Ultimate Guide
FREEZING GARLIC
For short-term storage, keep garlic in a cool, well-ventilated pantry, away from sunlight to prevent sprouting and spoilage. If your garlic gets too warm or humid, it may soften, sprout, or mold. For long-term storage, try freezing peeled cloves in an airtight container—this preserves their flavor and halts sprouting, turning your garlic into a frostbitten flavor powerhouse.
Introduction: Freeze Your Garlic, Save Your Soul:
Picture this: you’re in the middle of cooking, the onions are sizzling, your taste buds are ready to party, and then—BAM!—you realize you're out of garlic. A meal without garlic is like a joke without a punchline. But fear not, culinary comrades! The answer to your problem lies in your freezer. Yes, you can freeze garlic, and it might just revolutionize your life.
Most grocery stores sell pre-portioned frozen garlic, but let’s be real—why pay for convenience when you can DIY your way to frozen-garlic greatness at home? Not only does this save you money (hello, more funds for fancy olive oil), but it also reduces food waste. Plus, there’s a secret joy in knowing that whenever you need garlic, it’s waiting for you, like a tiny frozen ally against blandness.
Here’s the kicker: frozen garlic is ready to use straight out of the freezer. No thawing, no waiting, no tragic slow-motion scenes of dropping the garlic bulb while your soufflé collapses. And unlike sad, soggy frozen peas or frostbitten carrots, garlic keeps its flavor and texture perfectly intact in the frozen realm. It’s practically witchcraft, only it smells way better.
Now, let’s talk logistics. Freezing garlic is as simple as 1, 2, 3—or rather, clove, mince, paste. Choose your adventure:
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Clove Crusader: Peel the cloves, toss them into a freezer bag, and voilà—they're ready for any future stir-fry or vampire defense.
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Minced Marvel: Chop your garlic to smithereens, portion it out (ice cube trays, anyone?), and freeze. You’ll feel like a chef-genius every time you pop out a cube.
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Paste Perfectionist: Blitz your garlic with a little oil into a paste, then freeze in dollops. It’s like garlic on steroids—quick, potent, and ready to save your spaghetti.
Each method takes mere minutes, and the payoff is enormous. Next time you’re staring down a recipe that demands garlic, you’ll laugh in the face of unpreparedness. Garlic is your frozen fortress of flavor, your icy insurance against tasteless meals. Hey garlic lover! Embrace the freeze. Garlic isn’t just an ingredient; it’s a lifestyle, and now it’s a frosty little superhero that’s got your back. You’ll never look at your freezer the same way again. Warning: May lead to excessive garlic usage, extreme happiness, and unsolicited compliments on your cooking.
Tired of garlic grenades lurking in your crisper drawer, plotting their inevitable sprouty rebellion? Turn those pungent pucks into flavor time bombs with the magic of freezing! Toss those papery jackets like last season's trends, separate the clove-y crew, and pack them into an airtight freezer palace. No pre-blanching or fancy spells required, just a quick chill session to lock in that garlicky goodness for up to a year! And don't be shy, get creative! Freeze them whole for quick mincing with a frosty grater, slice 'em thin for pizza night blizzards, or blitz them into a paste for instantpow! So ditch the garlic drama and embrace the frosty future – your taste buds (and sanity) will thank you!
Traditional Storage Methods for Garlic
Garlic aficionados know the golden rule: for short-term storage—three to six months—a cool, well-ventilated space like a pantry, free from direct sunlight, is garlic heaven. This method maintains the integrity of those papery skins and the lively cloves inside, keeping them ready to deliver their bold flavor without sprouting prematurely or succumbing to rot. But what if you're in it for the long haul, dreaming of garlic that lasts not months but years? Enter the chest freezer, the ultimate preservation powerhouse. Peel those precious cloves, seal them in an airtight container or freezer-safe bag, and let the subzero magic work. The cold halts sprouting, slows enzymatic breakdown, and locks in that pungent punch, ensuring your garlic remains a culinary time capsule. While the texture may soften, the flavor endures, ready to elevate your recipes whenever inspiration (or hunger) strikes.
Can I Freeze Garlic?
