Revised Garlic Peeling Instructions

In text and video, I have recommended peeling garlic by first crushing it with the flat side of your chef’s knife.  I wish to revise my suggestion to indicate that crushing it with your bench scraper is a safer way to handle things.

Over the weekend, distracted by several things going on at once, using a wet knife, and exhibiting an overall carelessness and complacency while wielding a sharp knife, my hand slipped as I pressed down on a garlic clove and my wrist met the blade of my knife.  It sounds worse than it was: it was a very shallow cut and I was never in any sort of danger, but the placement of the wound was disconcerting in that had it been worse and had it been deep, I would have been in rough shape.

So, please, be safe.  Use your bench scraper to crush your garlic.

3 Responses to “Revised Garlic Peeling Instructions”

  1. Adam Fields Says:

    I like the Garlic Twist. It’s hard plastic so you can use it to smash the cloves apart, and it only takes a few turns to make a fairly uniform dice. Unlike a garlic press, it tears rather than smashes, so the end result is much closer to what you’d get if you minced it with a knife.

  2. jwsharrard Says:

    Except that a knife slices rather than tears. Sounds like one more drawer-cluttering gadget to me.

  3. Adam Fields Says:

    It would be interesting to do a side by side test and see if there’s any noticeable difference. Crushed garlic is inferior to minced because it releases more juice which burns and turns bitter quickly. The garlic twist doesn’t do that nearly as much, and I’d guess that the amount it does release is about equal to the amount you’ll get by smashing the clove first anyway.

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