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I keep a jar of minced garlic in the fridge. I use it when garlic is needed but not prominent in the recipe. It doesn't smell or taste great but it's OK.
When garlic IS prominent in the recipe, I use fresh. I've grown tired of using a garlic press, instead I peel the cloves, put them on a chopping board, cover them in celaphane, and mash them with a hammer. It's a little faster and more satisfying.
Garlic powder is not in my kitchen (a poor substitute).
But God how I love garlic, I like the taste and smell but love the health benefits.
I had high hopes for Penzeys jarred roasted garlic, but I find that the roasted flavor makes it not as broadly useful for my purposes, which more often call for raw. They are one of the companies that now puts out freeze dried minced, but it's no cheaper than jarred minced. And a lot of Penzeys stuff is overpriced, for sure.
I stopped being a Penzey's customer when the owner started sending political messages to the customer email list. That's spam, imo (and rude as hell.)
Fresh garlic (chopped or pressed, occasionally sliced very very thinly) or garlic powder only in my kitchen. The garlic powder is GREAT on roast chicken and steaks.
I've never used anything but fresh garlic but I recently had some that was bad - a horrible bitter taste that ruined what I was cooking - and I freaked out and bought jarred garlic to complete what I was preparing. It was weird. There were no exterior signs of anything being off with the bulbs - no sprouting or discoloring. Not too soft. I plan to avoid buying it from any Kroger stores in the future. I do not use dried.
While I think that 'fresh' garlic is best ('fresh' being relative, some 'hardneck' varieties can be stored up to a year, if stored properly), the minced garlic in oil is the next best thing. Garlic powder is last place on my list and used only when nothing else is available. A single large clove of a Purple Stripe type, coarsely minced (takes about 1/2 a minute to do), provides a considerable amount of flavor.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gorges
I've never used anything but fresh garlic but I recently had some that was bad - a horrible bitter taste that ruined what I was cooking - and I freaked out and bought jarred garlic to complete what I was preparing. It was weird. There were no exterior signs of anything being off with the bulbs - no sprouting or discoloring. Not too soft. I plan to avoid buying it from any Kroger stores in the future. I do not use dried.
There are many different types of garlic that provide various levels/types of flavor and/or heat. It's possible that what you had was not 'bad', but just not the type you were looking for. However, there *are* at least two diseases to which garlic is subject, which those who are not familiar may not be able to identify.
[quote=nmnita;45851018]I keep a large jar of garlic powder to use when I just want to add a little garlic flavor, but it is no substitute for the real thing. The best I have found, for those who do not want to buy garlic cloves, is either, the garlic cloves already to use or the garlic you are now using, but from the box stores in the huge jars. They are not that expensive if you consider how much you are getting. The ready to use cloves, just require chopping are this the best way to go, in my opinion and they can be frozen to prevent spoiling[/QUO
They can be frozen...YAY!!
I buy fresh garlic, but don't always use it in a timely manner, so in the freezer it goes!!
I can get fresh garlic at 30 cents a head, so even if some of it ends up going bad before I can use it, it is enormously less expensive than jarred or otherwise ready-prepared garlic. It takes seconds to peel a clove (just crush it slightly under a knife or something first) and chop it up. And it usually doesn't go bad if it's kept in a cool place.
I will use garlic powder if I only want a little taste in a sauce or something.
I will use garlic powder if I only want a little taste in a sauce or something.
I mostly dissolve garlic powder in melted butter to toss popcorn in, sometimes to drizzle on packets of grilling vegetables when I want a hint of garlic, but don't want to risk chopped cloves scorching and causing that acrid burnt taste.
My favorite thing to do with garlic is to roast it by the head and squeeze out the paste to mix into mashed potatoes, spread on bread, pizza crust, whatever.
...There are many different types of garlic that provide various levels/types of flavor and/or heat. It's possible that what you had was not 'bad', but just not the type you were looking for. However, there *are* at least two diseases to which garlic is subject, which those who are not familiar may not be able to identify....
This was just the generic large bulb in a large chain grocery store. They only had the one kind. It was weird. I've always used fresh garlic and use it almost every day, and this has never happened before. I had to throw out an entire batch of falafel mix as well as leftover marinara sauce.
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