Yes! You can freeze garlic cloves, an entire garlic bulb, roasted garlic, chopped and minced garlic. Freezing does not destroy garlic, though freezing whole garlic cloves does change the feel and touch of these beautiful orbs; Their texture becomes more squishy. The good news is that freezing garlic has only a little effect on its flavor; Over time, garlic stored in a freezer becomes slightly less aromatic. If you don’t have the ideal space to store garlic, your garlic may get soft, sprout, dry out, mold, or spoil. This Garlic Freezing Guide provides an overview of how to freeze garlic and what to watch out for. Freezing is an excellent way to preserve fresh garlic at home. If you grow your own garlic crop or purchase a few pounds of garlic bulbs from a Garlic Farm, cloves may begin sprouting in late winter - before you can use it all. Freezing does not sterilize garlic; the extreme cold slows the growth of microorganisms and slows down changes that affect quality or cause spoilage in food. The quality of frozen garlic depends on many factors including the quality of the fresh garlic, the type of freezer used, the freezer's temperature, the type of storage vessel, and how they are handled from the time they are picked until they are ready to eat. It is important to start with high-quality garlic because freezing will not improve the product's quality. At our garlic farm in Montana, we grow hardneck garlic. Planted in the fall, the garlic cloves are exposed to temperatures below -30° Fahrenheit during the winter, and remain alive and full of vigor. They sprout in early spring.
Let's Talk About the Different Types of Freezers!
Chest freezers and upright freezers are the two most common types of freezers available. Both have their own advantages and disadvantages, so it's important to choose the right one for your needs.
Chest freezers
Chest freezers are the unsung heroes of long-term food storage, combining efficiency and science in a deceptively simple design. Unlike upright freezers, chest freezers open from the top, creating a cold air fortress every time you close the lid. Why does this matter? Cold air is denser than warm air—it sinks, staying trapped inside the chest when you open the door, like a loyal dog guarding your food from the cruel whims of ambient kitchen temperatures. Upright freezers, on the other hand, lose their cool (literally) every time you open the door, as cold air spills out faster than gossip at a family reunion. This thermal stability makes chest freezers a superstar for preserving everything from a summer’s worth of garden harvest to your emergency stash of elk steaks (because who wants to explain freezer burn to Uncle Gary?). But let’s talk about capacity— Their design maximizes usable space, allowing you to play a real-life game of food Tetris, stacking pizzas, popsicles, and Thanksgiving turkeys like an edible Jenga tower. Yes, accessing the lasagna at the bottom can feel like embarking on a polar expedition, but think of it as cardio with a delicious reward. And while frost build-up might seem like a nuisance, it’s a small price to pay for food preservation so reliable it would make NASA jealous. Sure, chest freezers aren’t frost-free, but that layer of ice acts as a bonus insulator—science says so! It’s like your freezer saying, "Don’t worry, I’ve got this. You’ll thank me in three months when those peeled garlic cloves still tastes fresh.”
Upright freezers
Upright freezers are typically narrower and taller than chest freezers. They also have two doors that open from the front. They're also more likely to accumulate frost on the inside, as the door is not frost-free. Food "burns" in the freezer when it is not properly packaged or stored. If food is not sealed tightly, it can absorb moisture from the air, which can cause it to develop freezer burn. Freezer burn is the dehydration of food that occurs when it is exposed to air. Here is the problem. Most upright freezers are designed to be "Frost Free". Chest Freezers are not. Frost free freezers are designed to prevent ice from building up inside the freezer, which can help to keep food fresh for longer. However, there are some potential drawbacks to frost free freezers that could ruin food. Frost free freezers use a fan to circulate air around the food. This can cause the food to become dry and freezer burned. An upright freezer can ruin foods if the temperature is not properly maintained. The temperature inside the freezer should be kept at or below 0 degrees Fahrenheit (-18 degrees Celsius). If the temperature fluctuates, the foods can become unsafe to eat.
Here are some tips to prevent food from spoiling in the freezer:
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Store meat tightly wrapped: Make sure to wrap food tightly before freezing it. This will help to prevent it from absorbing moisture from the air.
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Label food: Label food with the date it was frozen and the type of meat it is. This will help you to keep track of what is in the freezer and how long it has been there.
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Defrost food properly: When you are ready to defrost food, do not thaw it at room temperature. This can cause the foodto spoil. Instead, defrost food in the refrigerator or in the microwave.
Conculsion on Freezers
Chest freezers are better than upright for long term storage. Chest freezers have a lower temperature gradient, which means that the temperature inside the freezer is more consistent. This helps to prevent freezer burn and keep food fresh for longer. Chest freezers also have a larger capacity than upright freezers, which means that you can store more food. However, chest freezers are more expensive than upright freezers.
