Garlic is an indispensable seasoning in many dishes, and in pickled form it is also a complete vegetable snack. There’s just one problem: each of the teeth is covered with a durable shell. However, there are several surefire ways to quickly peel garlic.
If we are talking about a couple of teeth, which are necessary for the recipe, then there will be no difficulties. But when preparing a dish where garlic is one of the main components (for example, when marinating it), you should find some faster cleaning option. And, of course, I want to speed up the whole process, including dividing the head into individual cloves. Let's start with this.
Blade of knife
Let's start with the classics. This method is used by many professional chefs. Its essence lies in the fact that a clove of garlic needs to be placed on a cutting board, and then pressed on it using a knife with a wide blade. After this, the husk will easily separate.
To avoid breaking the knife upon impact, place the garlic closer to the handle
How to place garlic cloves and how to use a knife is described in detail in the following video.
The disadvantage of this method is that the garlic turns out slightly flattened and begins to release juice. If you need whole cloves, it is better to use a different method.
How to get rid of the strong smell of garlic?
If you nevertheless cut garlic so that the characteristic sharp “amber” remains on your fingers, washing your hands with ordinary soap is useless - any housewife will tell you about this. The fact is that simple soap will not be able to remove this smell, only if you use laundry soap. But there is also a “greasy minus” here: it dries the skin very much and cannot be used too often.
Therefore, you can use other methods that will quickly get rid of the smell and at the same time be harmless to the skin:
- Lemon juice (you can take the juice of any citrus fruit). Just squeeze out a little juice, lubricate your hands with it, leave for 5 minutes and rinse. The smell was gone. But be sure to lubricate your hands with any cream afterwards. But if you are afraid that peeling may appear on the skin after using the juice, use the zest: thoroughly wipe your hands with it and rinse off after 10 minutes.
Lemon copes well with unpleasant odors (Photo: pixabay.com) - Coffee beans. This product perfectly eliminates various odors. Just take a couple of grains and rub them between your palms. Moreover, it is not necessary to wash your hands after the procedure - this will only get in the way. But after a couple of minutes, not a trace of the garlic amber will remain. If you only have instant coffee on hand, you can use that too: mix a little ground coffee with liquid soap, wash your hands thoroughly and rinse. After the procedure, apply cream to the skin.
- Soda. Soda is a famous adsorbent that absorbs various odors, including garlic. There are two application options. Try just adding 1 tsp. in the palm of your hand, wipe thoroughly and then rinse with water. If this does not help, mix 1 tbsp. baking soda and liquid soap, rinse your hand thoroughly in the resulting solution and rinse.
How are you used to cutting garlic and what methods do you use to remove its smell from your fingers and palms?
Shake
If you put the cloves in a metal bowl, and cover with another smaller one on top, and shake very, very hard, then in 10-20 seconds you can peel a large amount of peeled garlic. All you have to do is select the cloves from the husk and cut off the ends.
Here's how it's done.
To speed up the process, it is recommended to first divide the head of garlic into individual cloves. And instead of metal utensils, you can use a regular glass jar.
Disadvantages of the method: you need to shake intensely, your hands get tired quickly; the garlic may bruise. In addition, for the method to work, the garlic must be well dried. If you store it in the refrigerator, then you are unlikely to get anything done.
Useful tips
Garlic has a very persistent, specific smell that lingers on your hands and dishes for a long time after working. Some useful tips:
- Do not touch your eyes while peeling the garlic cloves.
- After work, you need to wash your hands in a solution of table salt or coffee grounds.
- Lemon juice and vegetable oil remove garlic odor from hands.
- Household chemicals remove odors well. After using them, you need to lubricate your hands with nourishing cream.
- You can eliminate the garlic aroma by washing dishes in a solution of salt or baking soda.
- Only mature garlic is suitable for long-term storage. It should be placed in a well-ventilated and dry room with a temperature of about 10-15 degrees.
- Sprouted garlic loses its beneficial qualities and acquires a bitter taste. To prevent this from happening, it must be stored correctly.
- Peeled garlic cloves can be placed in a glass jar and stored in the refrigerator for several months.
- Whole, unpeeled garlic bulbs sprinkled with coarse salt store well in glass jars. You can add salt and peeled garlic. Close the jars with lids and place in a cool place.
