Garlic

Garlic

Garlic gives dishes a wonderful flavour – but it is also very healthy. In Central Asia, they have known this for 5,000 years. The bulb arrived in Europe from this region via the Middle East.

Today, garlic is grown wherever the climate is hot and dry. A garlic bulb consists of up to 12 cloves. Fresh white garlic has a particularly subtle, mild flavour, but it is also available in smoked or powdered form and has a wide range of uses.

Garlic should always be stored in a cool, dry place, and in summer it’s best to keep it in the crisper drawer of your fridge. After breaking open a bulb it should be used within ten days, otherwise the cloves dry out and grow shoots, resulting in loss of flavour. The fresher and juicier they are the better! A good way of storing garlic is to pack it in oil. Peel two garlic bulbs, separate them into cloves, remove the skin and put them into a screw-top jar. Fill the jar with good-quality olive oil and, if you like, add a few peppercorns or small chillies. Leave to stand for three or four days then use in salads and other dishes.

Where does garlic’s odour come from? The odour that many people find unpleasant comes from allicin. This is released from an enzyme called allinase that is contained in the garlic. Allicin is responsible for the aroma and typical flavour of garlic. It is part of the plant’s natural defences, protecting it from harmful parasites, fungi and insects. It breaks down of its own accord, creating sulphur-containing compounds that cause garlic’s typical odour. It can be reduced by eating parsley, milk, apples, spinach, ginger and mint. But allicin also has some good properties: it is antibacterial and antifungal. Garlic is also believed to be good for the heart and blood vessels.

In spring, wild garlic makes an excellent alternative. It is rarely cultivated but can be found in shady woodland areas – but be careful not to confuse it with poisonous lily of the valley leaves! Nowadays it can often be bought at markets, greengrocers and good supermarkets. Or why not try garlic chives from South East Asia and India? Its leaves look like blades of grass and have a pleasantly mild garlic flavour.

Text: Sabine Witt