What is the Worst Way to Store Garlic?
If garlic could talk, it would probably shout, “Stop treating me like a common onion!” Garlic cloves, the magical little powerhouses that make up a bulb, are alive—tiny botanical dynamos waiting for the right conditions to sprout, thrive, or, if mistreated, utterly disintegrate into a gooey mess. The absolute worst way to store garlic? Lock it up in a plastic bag in a warm, humid spot. That’s like sending your garlic on a tropical vacation it never asked for, complete with a fungal disco party. Before you know it, Penicillium species (aka the blue mold villains) will crash the scene, turning your prized garlic into a slimy, stinky science experiment worthy of the deepest corners of a high school science lab.
And let’s not forget the bathtub—a garlic graveyard for the ill-informed. Sure, your cloves might feel pampered at first, lounging in the damp warmth, but they’ll soon develop a case of Botrytis bulb rot so bad it’s like garlic’s version of Covid-19 or a nasty flu. Storing garlic in a kitchen cabinet for a year? That’s not storage; that’s abandonment! In that dark, forgotten corner, your garlic might develop soft spots and sprout wildly, like it’s auditioning for Little Shop of Horrors. Treat garlic with the respect it deserves: cool, dry, and airy conditions. Don’t suffocate it or turn it into a fungal art exhibit. Remember, each clove is alive, dreaming of its future—whether in the soil, sprouting proudly, or sizzling in your frying pan, bringing tears of joy (and maybe garlic breath) to your family.
Don’t even think about storing your garlic in the refrigerator—it’s like sending it to a confused winter boot camp where it trains to sprout at the first hint of spring. Garlic cloves are alive, tiny plant embryos just waiting for the right conditions to burst into greenery. A couple of days in the fridge might be okay, but long-term? You’re basically putting them on an emotional rollercoaster. Cold temps signal “hibernate!” until you pull them out, and bam! Warm kitchen air yells, “SPRING!” Faster than you can say “stir-fry,” your garlic is sprouting like a wannabe chia pet. Plus, if your fridge is a fruity frat house full of apples and bananas, the ethylene gas those bad boys emit will send your garlic’s aging process into overdrive. Treat your garlic with the dignity it deserves—no fridge drama, no ethylene peer pressure, just cool, dry serenity.
How Long will Garlic Last in the Freezer?
Stored at a temperature of 0° - 6°F, frozen garlic will last for many years. At our farm, we've stored garlic in a chest freezer for over four years. Inspect the frozen garlic every six months or so to make sure it has not spoiled. Spoiled garlic may have tan or brown spots, and may have turned brown or yellow. Garlic should not feel squishy, instead, it should be mostly firm. We provided a friend, with two pounds of Spanish Roja hardneck garlic, and they intended to plant that garlic in the fall. That fall, she was transferred to a new job site, in a different state. She froze her garlic, and planted the cloves the following fall - at her new home. She claims the plants grew very well.
Is Garlic Flavor Lost when Stored at Low Temperature?
Researchers at the School of Biological Sciences, Liverpool, UK found that there was no statistically significant change in levels of alliin, the major flavor precursor, in cloves stored at 4 degrees C (39.2 F) for six months. Garlic (Allium sativum) cloves were stored at ambient temperature and 4 degrees C for periods up to six months. Measured by gradient High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography, there was a decline in other sulphur-containing compounds, most likely to be the peptides gamma-glutamyl allylcysteine sulphoxide and gamma-glutamyl isoallylcysteine sulphoxide. At the same time there was an increase in the flavor precursor compounds including levels of alliin, gamma glutamyl allyl cysteine sulphoxide and gamma glutamyl isoallyl cysteine sulphoxide were statistically significantly higher in outer than in inner cloves.
Use a Chest Freezer
When it comes to upright freezers vs chest freezers, chest freezers are considered the best for long-term food storage. Virtually all chest freezers do not have a self-defrost system which causes freezer burn in most upright freezers. Air doesn't circulate as much in a chest freezer, which helps prevent freezer burn. Chest (horizontal) freezers use less energy than upright freezers. The temperature in a chest freezer stays consistent. Most upright freezers have an automatic defroster which robs foods of water and results in nasty freezer burn over time. And if you lose electricity or have a blackout, the chest freezer will keep your food frozen longer than an upright.
