How to Peel Garlic Quickly
Garlic can offer a distinctive and potentially intense flavor to a wide variety of dishes and condiments ranging from bruschetta to aioli or garlic fries. Garlic is somewhat surprisingly common given the difficulty involved in preparing it. Onions, for example, require nothing more than peeling off one large layer before cutting and using them. Preparing garlic, on the other hand, involves removing the papery outer skin from the entire head of garlic, separating the cloves, then peeling yet more skin from each individual clove. Peeling the garlic can be a frustrating and time-consuming process if you do not take special measures to speed it up. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Fill the small saucepan with enough water to completely cover as many garlic cloves as you need to peel. Place the saucepan on the stove over high heat to bring it to a boil.
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Rub a head of garlic briskly between your hands to remove its outer papery layer. Do this over a trash can to avoid making a mess. Separate the cloves from one another and set aside as many as you need for your recipe. Save the rest for later.
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Put the cloves you wish to peel into the pot of boiling water. Boil the cloves for 20 to 40 seconds. The peels will come off more easily after 40 seconds, but the intensity of the flavor begins to decline noticeably after about 30 seconds, so choose your boiling time accordingly. Remove the boiled cloves from the water and plunge them into the cup of cold water.
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Remove one clove from the cup. Pinch the skin at one end between your finger and thumbnail, then pull. The skin should come off easily and much more quickly than it would if you had not boiled the garlic first. Repeat this process for each clove.
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Tips & Warnings
Use slightly more of this garlic than you would have used if you had not boiled it first. The boiling process reduces the flavor somewhat, so adding extra garlic is necessary to achieve the same flavor intensity.
To peel garlic quickly without boiling it, remove the skin from the bulb and separate the cloves. Lay one clove on a cutting board, then place the flat side of a wide knife onto the garlic. Press down on the knife until the garlic clove splits open. The skin will now be much easier to peel off.
To save time, you can multitask by working on other aspects of your recipe while waiting for the water to boil if it is not boiling by the time you have separated the cloves. If you were making bruschetta, for example, you could put water on the stove, peel the head of garlic and separate the cloves, then chop tomatoes while waiting for the water to come to a boil.
This method works best and is most time-efficient when you need to peel large quantities of garlic. If you are peeling only a few cloves, the time it takes to boil the water may not be worthwhile, and peeling the garlic by crushing it first may be faster.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit garlic image by fotomagic from Fotolia.com
