How to Clean a Garlic Press

Garlic presses are one of the handiest kitchen gadgets to own. You place the pieces of garlic inside of it, and it reduces them to the small pieces that you need for your recipes. Unfortunately, the smaller pieces have a tendency to clog up the holes of the press and make it difficult to clean.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Wash the garlic press immediately. The longer that you let it sit, the harder it is to clean.

2. Put the garlic press in the dishwasher. Make sure that the type that you own is dishwasher safe. If it is, a dishwashing cycle may be the only thing needed to clean it.

3. Use the tip of a knife to remove the stuck garlic pieces. If the dishwasher is unable to clean it well, you'll need to manually remove the garlic lodged in the holes of the press.

4. Run it through hot water. After scraping away the garlic pieces with a knife, run the press under hot water to wash away the debris. You may have to scrape away any additional garlic that was not initially removed.

Tips & Warnings

• If you do forget to wash it immediately, the garlic may dry in the holes of the press. If this is the case, soak the garlic press in hot water for several minutes and then attempt to clean it.
• Buy a self-cleaning garlic press. On these models, a set of teeth is pushed through the holes in order to clean out the base of the unit.