Begin with Fresh Garlic
It is important to begin with the freshest garlic from the garden to the freezer. After harvest, allow the garlic to cure for about a month in a dry, airy spot, out of direct sunlight. Brush off any dirt and trim the roots. Don't wash the garlic. The ideal storage temperature is 33° to 45° degrees Fahrenheit and relative humidity should be around 50%. Garlic is easy to freeze and does not require significant preparation. You can freeze garlic bulbs, individually peeled or unpeeled cloves, and chopped and minced garlic. You can freeze garlic scape pesto. You can freeze cooked and processed garlic. You can also roast garlic or mix it in butter before freezing, as this can speed up meal preparation when you need garlic in your favorite dish. Regardless of what method you select for freezing the garlic, select only garlic that is firm to the touch (not soft and squishy). Cloves should be absent of blemishes, which include brown dimples, black spots, and damage from harvesting (brown spots from a nick from a shovel or spade). Toss any garlic that appears to have green-blue mold. Peeled cloves should have a crisp, light yellow-white color. Avoid cloves that are overly yellow, soft, brown or just do not look or smell right.
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SOURCE: Research Gate. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6979438_Effect_of_Low_Storage_Temperature_on_Some_of_the_Flavour_Precursors_in_Garlic_Allium_Sativum
How Long Will Garlic Last if it is Not in a FREEZER?
Each garlic variety appears to have a different shelf life. Some hardneck varieties might dry out, sprout, or go soft within 3 to 4 months. Other varieties can last 6 to 8 months. Storing hardneck varieties around 32 F (right at freezing temperature) allows them to last much longer. Hardneck garlic, if handled gently, and stored in a cool location, away from sunlight, should last 7-8 months. Keep in mind that if garlic is stored right at freezing temperatures, it may sprout after it is brought into a warmer environment. If you want to have garlic available throughout the year, prepare the rest of your year’s garlic harvest for freezing. In terms of Storage Management, control diseases and insects in the field to prevent entry of "storage rot organisms". Avoid bruising and other mechanical injuries when bulbs are being harvested or transported. Should you treat bulbs with fungicide? This is only recommended in some cases. Cure garlic with dry conditions, away from sunlight and with circulating air. A healthy garlic with a well-cured neck is rarely infected with neck rot during storage. Inspect garlic and onion before storing and discard all symptomatic bulbs. If you grow your own garlic, avoid Nitrogen fertilization late in the season. Plant at the proper spacing which is 5-6 inches apart. Store bulbs under ideal conditions: 32-44°F with 60-75% relative humidity.
Set the Freezer Temperature below 0° Fahrenheit
The ideal freezer temperature (for garlic and other vegetables) is somewhere between 0° Fahrenheit and -6° Fahrenheit. According to the USDA Food Service and Inspection Service, for every five degrees Fahrenheit above zero, the recommended storage time is cut in half. Food stored above 0 Fahrenheit loses more nutrients and loses quality faster than properly frozen food. Keeping food below 0° Fahrenheit keeps food safe by slowing the movement of molecules, causing microbes to enter a dormant stage. Freezing preserves food for extended periods because it prevents the growth of microorganisms that cause both food spoilage and foodborne illness.
Freezing to 0 °F or colder inactivates microbes — bacteria, yeasts, and molds that may be present in food. Once thawed, however, these microbes can once again become active, multiplying under the right conditions to levels that can lead to foodborne illness. Since they will then grow at about the same rate as microorganisms on fresh food, you must handle thawed items as you would any perishable food. Trichina and other parasites can be destroyed by sub-zero freezing temperatures. However, very strict conditions must be met. Home freezing cannot be relied upon to destroy trichina. Thorough cooking, however, will destroy all parasites.
Select the Ideal Storage Container or Vessel
If you are freezing chopped, minced or roasted garlic, seal them in an air-tight container. If you are freezing garlic cloves or entire garlic bulbs, place them in a paper bag first, and them into an air-tight container. An air-tight container helps prevent the flavors from escaping into the freezer and prevents air and oxygen from surrounding the garlic. Garlic that is stored in an air-tight container can last up to 5X longer than traditional storage methods. Here at GroEat Farm, we've been able to preserve garlic cloves in a chest freezer for over four years.
