hardneck garlic is the kind most likely to be found in grocery stores! it's a little hardier so it transports more successfully. softneck is the kind you'd see braided together -- so pretty :O

   image on left is from fedco seeds; image on right is from melissa k norris' tutorial on how to braid garlic

spring garlic

spring garlic, or green or immature garlic is harvested before the plant fully develops a bulb. it's much milder in flavor, structurally and culinarily more akin to a green onion.


image from the kitchn

elephant garlic

elephant garlic is a type of garlic that can grow to roughly the size of a softball! there are only 5 or so cloves in the average bulb. elephant garlic has a much milder flavor than its standard-size cousins, and is sometimes used raw because of this.
   image on left is from gardener's world; image on right is from gurney's seed & nursery

black garlic

black garlic is garlic that has been aged over the course of several weeks or sometimes months, in a warm, humid environment. it depends on the maillard reaction, the same reaction that makes golden-brown food taste so good! this process was first developed in east asia, with one british farmer claiming he has a 4000-year-old korean recipe.^[1] the cloves become dark and sticky and the scent and flavor change dramatically, going from sharp and pungent to mild and sweet!


image from simply recipes

there are hundreds of different cultivars of garlic, and their flavors can vary significantly. get out there and see which ones you like best!!

likely due to its connections to herbal medicine and widespread cultivation, garlic is held as having healing or protective qualities in the folklore of many different cultures. perhaps the best-known cultural association is the use of garlic to ward against vampires (and sometimes other creatures of the night), still a popular part of vampire mythology today.

still from the lost boys (1987)

ungnyeo is a characer from korean mythology; originally a bear, ungnyeo lived in a cave with a tiger. both wanted to be human, so they prayed to the god hwanung, who heard their cries and offered them a deal: if they would stay in their cave, away from sunlight, eating nothing but garlic cloves and mugwort for 100 days, they would become human. the tiger became restless and left the cave after 20 days. but the bear stayed, and after the 21st day, they were transformed into a beautiful woman. with hwanung, she would go on to birth a son, dangun, who would be korea's founder. (note: modern translators state that the "garlic" referenced in the tale was not the garlic we typically think of, but a native korean cousin known as dallae or korean chives.)^[3]

in homer's odyssey, odysseus is given the herb moly by hermes, to protect odysseus and his men against the witch circe. some of today's scholars say that moly is actually garlic!

garlic was sometimes offered to the roman war god mars. roman soldiers would traditionally eat raw garlic before battles, believing it would lend them courage.^[4]

because of its pungent aroma, garlic is sometimes referred to as the "stinking rose" -- there's even a garlic-centric restaurant in san francisco of the same name!

garlic confit

photo from bon appetit
confit is a method for cooking things in fat -- you can use a variety of things to cook and flavor your garlic cloves, including bacon fat, a neutral oil like vegetable oil, or, as i most prefer, olive oil.


you'll need:
garlic, your fat of choice, some salt, a small dish to put them in, and an oven.

🧄 preheat oven to 250F/120C.

🧄 get your cloves peeled and in your oven-safe dish, then cover them with the oil. you want them fully submerged so none of them burn. sprinkle on that salt!

🧄 put em in the oven for 1 hour 15-25 minutes, or until it's nice and soft and golden brown. if you can squish one of the cloves easily with the back of a spoon, you've done it!

🧄 spread your beautiful confit garlic on some nice crusty toast or make a soup or pasta sauce with it! if there's any left, keep it in the fridge, stored in the oil you cooked it in for up to 2 weeks.

roasted garlic

photo from the cookie rookie
similarly to confit garlic, roasted garlic is much more mellow in flavor, becoming a bit sweet from the roasting process.


you'll need:
a bulb of garlic, 1/4 tbsp olive oil, some aluminum foil, and either a muffin tin or baking sheet.

🧄 preheat oven to 400F/205C.

🧄 cut the top off your garlic bulb so most if not all of the cloves are exposed -- make sure you're not cutting far down enough on your bulb that your cloves are gonna fall off. about 1/2" (lil over 1 cm) down should be good.

🧄 gently rub the olive oil into the cut top of your garlic bulb and wrap it in foil.

🧄 put your foil-wrapped garlic either on your baking sheet or in one of the wells of a muffin pan (the well helps prevent the oil from getting everywhere when you open it later!)

🧄 bake for 35-45 minutes, or till each clove of garlic is tender. be careful opening it up to check, don't get steamed hands!! i usually use a couple forks to help open it up lol.

🧄 let it cool until you can handle the bulb with your hands, because pinching the cloves out is the probably the simplest way to do it! properly roasted garlic should slide out of their skins relatively easily. like with the confit garlic, you can spread it on toast, make it into a dip, a soup, etc. i really like using roasted garlic when i make focaccia!

🧄 leftover roasted garlic (a foreign concept, but just in case) can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or frozen.

pickled garlic

photo from simply recipes
note: this is meant to be stored in the refrigerator and is not for shelf-stable canning purposes; improperly cured/stored garlic (especially raw garlic stored in oil) can foster the botulinum toxin, which could make you mad sick or worse. it's not the most common thing and some might say this is an abundance of caution, but hey man, if my options are A) mild risk of puking and shitting myself to death or B) not doing that...i'm going with B, dude...

you'll need: garlic, 1 cup water, 1 cup white or apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp salt (pickling, kosher, or sea salt), 1 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp black peppercorns, a container large enough to hold all of that lol (a pint glass jar works!)

