Garlic, also known as stinking or pungent rose, is a flavor building block in a lot of kitchens. The pungent aroma of this plant from the Allium family is unmistakable. It is in dishes from the classic Caesar salad to sautéed vegetables like peppers or green beans to the main dish like red snapper or chicken breast. There is no end to the use and potential of garlic in the kitchen.

While most of us use it to season and add flavor, by definition, garlic is a vegetable itself. It grows underground as a bulb. Above ground, it has long, green flower stalks called garlic scapes, but they don’t actually produce flowers. While these stalks are often discarded, they can also be used in cooking. Covered in an inedible papery skin, the bulb, or head, is comprised of individual sections called cloves. Each bulb, when allowed to fully ripen, can contain up to 20 cloves. Each clove is encased in another papery skin that must be removed to get to the yellowish flesh.

Garlic contains the same sulfur-based enzyme as its cousin, the onion. It is stored in tiny cells within its flesh. Slicing or crushing the garlic ruptures those cells, releasing the pungent chemical. The onion releases this chemical into the air and, airborne, it gets into our eyes and makes us cry. With garlic, though it does release a smell, the chemical remains contact based. So it doesn’t bother us to cut it, but make sure you wash your hands after mincing. If you rub your eyes with the garlic juice on your hands, the results will be the same burning crying sensation. Crucially, the more you slice, pound, grate or chop your garlic, the more of that compound, called allicin, is released. Other than chopping though, you will get far more flavor from the cloves by crushing garlic or pureeing it completely in the food processor.

Garlic is rich in vitamin C, vitamin B6 and manganese and has at least some of most of the nutrients the body needs. Garlic is known to boost the immune system and studies have proven it can both reduce the severity of a cold and shorten the length of time you are sick. Studies have also shown it reduces blood pressure, but you would have to have the equivalent of 4 cloves per day to have a proper dose. At high doses, garlic has also shown to detoxify heavy metals in the body such as too much lead in factory workers. It was also used as one of the first ‘performance enhancing’ substances. It was traditionally used in ancient cultures to reduce fatigue and enhance the work capacity of laborers, but most notably, it was given to Olympic athletes performing in Greece.

Fun Facts

Alliumphobia is a term denoting the fear of garlic and those who suffer from this disorder get anxious or fearful at the sight and smell of garlic.

“Garlic and Shots” is the name of a restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden, where every item on the menu has garlic as an ingredient, including dessert offerings of garlic cheesecake and garlic ice cream.

Although the garlic’s ability to ward off evil spirits and vampires might be questionable, its ability to get rid of an aphid infestation in your rose garden is scientifically proven. Just mix a few cloves of crushed garlic with water and spray it on the flowers and leaves.

China grows a staggering two-thirds of the world’s garlic, believed to be around 46 billion pounds per year.

The average person eats about 2lbs of garlic per year. That’s about 302 cloves per year!

The sticky juice in garlic cloves is often used as an adhesive, especially for delicate projects that involve fragile items like glass. You just need to crush the cloves to get to the sticky stuff which, despite its smell, works surprisingly well as a bonding agent for smaller jobs. Who knew?!

Luckily for us, cooking garlic mellows the scent and strong taste. This allows the flavors to be accentuating instead of overpowering. Remember this if using raw garlic, less would be best. Always taste as you go to make sure it’s how you prefer. Make your grocery list, pick up some fresh garlic and meet me in the kitchen to cook with this stinking rose!