An easy way to create an air-tight storage container is to place the garlic in a bag and seal the bag, except for the small hole where the straw is inserted. Suck as much of the air from the bag, quickly remove the straw and seal the bag. Place the garlic in the zip lock bag and seal the top, except for a small opening for a straw. Use your lungs and lips to suck the air from the bag. Recheck the entire seal lock band to make sure the bag is sealed.
Other containers suitable for freezing garlic include certain types of freezer-approved glass containers, plastic freezer containers, flexible freezer bags, and glass canning jars. Foods packed in wide-mouth jars are more accessible to remove than those packed in narrow-mouth jars. Some household containers are not recommended for freezing garlic / vegetables. The cardboard cartons that milk, ice cream, or cottage cheese come in are not moisture-vapor resistant enough. Also, non-canning jars break too easily at freezer temperatures.
Can I Vacuum Seal Garlic in FoodSaver Bags?
When it comes to garlic preservation, is it a good idea to use a FoodSaver vacuum sealer? Garlic releases natural gases (likely CO2) which can affect the vacuum seal, and within a vacuum-sealed pouch. Garlic cloves are alive and actively respire. Cellular respiration is a process that all living things use to convert stored glucose into energy. Autotrophs (like plants) produce glucose during photosynthesis. Only foods that have been cooked at a temperature high enough to stop all respiration and enzymatic activity (to kill all living cells) should be vacuum sealed.
Clostridium botulinum only grows under certain conditions - no (or very little) oxygen. Vacuum packaging creates a no-oxygen environment. Garlic and mushrooms are low in acid and have available water. Both are grown in close contact with the soil. The likelihood of Clostridium botulinum being on the garlic and mushrooms is high. By removing the oxygen by vacuum sealing and store at room temperature, you have created a nearly perfect set of conditions for Clostridium botulinum to grow and produce toxins.
KNOWLEDGE ARTICLE (USDA.GOV)
Vacuum packaging removes air from food packages. Some pathogenic bacteria, such as Clostridium botulinum which causes deadly botulism poisoning, prefer low-oxygen environments and reproduce well in vacuum-packaged foods. Thus, perishable foods must be kept either in the refrigerator at or below 40 °F, or in the freezer at 0 °F or colder. Vacuum packaging may extend the storage time of refrigerated foods, dried foods and frozen foods, but it is not a substitute for safely processing perishable foods to be stored at room temperatures, such as canning or dehydrating. Use refrigerated, vacuum-packaged within a few days, or by the manufacturer's recommended use-by date.
** NOTES FROM OUR GARLIC FARM, EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE and OBSERVATIONS.
"I had a conversation with one of the engineers at FoodSaver. FoodSaver is one of the many companies that manufacture and sell Countertop Vacuum Sealers, Handheld Vacuum Sealers and Other Vacuum Sealers. I was told that when garlic is placed in a vacuum-sealed bag, over time, gases that are released from the garlic will "erode" the seal. As I love to experiment, I placed 5 (live and viable seed garlic) purple-striped whole garlic bulbs in a food-saver bag, and vacuum sealed the contents. I kept the vacuumed sealed bag of garlic on our kitchen countertop (it was not placed in the freezer.) For about one week, the bag was hard as a rock and each bulb was tightly sealed within this single bag. I sealed the bag in two different locations along the top. After eight days, the bag lost its seal. Interesting! If the vacuum seal erodes and is lost due to the garlic gases, is there still a risk that Clostridium botulinum will form at room temperature? What is the point of using these expensive vacuum-seal bags, not to mention the time and labor wasted in performing the vacuum sealing, if the seal will erode over time? The next test will be to place the vacuum-sealed garlic bag in the freezer to see if it loses its seal as well. Put simply, live garlic produces a natural gas that may result in a loss in the vacuum which can leave them vulnerable to becoming spoiled.
You may have noticed that retailers like Smiths, Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer sell pre-peeled garlic in small, vacuum-sealed plastic bags. Producers put 5-10 cloves of the peeled garlic in little vacuum-sealed packets. Wait! Isn't this exactly what they're not supposed to do? Is there a way to pin down the specifics on the time=danger equation here? Apparently, food processors used forced air to flush a package with a special blend of gases (in this case, probably nitrogen, carbon dioxide and others) to improve the shelf-life of the product (reduce microbial activity and/or prevent chemical degradation/loss of flavor). This special blend of gases should also keep the oxygen level above the level that would allow for Clostridium botulinum for grow.
