Buzz
Knowing how to properly prepare and chop garlic is a basic cooking skill that helps you create a variety of delicious dishes. Fortunately, whether you chop garlic with a knife as usual or use one of the other alternative methods, mastering the technique of chopping garlic takes only a few minutes. With just a little practice, you'll quickly be able to add chopped garlic and flavor to your favorite savory dishes like a professional chef.
Steps
Chopping Garlic with a Knife
Separate the individual cloves from the garlic bulb. You can't chop garlic without first preparing the cloves you'll be using. Press down firmly on the garlic bulb with your hand. The individual cloves will separate as you apply pressure to the bulb.
- The outer papery skin, which is thin and easy to tear, can be peeled off and discarded. Be careful not to throw away any smaller cloves hidden under the skin.
- Most recipes specify how many cloves or bulbs of garlic are needed. If not, one medium-sized clove is approximately one tablespoon of chopped garlic.
Peel the garlic. The translucent skin tightly wrapped around each garlic clove needs to be removed before using. Here's how to do it:
- You can cut off the root end of the clove (the part attached to the bulb) and gently squeeze the garlic out of its skin.
- Alternatively, place the edge of your knife on the clove and press down firmly until the skin breaks open. Then, use your hands to peel the garlic skin off. Be careful not to crush the clove, which would cause the garlic flesh to mix with the skin.
- A tip often used by chefs to avoid cutting their hands is to hold the item to be sliced (in this case, the garlic) with your fingertips, curling your fingers while pressing on the cutting board. This way, the knife blade will touch the knuckles, creating a gap between the knife and your fingertips, reducing the risk of injury.
- For better control over the knife, keep it flat on the board and lift it slightly to slice, rather than moving the knife up and down.
Slice the garlic crosswise. Rotate the garlic 90 degrees and continue slicing. Again, slice as thinly as possible to achieve finely chopped garlic. Use the same slicing technique as described earlier.
- Once finished, you'll have dozens (or even hundreds) of tiny garlic pieces. Congratulations – you’ve just chopped a garlic clove!
If you prefer, you can continue chopping. The longer you chop the garlic, the finer it will become, enhancing the flavor and aroma. If your recipe calls for it, keep moving the knife back and forth until the garlic reaches the desired fineness, or until you've chopped any remaining larger chunks.
- Note that finely chopped garlic refers to garlic that has been chopped many times into small pieces. Coarser chunks refer to garlic that has only been roughly chopped, not finely minced.
Chopping Garlic Without a Knife
Prepare and peel the garlic as usual. In this section, you'll learn some alternative methods to chop garlic if you don't have a suitable knife. In these methods, you’ll still need to prepare the garlic cloves just as you normally would before chopping. In other words:
- Separate the garlic bulb into individual cloves.
- Peel off the papery skin from the garlic bulb.
- Peel the garlic by either squeezing each clove out of its skin or pressing it with a knife to loosen the skin, and then peel it off.
Chop garlic with a fork. An easy way to chop garlic is by using the tines of a fork. This method requires some force but yields surprising results. Here’s how to do it:
- Place the garlic on a cutting board and grab a sturdy metal fork.
- Press the tines of the fork into the garlic, applying firm pressure to push the garlic through the gaps in the fork.
- Rotate the fork and repeat the action in a different direction. Continue until you achieve the desired result.
- Push the small pieces left stuck in the fork out and remove any remaining skin from the garlic. Now your garlic is ready for use.
Use a garlic press. Another handy tool you can use to finely chop garlic is a garlic press. As the name suggests, it presses the garlic into small pieces. Here’s how to use it:
- Place a garlic clove inside the metal compartment of the garlic press.
- Then, squeeze the handles together. The garlic will be pressed through the holes on the other side of the press.
- Take out any bits of garlic left in the press and mix them with the pressed garlic. Now you’re ready to use your garlic.
- You can also use a mortar and pestle, which works similarly to the garlic press.
Use a microplane (grater). A microplane is a small tool that looks (and works) like a cheese grater. Grating garlic with a microplane will quickly give you thin garlic shavings.
- To use a microplane, simply rub the garlic against the grater over a bowl. The grated garlic will fall into the bowl.
- When the garlic becomes too small to hold with your fingers, chop or crush it before adding it to the already grated garlic.
Tips
- Grinding or grating garlic into thin pieces (such as by using a press or grater) will result in a more intense flavor compared to traditional chopping. Keep in mind, this method can make your dish have a stronger garlic aroma.
- It’s also important to remember that finely chopped garlic tends to burn more easily than whole cloves or larger pieces of garlic.
