I love onions and garlic. My mother uses generous amounts of both in her cooking and that is what I grew up on. I think I first learned about black garlic at my office, where they served a delicious black garlic Caesar salad. Black garlic is what you get when you take regular garlic and cook it on low heat for multiple weeks. The flavor is amazing. It’s complex, caramelly, sweet, and loses the bite you’d associate with raw or even sautéed garlic. These flavors are thanks to the Maillard reaction. It’s the same thing that makes toast brown.
I prepare mine using the crock pot method, but you can also use a rice cooker (with a warm function) or anything that keeps the garlic around 135 °F or 57 °C for about 2 to 3 weeks. It may go without saying but you’ll want to put your crock pot in a garage or somewhere outside of your house. Otherwise the whole house will reek of garlic! You can use either peeled garlic or whole heads and I have done both. Peeled garlic is easier at the end but requires more attention in the middle. I found when using peeled garlic you need to periodically drain it to help reduce moisture. You can take the garlic out while it’s still soft and cut it up, but I like to dry mine out completely. I keep cooking for an additional week until it’s hard. I run it through my dehydrator for about 8 hours to make sure it’s dry and then powder it using a spice grinder. Note that once powdered it’s very hygroscopic (absorbs moisture), so it’s best stored in a sealed shaker along with some dry beans.
Add garlic to crock pot.
Set it on low…and forget it (for like 2-3 weeks).
This is what it looks like once you take the skins off.
I put black garlic on all kinds of things, but it’s great in soups, eggs, on meat…really anywhere you’d like to add some savory garlic flavor.
Happy garlic making!