How to Freeze Garlic
Freezing Whole Garlic Bulbs
Freezing entire garlic bulbs is easy, and, possibly the simplest and most effective method of freezing garlic. Begin with clean, solid (not squishy) full garlic bulbs that have gone through the curing process after harvest. Curing involves the process of drying garlic for about a month after harvest, away from sunlight. Use a soft brush to remove as much of the dirt from the bulb. Keep or remove the "angel-hair-like roots". Be sure not to wash the bulb in water. Place the bulbs directly into an air-tight sealed bag or wide-mouth glass canning jar. Label with the date. Carefully place the bag or jar in your freezer.
Freezing Garlic Cloves
Freezing peeled or unpeeled garlic cloves is also pretty simple. Want to simplify the meal preparation time when you’re ready to use the frozen cloves? Separating the cloves from the bulb, gets you one step closer to having the garlic ready for your meal preparation. Here at GROeat Farm, we often freeze unpeeled cloves. Begin by separating the cloves from the bulb. A bulb is like a mandarin orange and the cloves are the individual half-moon-shaped orbes that make up the garlic geoid.
There are so many ways to peel garlic cloves, though we've found the "Silicone Roller Tube" to be very effective and simple. After separating the cloves from the bulb, place the clove or cloves into the tube and gently roll between your palms or use a countertop. You can also place unpeeled garlic cloves into a stainless steel mixing bowl. Cover the bowl with another matching bowl and shake, shake, shake. This is a very effective way to peel multiple garlic cloves.
Anecdotal Evidence: "We've observed that peeled garlic cloves have a shorter shelf life (and freezer life) as compared to whole, unpeeled bulbs. It is possible the covering protecting the clove may also help prevent the clove from drying out?" - Jere Folgert, GroEat Farm. Wrapping the peeled cloves first with plastic wrap, and then with aluminum foil, and then placed in an airtight container helps the cloves retain moisture, and shriveling of the cloves is minimized. You don't need to wrap each clove individually, instead, gently wrap 6 or so, just enough for your future meal that calls for garlic. We follow this same dual-wrapping procedure (first plastic wrap followed by foil) when making black garlic.
Freezing Chopped or Minced Garlic
Freezing chopped or minced garlic requires a little more work, though the time you put into the preparation will 'save' that time after thawing the garlic and your garlic will be ready for use in your next meal.
Begin by separating the cloves from the bulb and peeling the garlic cloves. What is the easiest way to mince garlic? First, crush a clove of garlic with the side blade of a large knife. Then, give it a rough chop. Next, hold your knife and lay the other hand flat across the tip. Use a rocking motion to chop the garlic until finely minced. Specialized kitchen tools are also effective in mincing or crushing the garlic. Here are a few options:
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Aveloki Stainless Steel Garlic Rocker
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Prepworks by Progressive Adjust-A-Slice Mandoline.
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OXO Good Grips Soft-Handled Garlic Press.
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Zak Designs Silicone Garlic Peeler.
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PeakRous Shaver.
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Joie Garlic Chopper.
After you chop and/or mince garlic, create "balls" as large as a ping pong ball, or as small as you find to be manageable. Pre-freeze the garlic bulbs for a few hours by placing the balls on a pan, cutting board, parchment paper or wax paper. Pre-freezing will harden the garlic balls and make them easier to handle and will keep them from sticking together. After the balls freeze, place them into a air-tight seal bag or zip-lock bag. Seal and freeze.
Another option is to spread the minced garlic onto parchment paper, as one continuous slab about 1/2 inch thick, then cover with plastic wrap and freeze for a few hours or until partially frozen. using a sharp knife, cut into the slab and create 1 inch x 1 inch squares. Transfer the individual squares into an airtight container such as an air-tight sealed bag or freezer bag and store in the freezer.
Try freezing chopped or minced garlic in ice cube trays. Dedicate this ice cube tray to garlic, as it will smell garlicky for a long time. Also, gently rinse the frozen cubes under running water to remove any frost or freezer burn.
Freezing Garlic in Butter
A Frozen Stash of Garlic Butter Will Be Your "Secret Advantage" in the Kitchen! Garlic and Butter are a wonderful combination.
