It’s no secret that we love garlic. We’ve made multiple recipes that are very garlic-forward — pasta aglio e olio, garlic bread, toum (Lebanese garlic sauce), and garlic rice, to name a few. Most of the recipes we’ve made call for garlic, and when they do, we usually (always) double it. (Our partners, families, and friends love us.)

Love garlic and want to know why it tastes so good? Learn why you can’t get enough of this ingredient. (Plus science things. Science is still cool. 🤓)

What even is garlic?

According to the all-knowing Wikipedia: “Garlic is a species of bulbous flowering plant… Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, Welsh onion and Chinese onion.” So it’s onion-adjacent.

🧄 Mediocre Fact: the name garlic comes from Old English and can be loosely translated as: “spear shaped leek”.

What is garlic used for?

The primary use for garlic in modern society is for cooking. There are very few dishes that couldn’t be enhanced by adding some garlic to them!

That being said, there are many cultures, both historic and modern, that have used and continue to use, garlic for medicinal purposes. Historically, in the Middle East and Asia, garlic was used to treat all sorts of medical problems such as bronchitis, high blood pressure, tuberculosis, liver disorders, dysentery, vampirism, colic, rheumatism, flatulence, intestinal worms, diabetes, and fevers.

Do we recommend using garlic as a substitute for modern medicine? No. Is it good as a supplement to modern medicine? Sure! It’s a good source of antioxidants, but it’s not going to magically cure your diabetes.

(But apparently it might increase your sex drive? Okay then. 😏)

Why does garlic taste so good?

We’ve all been there. You’re prepping your ingredients. You grab a clove of garlic and start mincing. And then it hits you. The smell of the garlic. You immediately visualize every piece of garlic bread you’ve ever eaten in your life. The thing that just activated your core garlic memories is allicin. 🤤

Allicin is the chemical compound that makes fresh garlic smell like fresh garlic. When you cut into a garlic clove, some fancy chemistry happens, and an enzyme inside of the garlic cells gets converted to allicin. Allicin is also part of the reason why your fingers and knife are all sticky after you mince a lot of garlic.

🧄 Mediocre Fact: Allicin has some sulfur in its chemical composition. This is why it has that pungent, sharp smell to it, similar to onions and farts. That’s sulfur at work.

What’s the difference between fresh, dried, and pre-minced garlic?

Fresh garlic is amazing, but it’s not always the right choice. Different forms of garlic have different uses. Read on!

Fresh Garlic

Why use it: it’s delicious
When to use it: your recipe calls for it

If your recipe calls for fresh garlic, you should use fresh garlic. In a pinch, sure, you can use pre-minced garlic in a jar, or garlic powder, but your dish isn’t going to taste as it should. (Pasta aglio e olio with garlic powder would be sad.)

If you don’t have time to slice or mince fresh garlic, your best alternatives are going to be fresh pre-peeled garlic (that’s one less step you have to do) or frozen garlic cubes (if you can’t find these in the freezer aisle, you can also make it yourself by mincing garlic in bulk and adding it to an ice cube tray).

Don’t like mincing garlic? You need a garlic press. 🧄

When cooking with garlic over a medium-high heat, you need to be careful not to cook it for too long, lest your garlic become burnt and ruin the flavor of the entire dish. It’s a delicate ingredient! You typically won’t want to add it first — you’ll want other ingredients in your pan to help “protect” it.

When using raw garlic in a recipe, you usually want to follow the recipe and not get too crazy and double the garlic like you do when you are cooking with it. Raw garlic is extremely pungent, and too much can make your dish very spicy (for example the toum from our Middle Eastern food post).

Garlic Powder

Why use it: it can withstand a higher heat than fresh garlic
When to use it: BBQ rubs, spice blends (taco seasoning), dredges (adding to flour for fried chicken), ranch dressing, etc.

Worried about your garlic burning? You should probably use garlic powder. It’s not a great idea to put fresh garlic on steak or anything that’s being cooked over a high heat, like on the BBQ. Garlic is very sensitive to heat, so it’ll just burn. This is where garlic powder shines!

Garlic powder is also great when you don’t want the taste of raw garlic to become overpowering. For example, if you’re making a homemade dip, raw garlic would sit in the dip and will get more intense and spicy as time goes on. With garlic powder, it won’t! You’ll just get that awesome garlic flavor.

Garlic powder never really goes bad, it’ll just lose its flavor over time. If your garlic powder isn’t tasting garlick-y anymore, it’s time to throw it out.

Granulated garlic is the same thing — it just hasn’t been ground as fine as garlic powder.

Final thoughts: garlic powder is its own thing. It’s never going to taste the same as fresh garlic, and that’s okay. It has its own uses and shouldn’t be looked down upon or compared to fresh garlic.

Pre-Minced Garlic in a Jar

Why use it: you’re super lazy
When to use it: you’re super lazy

In order to safely store the minced garlic, it needs to be pasteurized. Pasteurization is when food is quickly heated in order to kill off bacteria like staphylococcus, E. coli, Listeria, and Salmonella. Unfortunately, this process of quickly heating up pre-minced garlic also makes the garlic lose a lot of its garlic-y-ness. 😥

Pre-minced garlic will also have some preservatives added to it in order to give it a longer shelf life. When the preservatives interact with the garlic, the taste will change and become bitter.

All in all, if you are extremely lazy, or don’t have any other options, go ahead and buy some pre-minced garlic.

Real friends don’t let friends always use pre-minced jarred garlic.

⚡ Garlic Lightning Round ⚡

Black garlic — this is aged or fermented garlic. Wanna try it? Trader Joe’s has some.

Garlic scapes — this is the part that grows out of the bulb! It’s mighty tasty.

Roasted garlic — roasting a whole head of garlic is a treat. Roasting brings out the sweetness.

So there you have it. You’re now a garlic expert. 🧄

Comment only if you love garlic. No garlic haters pls. Unless you hate it because of an allergy, in which case we are so sorry. Our condolences. 🙏

The Science of Garlic