Cold water
This method is suitable for cleaning insufficiently dry garlic. The head should be divided into cloves and placed in a cup of cold water for 10-20 minutes.
The husk gets wet and is easily removed
The disadvantage of this method is that you usually still have to use a knife to remove thin films from the cloves.
There is also a method where the garlic is dipped in hot water for a few seconds. But it is more troublesome and is only suitable if the garlic does not need to be cut and the cloves will be completely heat treated. For example, when preparing homemade pickles.
Does the cleaning method depend on the type of garlic?
The unique taste and aroma of garlic has long attracted the attention of chefs. It is used in the preparation of ordinary and gourmet dishes. Some people even eat garlic raw, citing its antibacterial and antiviral properties. Indeed, garlic is a natural antibiotic, and therefore is able to protect the human body from many pathogenic microorganisms. Today, a huge number of varieties of garlic have been developed, which differ in the degree of heat, appearance and aroma. On markets in Russia you can most often find the following varieties:
- Gribovsky Jubilee;
- Komsomolets;
- Petrovsky;
- Gulliver;
- Degtyarsky;
- Elenovsky.
Regardless of the type of garlic, the method of cleaning it can be any. Dried heads are easiest to clean, but fresh ones are the most difficult to get rid of the husks. But the methods described above allow you to carry out the procedure as quickly and simply as possible.
You don't have to be a professional chef to peel garlic. You just need to choose the method appropriate to the quality and freshness of the garlic from the above. If you plan to add garlic to a hot dish, you can use heat treatment of the garlic. If a vegetable is added fresh to a salad, then it is best to use more gentle methods: the chef’s method or cleaning with a mat.
Garlic "device"
Aliexpress and regular hardware stores sell these silicone garlic peelers.
Silicone garlic peeler
The principle of operation is simple: put a few cloves of garlic inside and, pressing like a rolling pin, roll it on the table or between your palms. At the end you get garlic with the husk separated from it.
Many consider this “device” to be an indispensable assistant in the household. Its big advantage is that there is no garlic smell left on your hands. It is ideal when you need to peel a couple of cloves, but if you need a lot of garlic, you will have to tinker. And this is the disadvantage of this method.
Now you know all the life hacks for peeling garlic. Choose the method you like. Cook quickly and deliciously!
Cleaning with special tools – and with bare hands
Recently, devices have appeared in stores with which you can quickly peel garlic at home. Such devices include a specially shaped silicone mat called a piller. Its use is very simple: you just need to wrap one or several cloves in it, roll the mat into a tube and roll the roll several times on the table. As a result, the husk flies off, and a clean slice can be taken out of the mat. In addition, there is such a quick way to peel garlic as using the microwave. You need to place a chopped head of garlic there (of course, in a glass or ceramic container without metal parts or gilding!) and turn on full power for a few seconds. But, as with using boiling water, this method does not preserve the taste and smell of the seasoning. Finally, how can you quickly peel garlic if you don’t have anything at hand? In this case, it is enough to place the slice on a flat surface (even just on the kitchen table), press it with your palm and roll it back and forth several times. Another option is to simply rub the unpeeled clove between your palms. If the garlic is dry enough, the husk will come off on its own. This method has only one drawback: it is not very neat, and loose scales and films can scatter throughout the kitchen.
How to quickly peel small garlic?
If a dish requires peeling a lot of small cloves of dry garlic, the following method works:
- Take a jar with a tight-fitting lid. You can use any type of container - glass for canning, old coffee or factory-made pickles (but these must be thoroughly washed and dried first!), plastic containers, etc. As a last resort, you can use two ordinary plates of a suitable size - deep as container and small as a lid;
- The head, cut into cloves, is placed inside;
- The container is shaken vigorously for about half a minute so that the garlic cloves can be heard hitting the walls;
- The contents are poured onto a plate, and clean slices are selected from the pile of dry skins. If they are not completely cleaned, the procedure can be repeated.
This method also works with large slices, but then you will need a container of the appropriate size. In addition, large garlic cloves are usually more convenient to peel using other methods described above. Now you have several methods at your disposal to quickly peel garlic. Use the one that suits you best!
Preparing to store cloves
In order for peeled garlic to last for a long time, it needs to be prepared for storage. It is important to dry and sort the harvested crop. The only vegetable left for future use is one that is undamaged.
