Good article on garlic prep

[Robin Garr]

Serious Eats goes kind of Cooks Illustrated on us with a long, perhaps over-thought article about mincing garlic and how the many techniques vary in both flavor and ease of use.

http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/01/how- ... press.html

I found it interesting enough to play around a little last night, mincing up a bunch of garlic and ginger for a red-lentil dal, and concluded that I still like my method best. Whack with the side of a chef's knife, which makes it easy to pull off the papery skin. Then turn the knife to put the sharp side in play and whack whack whack the job is done.

Check out the article and then let us know if you've found much flavor difference among the various mincing techniques.

I mince with a knife, but I don't do random chopping. I like it in little cubes, mostly. Smaller than 1/16" for some purposes, 3/32" or so for others. For bigger, I either sliver or slice.
I use a utility knife. Bruise the clove with the handle so it peels easily, then slice it the long way, turn 90 degrees and slice again, making little slivers, then slice across the ends. Sort of like dicing a potato on a smaller scale.
Yeah, I'm weird.

[Robin Garr]

I mince with a knife, but I don't do random chopping. I like it in little cubes, mostly. Smaller than 1/16" for some purposes, 3/32" or so for others. For bigger, I either sliver or slice.
I use a utility knife. Bruise the clove with the handle so it peels easily, then slice it the long way, turn 90 degrees and slice again, making little slivers, then slice across the ends. Sort of like dicing a potato on a smaller scale.
Yeah, I'm weird.

John, I used to do that. Then I noticed that if i smash it pretty smashy and just whack whack whack with a good, sharp chef's knife, turning so as to to at it from two or three directions, I get almost as good a mince with a lot less finicky work = time spent.

We do it Robin's way.

I seem to end up with most of the garlic sticking to the knife blade, making it impossible to just give it some chops to end up with a reasonably homogeneous bunch of bits. I've gone to using a second knife to scrape the garlic off of the first knife in order to get all of it chopped. Am I the only one who runs into this problem?

Yeah, it does stick to the blade. I usually do it Robin's way, but I sometimes succumb to my neat and orderly side.

But no one can beat my partner for hand-cutting of garlic dust (e.g., the smallest mince you've ever seen).

[Robin Garr]

I seem to end up with most of the garlic sticking to the knife blade, making it impossible to just give it some chops to end up with a reasonably homogeneous bunch of bits. I've gone to using a second knife to scrape the garlic off of the first knife in order to get all of it chopped. Am I the only one who runs into this problem?

Maybe this is risky, but for many years I've just used a finger to wipe (most of) the garlic bits off the side of the knife, Mike. It takes only a second. I'm always cognizant of the sharp blade nearby, and haven't cut myself in that particular way yet.

(When I'm chopping ginger and garlic, as I often do, i notice that the ginger exudes a lot more liquid, and it makes the blade much easier to wipe clean if I do them together. )

[Robin Garr]

Here's what it looks like when I do garlic and ginger together only separately. Usually at this point I'll sweep them together and give the mix one last few whacks.

s-minced-garlic.jpg

I seem to end up with most of the garlic sticking to the knife blade, making it impossible to just give it some chops to end up with a reasonably homogeneous bunch of bits. I've gone to using a second knife to scrape the garlic off of the first knife in order to get all of it chopped. Am I the only one who runs into this problem?

Mike, I've found that for whatever reason, the garlic sticks less if you use an oriental style knife.

Yeah, garlic is sticky stuff. I clean it off the knife with my fingers that are already sticky from holding the garlic.

I've used my fingers but don't really like all the garlic sticking to them instead of the knife. I have a couple of Asian knives but I don't believe I've tried garlic on the more unusual of the two. I'll give it a shot next time I want to chop up some garlic.

I seem to end up with most of the garlic sticking to the knife blade, making it impossible to just give it some chops to end up with a reasonably homogeneous bunch of bits. I've gone to using a second knife to scrape the garlic off of the first knife in order to get all of it chopped. Am I the only one who runs into this problem?

I use my Oxo bench scraper, usually used in bread making, for this purpose. I grow my own garlic and fresher means really sticky. The knife-and-scraper technique is also handy for moving the garlic from chopping board to pan.

[Jenise]

My garlic prep is all over the place depending on the end use. For most cooked applications, it will depend on how long it's going to cook. If it's a stir-fry, then I want it smashed to smithereens to release garlic flavor as fast and potently as possible, so there I will usually smash with the flat side of the knife and then scrape back and forth a bit to make a paste. If it's long cooked, 2+ hours and what will result in a smooth sauce, then fine dice to help it dissolve, about 1/16 to 1/8, and if it's going to be a one-hour chunky sauce than I might slice. For salad dressings, I want smithereens again but usually put the seriously flattened clove in the bottom of the salad bowl and further smoosh it with salt and a fork before adding the acid and oil.

Say, anyone remember a discussion here about 15-20 years ago that was the result of some famous celebrity chef type cautioning against smooshing garlic too much because that gave it a 'bruised' flavor? I called 'bs' on that then and do so again now. But some of you were smitten with the idea--I'm wondering if any of you remember that, and if you've now realized the error of your ways.