🧄 separate and peel your garlic cloves
🧄 combine water, vinegar, salt, sugar, and peppercorns (and any additional herbs and spices you want to use for flavoring) in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally till your salt and sugar have dissolved. bring it to a boil, then cut the heat.
🧄 while the brine is still hot, pour it over your garlic cloves, making sure all are submerged.
🧄 let cool for 1 hour, then store in the fridge. the longer you let this sit together and pickle, the better the flavor will become -- try giving it at least a week before using. after that, it'll keep for up to 3 months in the fridge!

garlic herb butter

photo from all the king's morsels
garlic butter is pretty simple and straight-forward. it's all there in the name!!

you'll need: a stick of butter, softened a bit - room temp is great if you're patient or forward-thinking enough, 2-3 cloves of garlic -- this can be minced raw garlic or some roasted or confit garlic from earlier) and your herbs of choice. italian seasoning is a great shortcut, or you can do rosemary, some parsley, whatever calls to you.


if you're going with raw garlic, get it finely minced. once your butter is good and soft, mix everything together. that's it!! go forth and use this to make garlic bread! melt it and dip things in it, or brush it on the top of some fresh baked dinner rolls!!

garlic citrus mayo

photo from vegetarian mama
i am kind of writing this down partially from memory...i used to make a calamansi version of this for one of my jobs and we used premade mayo (duke's, of course). you can get fancy and go full aioli but we'll get to that in a minute. this is more of a way to fancy up some premade mayo! for best results you'll need to grate in your garlic, but you can also mince it really finely or use pureed jarlic if that's what ya got. you may want to adjust the amounts to your taste and add the juice in slowly so it's not too thin for your liking -- this makes more of a sauce than a spread. i like using this when i make deviled eggs :9

you'll need: 1 cup mayo, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 tbsp lime juice (you can do all of either citrus if you'd prefer/have more of one on hand), 1 tsp black pepper, 2 cloves garlic and a grater (or a hearty 1/2 tsp of jarlic)

🧄 slowly combine the mayo and citrus juice till it's the consistency you want.

🧄 grate in your garlic or otherwise add it in, mix it and the pepper in

🧄 that's literally it my guy! this'll keep for about a week in the fridge in an airtight container.

aioli

photo freom the mediterranean dish
aioli is made by emulsifying garlic and egg yolk with a little bit of lemon juice (some recipes use dijon mustard instead). some people consider it interchangable with mayonnaise, but aioli tends to be a bit lighter in my experience.

you'll need: 1 large egg yolk, 3-4 cloves of garlic, (grated or pressed - about 1 tsp), 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 cup olive oil, 1 tsp lemon juice, a whisk

🧄 separate your egg yolk into a bowl, add salt and your processed garlic.

🧄 whisk together to combine, then add a few drops of olive oil.

🧄 add in your olive oil slooowly - this is the key to keeping your aioli from breaking.

🧄 once the oil is fully incorporated, whisk in the lemon juice. give it a taste and add more salt or lemon if you think it needs it.

🧄 you've got aioli!! use it for dipping fries or use it wherever you'd use mayo to fancy it up a little bit. you can keep it in the fridge in an airtight container for up to a week.

toum

photo from serious eats
toum is a lebanese whipped garlic sauce, an s-tier condiment. this is fluffier and more garlic-forward than the sauces above. you can either make it in a food processor or with a mortar and pestle.

you'll need: 1 cup garlic cloves, 2 tsp kosher salt, 1/4 ice water, 1/4 lemon juice, 3 cups neutral oil, food processor or mortar and pestle

🧄 split the garlic cloves and remove the germ, the little "guts" bit on the inside that would eventually sprout.

🧄 process or grind the garlic and salt together till the garlic is minced/in very small pieces.

🧄 add in 1 tsp lemon juice and continue to mix till a paste begins to form, then add 1 more tsp lemon juice and blend till smooth and slightly fluffy.

🧄 sloooowly stream in 1/2 cup oil while still mixing, then 1 tbsp lemon juice. repeat this step one time (another 1/2 cup oil, another 1 tbsp lemon juice).

🧄 add in another 1/2 cup oil in the same way, then 1/2 water. repeat this step until all your oil and water have been fully incorporated.

🧄 note: if you're using a mortar and pestle, you'll have an easier time if you add in your oil 1 tbsp at a time and your lemon juice a small splash at a time. it'll take considerably longer but still be delicious, just remember to go slowly to avoid breaking your sauce!!

🧄 toum can be kept in the fridge in an airtight container for about a month.

tzatziki

tzatziki sauce is a light and refreshing yogurt-based sauce/dip popular in mediterranean cuisine.

garlic bread

sinangag

sinangag is a filipino dish and honestly kind of the peak side/base -- essentially fried garlic rice! i'm not filipinx but made a lot of sinangag when i worked on a filipino food truck and leftovers of this dish truly kept me alive that year (food truck life doesn't pay well unless you own the truck LOL).

40 clove chicken

pasta aglio e olio