
• out of direct sunlight
• room temperature

When well stored, you should be able to keep it up to few months.

Vocabulary

• What is the head: it is the bulb (on the right)
• What is the clove: these are the part inside the head (on the left)
• What is the tunic: the skin of the bulb, surrounding the cloves
• Its scientific name is Allium sativum.

Smell

The garlic smell is due to the allicin it contains.

Its effect on breath can generally be reduced by removing the central sprout, that can often be found inside cloves, plus this part generally have a bitter taste and can have an impact on the final taste of your recipe.

To lighten you breath, a tip is to bite a strong coffee bean, if you don’t have any, menthol candies and chewing-gum are still the best way to go.

On your hands, the best way to go are the Stainless steel soap.

Garlic in kitchen

There are various way to consume garlic:

• Unpeeled garlic: once cooked, it softens, and becomes creamy
• Cooked garlic smell is less marked and less persistent
• Garlic smell is released when chopped
• Made in puree, it can mix easily with sauce

To make garlic flavored vinaigrette, you can marinate garlic in oil, and then use the oil for your vinaigrette, or make a puree and mix with vinegar.

To flavor your meat with garlic, like a roast beef, cut the cloves, pinch hole in meat and slide the piece of clover in it, you should put them at regular distance in your meat, and then cook like this.

Finally, you can rub garlic on some food, like toasted or hard bread, to make garlic croutons.

Health

Not all the facts about garlic and health have been proved or explained, but it does contains various compounds that have good properties for your health, lets have a quick tour.

• Positive effect on blood pressure, this may be due its blood thinner effect due to its compounds: fructan, magnesium and adenosine, and prevent fat deposit in arteries.
• Ease digestion, as vitamin B1 help build enzymes that ease transit.
• May help get rid of a cold, because allicin will help destroy viruses and bacterias.
• Contains a lot of anti-infective agents: allicin, vitamin C, iodine, magnesium, and sulfur.
• Contains antioxidant which may act on aging (on Senescence