What is Garlic
Garlic is a flowering plant whose relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, and more. The word comes from the Old English word garleac where gar means spear and leac means leek, so a spear-shaped leek. The plantโs stem can grow up to 3-feet tall, like a spear.
How to Peel Garlic
If you use a lot of garlic, like I do, then you might have spent a lot of time peeling garlic, like I used to. But what if you could peel a whole bulb of garlic in just seconds. And, as an added bonus, this lightning-quick food hack also doubles as a stress reliever.
Prepare the Garlic
This step is optional but makes the hack a bit easier. Break up the bulb of garlic either by smashing it or prying it part. I like the smash method. Did I mention the stress relieving part? Hulk smash! This also helps.
Peel the Garlic
Next, get out a quart-sized mason jar. Pick the cloves out of the debris of the smashed bulb and place them inside the jar. Don’t futz over this too much. Papery garlic skins will not stop this hack from working. Close the lid tightly and shake the absolute dickens out of it. Like shake weight energy. Feel the stress melt away!
Your garlic should be completely peeled and ready to use in just 10 seconds or so.
How to Eat Garlic Skins
Save those papery skins and the peels from the cloves. We throw out 40% of the food grown and produced in this country. And food waste makes up over 8% of the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. So eating everything you can helps a lot. And you can eat the skins of garlic. They are nutrient dense, high and fiber, and easy to consume. Check out how to prepare and eat these skins.
How Long Garlic Lasts
Once you break the seal and crack open a bulb of garlic, you are on borrowed time. That is why knowing how to store fresh whole garlic, and your options for peeled garlic, are so important. Stored properly, a whole, unpeeled garlic bulb can keep for months. After you break open the bulb, you are looking at just a few weeks. Once a clove has been peeled, use it within a week, keeping it in the refrigerator until you do.
How to Store Peeled Garlic
You do have a few options for making your peeled garlic last longer than just a week. You can store it for up to a year in oil in the freezer. You can also store it in the fridge for months and months with this vinegar hack.