Already cleaned cloves must meet the following requirements:
- absence of rot;
- no unpleasant odor;
- no diaper rash.
Even carefully selected garlic for harvesting can deteriorate over time, so it needs to be inspected regularly and damaged ones removed.
Beneficial properties of garlic for the body
There is no magic pill for all diseases. Garlic, when cleansing the body, although it has a lot of useful substances, works only in combination with other therapeutic measures. Organic sulfides, due to which the vegetable has a specific aroma, have the following effects on the body:
- antibacterial;
- antiplatelet - thins the blood;
- antiprotozoal;
- anti-inflammatory;
- antifungal;
- antimalarial;
- antiviral;
- immunostimulating;
- anticancer;
- antioxidant;
- stimulates the gastrointestinal tract;
- maintains favorable intestinal microflora;
- normalizes blood pressure, reducing the load on the heart muscle;
- reduces the fragility of the walls of blood vessels, increases their elasticity, reducing tension;
- reduces low-density lipoprotein cholesterol - “bad cholesterol”;
- increases high-density lipoprotein cholesterol - “good cholesterol”.
In order for cleansing the body of toxins and other harmful substances to be meaningful and highly effective, it is necessary to introduce garlic into the diet on an ongoing basis, not to overeat, and monitor the quality of the product consumed.
In the microwave
If you want to completely save yourself from worries, you can use a microwave. This is especially convenient when you need to peel a lot of garlic at once.
For this you will need:
- microwave;
- garlic cloves
Step-by-step instruction:
Read also: The meaning of the name Altair (Alta)
- Place the garlic in the oven, setting it to maximum power.
- Hold for 10-12 seconds.
- Remove the garlic and remove the skins.
The principle is based on hydration. The process will help you quickly remove the swollen husk with your fingers.
Piller or silicone tube
Pillers are devices for cleaning fruits, vegetables and fish. To clean garlic cloves, a peeler in the form of a silicone tube open on both sides is suitable. Algorithm of actions:
- Place the garlic cloves in a silicone tube.
- Place the pipe on the kitchen table.
- Press it with your palms and roll it over the table surface like a rolling pin.
- Shake the cleaned cloves out of the tube and discard the husks. Instead of a peeler, you can use a small sheet of silicone rolled into a tube.
These methods are quite simple, but they will help save time and quickly peel the garlic. After some simple manipulations, the shell is easily removed, and you can start cooking.
Which garlic is easier to peel?
There are so many things that don't happen in this world. There is, for example, the single-claw Solo garlic, which is more reminiscent of an onion, albeit with a recognizable spicy aroma. Cleaning it is a real pleasure; no fuss with small slices! True, it is difficult to find real Solo anywhere other than large supermarkets, and in terms of cost it is much inferior to the “lobed” garlic we are used to.
The Solo variety is strikingly different from its counterparts
The more traditional varieties in our area - Yubileiny, Gulliver, Parus - are a different matter. They are both more accessible and cheaper. But they cause trouble when cleaning! The housewife, who will have to prepare for a big feast or preserve, is especially tormented: while you free a dozen or two cloves from the sticky husk, you will lose a lot of time and fray your nerves.
All that remains is to master the methods of express peeling garlic, fortunately, many of them have been invented. And also learn to choose from a variety of toothed heads those that are easier to part with their rustling skin
Here it is better to pay attention not to the variety - it has little effect on cleaning - but to the age and method of storing the spice. Young fresh slices and damp cloves are “exposed” reluctantly; even culinary tricks do not always work with them
But those that have been lying down and properly dried, jump out of the husk with a bang!
How to choose the right one
The rich flavor palette is not the only reason why garlic has become famous. In addition, it has beneficial properties for the body and helps cope with viral and colds. But in order to preserve both usefulness and taste, you need to choose the right vegetable.
Do not choose a product with sprouts - this will no longer bring proper benefits to the body. And the quality will leave much to be desired. Unripe garlic is also not suitable for cooking. It is quite simple to check whether the head was pulled out of the ground ahead of time. Using light pressure, examine the vegetable. In a mature one, the teeth can be clearly felt, and in size they should not be small or thin. Don't choose heads with a lot of husk
If stored for a long time, such a specimen will dry out extremely quickly. Also pay attention to the size of the head itself. A small product will give dishes a more refined aroma and taste.