On a busy week night, If you want to skip the peeling and mincing garlic, prepare in advance a stash of frozen garlic butter. Storing this amazing combination in the freezer will preserve the garlicky flavor for a long time. What is nice here is that garlic butter can be used to make (our favorite) garlic noodles or add amazing flavor to a dish of pasta. Garlic butter can also add pizzazz and energetic flavor to ramen, spaghetti and garlic bread.
Garlic butter is essentially a compound butter. To stock, your freezer with the magical combination, begin by softening unsalted butter and then mix together chopped or minced garlic. A good ratio of garlic to butter is three or four large garlic cloves and six to eight tablespoons (1 stick) of unsalted butter. To add more flavor, try mixing in fresh or dried herbs such as oregano or parsley. Shape the compound-garlic butter into easy-to-use balls before freezing. Place the garlic butter in a zip-top bag or air-tight plastic or glass container. Another option is to fill ice cube trays with the compound butter which will allow you to use portions of little cubes of garlic butter with ease.
Freezing Roasted Garlic
Freezing Roasted Garlic is similar to freezing chopped or minced garlic. The only difference is you will need to roast the garlic in the oven first. You can roast garlic and then freeze it to preserve its savory flavor. Roast garlic in the oven, then mash it to help the roasted garlic flesh escape the papery skin. Transfer this mashed roasted garlic to parchment paper or wax paper, which you then submerge in the freezer for two to three hours. Pull it out and transfer the frozen roasted garlic to freezer-safe bags for long-term storage. Try freezing roasted garlic paste in ice cube trays. Dedicate this ice cube tray to garlic, as it will smell garlicky for a long time. Also, gently rinse the frozen cubes under running water to remove any frost or freezer burn.
How to Thaw Garlic
After removing frozen garlic cloves from the freezer, thaw garlic like you would other vegetables. One option is to thaw in the refrigerator (slower). Another option is to thaw in a bowl of water (quicker). Frozen garlic is fairly easy to cut with a sharp knife. If you are in a hurry, slice and dice frozen cloves and add them directly to your dish as it is cooking. If you are preparing a meal, there’s no need to thaw frozen chopped, roasted or pureed garlic. Add it directly into your dish from frozen, and it will melt as it cooks. After removing frozen crushed, minced or garlic-butter, thaw in the refrigerator or use directly in your meal preparation.
How to Use Frozen Garlic
After removing garlic from the freezer, thaw the garlic. Handle thawed items as you would any perishable food. After the thawing is complete, garlic can be used in virtually every way you would use fresh garlic. Garlic is most often used as a flavoring agent but can also be eaten as a vegetable. It is used to flavor many foods, such as salad dressings, vinaigrettes, marinades, sauces, vegetables, meats, soups, and stews. It is often used to make garlic butter and garlic toast. You do not need to wait for frozen garlic to thaw before placing it into a soup or stew you are assembling. Let the frozen garlic heat up with the rest of the stew and enjoy its fragrant flavors.
Dehydrate Garlic for Long Term Storage
If you have a lot of garlic and you want to keep it long term, and you do not have freezer space, another method for preserving it is by dehydrating to remove the moisture. Begin by peeling garlic cloves. Slice garlic very thin with a sharp knife or rotary food processor. Arrange the cut cloves in a dehydrator keeping air space between slices. Set the dehydrator to 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit and allow the sliced clove "rings" to dry until all of them are crispy and break easily (like a potato chip). Store the results in an airtight container in a cool, dry spot out of sunlight. Use a vacuum seal machine to store dehydrated garlic for even longer storage. And, you can always place the dehydrated garlic powder in the freezer!
Other Way to Store Garlic
Freeze Your Garlic, Save Your Soul: A Culinary Love Story
Picture this: Alexis, a woman as cute as a button, eyes so piercing they could probably charm a grizzly bear, lived in a small mountain town in Montana. Nestled beneath snow-capped peaks and surrounded by a community of rugged, fiercely independent souls, Alexis thrived. She was a seasoned gardener who could coax life out of even the most stubborn soil. Her pride and joy, however, was her hardneck garlic—a crop as reliable as the Montana sunrise, stored meticulously in her pantry where it waited patiently for its time to shine.
One fateful autumn, Alexis met Jeremy at the local farmers' market. He was a hardened farmer with hands calloused from years of mending fences, tilling soil, and wrestling with the occasional tractor that refused to cooperate. He had a quiet strength about him, a knack for fixing almost anything—except, as Alexis would later learn, his first marriage. His past was as knotted and complicated as the roots of a garlic bulb, but there was something about him that intrigued her.
