Cooking Tips: How to easily peel Garlic Cloves

6 comments
Often for people who are new to cooking peeling garlic becomes a rather difficult and messy task. I had a first hand expereince of that when I started cooking long time ago. The shell of the clove doesn’t come away without a significant amount of scraping, usually with my fingernails and I usually ended up getting chunks stuck in my nails and my fingers used to stink of garlic for a long time.

Not any more!. There are a couple of simple and easy ways to peel garlic cloves. If your recipe requires that the garlic must be chopped or minced or crushed then the easiest way to peel it is to use a chefs knife or a knife that is a little wide on its sides.

First, pick off your cloves from the bulb, and lay the flat side down. Then, take your chef's knife and with one hand holding the knife handle, lay either flat side of the knife on top of the garlic clove. The garlic should be closer to the knife handle than the center of the blade. With your free hand, slap the heel of your hand down and smash (no too hard though) the side of the blade against the garlic clove. And that's it. The outer skin would have magically detached from the clove, and you now have a perfectly peeled clove ready for chopping.

If your recipe requires that the garlic cloves be used has a whole, then just soak the cloves in cold water for 10-20 minutes. The peel slips off easily, leaving the whole clove intact.

6 comments »

  • Ann said:  

    Thanks for the tip :)

  • Unknown said:  

    I had a harrowing time to cook food after my marriage and one of them was peeling garlic skin.I too did the same thing what you have mentioned here and one more thing which i am doing sometimes now is to slice the hard edge of the clove from down and still u cn easily remove the skin.

  • Lavern Owie said:  

    thanks for posting. I'm having problem in peeling garlic cloves, this post really help me. God bless!

  • Unknown said:  

    Another method that we use in our house works really really well:

    1. Break each clove off the head.
    2. Cut the hard flat end off.
    3. Put all the cloves into a fairly large container with a tight fitting lid.
    4. Shake vigorously, causing the garlic cloves to smack against the edges and eachother quite agressively.
    5. Open the container and remove the full, peeled garlic cloves!
    6. Some may remain with the skin on, just shake 'em again.

    I use this method nearly every single time we cook with garlic.

  • Anonymous said:  

    Thanks a ton Michael... I'll use your method... Swathy Arun Kumar

  • Rekha Shekhawat said:  

    Nice recipe & nice tips, this is really informative.. Keep posting stuff like this i really like it. thank you for sharing this kitchen tips
    Foods that can be prepared within minutes

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