Garlic was among of the first vegetables to be cultivated over 5000 years ago -- no surprise it’s the stuff of folklore and legends! The ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans revered it for its strength-enhancing benefits and consumed it for a boost while building the pyramids and battling each other in sporting events. Take that, protein bars!
Fresh garlic is best in terms of flavor and health benefits, so skip the jarred kind.
Select garlic that feels firm and has tight and unbroken skin that isn’t showing small green sprouts.
Store it in a cool, dark place like the cupboard, and it’ll stay fresh for about a month.
Mosquitoes hate garlic as much as vampires do. While you might not want to rub it all over yourself, you can leave a few peeled cloves out where mosquitoes flock.
Garlic has natural adhesive properties, so it can be used for arts and crafts in place of glue sticks and to mend tiny cracks in glassware.
Because garlic has such potent antibacterial properties, it can be used to make a DIY disinfectant! Just shake up ¼ cup chopped garlic with white vinegar and essential oil in a spray bottle.
Place a slice of garlic beneath a bandage to coax a splinter out of your skin. It’ll work within just a couple hours!
Has your garlic ever turned blueish-green on you? It’s due to a chemical reaction between sulphur (in the garlic) and copper (which can be found in lemon juice and sometimes in water supplies). Don’t worry - it’s perfectly safe to eat!
You may have spotted black garlic at the market or a restaurant. Black garlic is made by heating whole bulbs at a very low temp for a month or so until the cloves turn soft and toasty black. It has a much more intense umami flavor than fresh garlic.
To peel a whole head of garlic at once, break apart the cloves and press down on them to loosen their skin. Place them in a large mixing bowl, invert a second bowl of the same size on top and shake vigorously for 15 seconds to reveal perfectly peeled cloves.
Roast whole garlic bulbs in foil with a glug of olive oil for an hour in the oven (or throw it on the grill if you’ve got that on already) for a magical treat to spread on toast or whisk into vinaigrette.
Try blanching cloves of garlic briefly in a pan of boiling water. Drain and plunge them into an ice bath, which will preserve the color. Blanching garlic removes the harshness, while adding a bit of sweetness. Substitute blanched garlic for raw garlic and see what you think.
Garlic is an extraordinary source of selenium, which is a mineral important for cognitive function, a healthy immune system, and fertility for both men and women.
Garlic has legendary antiviral and antibacterial properties. Next time you feel a cold coming on, slice a garlic clove in half and suck on the halves in lieu of a throat lozenge to unleash those antiviral properties on your cold!
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