Jeremy’s stand at the market was modest: crates of squash, jars of honey, and a handwritten sign advertising his services as a handyman. But what caught Alexis’s eye was the tray of frozen garlic cloves and frozen cubes, glistening like tiny culinary diamonds. “Frozen garlic?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. “What kind of sorcery is this?”
“The kind that changes your life,” Jeremy replied with a grin. And just like that, Alexis was smitten—not just with the garlic, but with the man who seemed to carry the weight of the world with a shrug and a smile.
The Garlic Revelation
Their romance blossomed alongside her curiosity about frozen garlic. Alexis had always stored her hardneck garlic in the pantry, away from sunlight, cool and dark, where it would sit obediently until it sprouted—usually around April. But Jeremy’s method? Revolutionary. He taught her how to peel the cloves, and freeze them in a chest freezer. They also experimented with choping or pureeing them, and freezing the results in neat little portions.
“No more sprouted grenades lurking in the crisper drawer,” he joked as he handed her a frosty cube. “This, my dear, is culinary freedom.”
And he was right. With frozen garlic at her fingertips, Alexis’s kitchen transformed into a haven of effortless flavor. Stir-fries sizzled, pastas sang, and roasts emerged from the oven kissed by the perfect balance of savory and sweet. She felt like a garlic-wielding superhero, her freezer her arsenal. But life, as she’d soon learn, wasn’t always this savory.
Loss and Resilience
One bitter spring morning, Alexis woke to find her prized tomato patch ravaged by an early frost. The loss hit her hard. Gardening was more than a hobby; it was her connection to the earth, her therapy, her sanctuary. Jeremy, ever the fixer, tried to console her. “We’ll plant again in spring,” he said softly, his hand on her shoulder. But Alexis’s tears weren’t just for the tomato. They were for her late parents, whose love of gardening had inspired her; for the uncertain future of her farm; and, perhaps, for Jeremy, whose stoic demeanor masked his own struggles.
But Alexis was nothing if not resilient. She threw herself into her work, experimenting with garlic recipes and sharing frozen garlic tips with her community. Her laughter returned, brighter and louder than before, and with it came a renewed determination. “Tomatoes survives,” she told Jeremy one evening as they sat on her porch, watching the sunset. “So will we.”
Build a Montana Greenhosue
Huddle together over a worn, wooden table in Alexis's kitchen, the scent of brewing coffee mingling with the crisp Montana air, Jeremy and Alexis sketched out their audacious plan. Their greenhouse would be a reflection of their shared spirit – sturdy and defiant against the unforgiving winter. Walls of reinforced glass would bathe the interior in sunlight, while a sophisticated ventilation system would maintain the perfect tropical climate. Within, rows of vibrant tomatoes would climb towards the sun, a year-round defiance against the bitter cold. But their ambitions didn't stop there. They dreamt of cultivating the impossible, of coaxing Hawaiian pineapples and aromatic coffee beans to flourish in this unlikely corner of the world. It would be a testament to their bond, a defiant act of creation against the very forces that sought to limit them. Take that, Montana.
The Power of Strength and Garlic
By spring, Alexis and Jeremy had become an unstoppable duo. They expanded her garden, built raised beds to combat the frost, and even started selling frozen garlic at the market. The townspeople couldn’t get enough of Alexis’s huge and flavorful tomatoes and frozen “Garlic Bombs,” as she called them, and her reputation as the garlic queen of the Rockies grew. Their partnership deepened, rooted in mutual respect and a shared love for the land. Jeremy’s past no longer felt like a weight; with Alexis, it became part of the soil they tilled together. And Alexis? She discovered a strength she hadn’t known she possessed, a resilience forged by love, loss, and the simple, transformative power of frozen garlic.
The Story Keeps Going ....
So, dear reader, next time you’re peeling cloves, cursing their papery skins, or wondering if freezing garlic is worth the effort, think of Alexis and Jeremy. Remember that garlic, like life, can be unpredictable, messy, and occasionally pungent. But with a little patience and a lot of love, it can also be downright magical. Warning: Freezing garlic may lead to excessive culinary experimentation, newfound confidence, and unsolicited compliments on your cooking. Proceed with delicious caution.
