How to store Garlic
Small, smelly and almighty
End of March starts the Spring “presumably” and with it comes the garlic.
Garlic constitutes an important part of the Egyptian cuisine, just like it does with most of the Mediterranean cuisines. Garlic is thrown in most of the dishes giving it a special aroma and an important nutritional value. Part of the Pharaoh’s diet, it was believed to cure sickness (including common cold) and have medicinal properties, now science has proved that they were right. Garlic is good for the intestines, the stomach and a general infection fighter. While garlic is full of good minerals like calcium and potassium, it is also low in calories and can be a great source of vitamin B6, manganese, selenium and vitamin C. Most of the benefits of raw garlic come from an enzyme called allicin, its most active ingredient, which has anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidative and anticancer properties and is what gives garlic its smell and taste. The ingredient becomes activated through the process of chopping or crushing the garlic.
How to consume Garlic
Garlic may be eaten or added to dishes raw, used as garlic powder, or in the form of garlic oil. We tend to consume it cooked but it can be eaten raw, which is even better because the raw form preserves all the beneficial nutrients.
The stages of Garlic
- By mid-March, we start seeing the early harvests of garlic, characterised by a purple outer shell and is usually soft at that time.
- Three weeks later (early April like now) this purple disappears and turns into white. The cloves are full and juicy and the head yields a lot. Despite the fact that Egyptian garlic cloves are not huge compared to other varieties found elsewhere, they are quite potent with a strong aroma.
The quality and quantity of the cloves deteriorates as we move forward and hence the importance of storing it properly.
How is garlic stored
Egyptians have always stored garlic, the view of garlic and onions hanging in the kitchen balcony is very common in everyone’s memory. April until mid May are best months to store garlic as the cloves are full, juicy and soft. With time garlic dries out and it is common to find an “empty” dry head of garlic by the end of the year. Storing it with the “neck” helps to preserve the head of cloves. Unfortunately, with global warming Egypt is experiencing very hot & humid summers, more so than it used to do in the past. This affects the quality of garlic among other things. A lot of people have turned to storing garlic in different ways: peeling it and putting it in a zip log bag or mincing it and putting it in jars or zip log bags. It stores for one year perfectly fine in the freezer and the quality of the garlic is very good.
While it is not fresh, a lot of people consider it much better than buying imported Chinese garlic found in supermarkets when garlic is out of season.