If you have just started to look at new spices and other ingredients you can add to your home-cooked dishes to enhance taste, then you may have seen some black garlic on the shelves. Black garlic is a bit different from normal garlic, so keep reading to learn how it is different and how you can add it to your recipes.

What Is Black Garlic?

Black garlic, unlike fresh or even sauteed garlic, is actually black like the name suggests. The dark coloring comes from the cooking process that is used to create the garlic. Fresh garlic is peeled and placed in a large roasting pan where is slow roasted in an oven. Once the roasting process is over, the cloves turn into a sticky black garlic that is much like a smooth paste.

Black garlic tastes very different from other types of garlic because it is cooked and aged to avoid caramelization. Roasting is done by something called the Maillard process. This produces a sweet taste where there is only a small amount of the normal garlic taste. The taste is much more similar to that of a sweetened balsamic vinegar. 

You should understand that the roasting process can take days or even weeks, depending on the method used to hear it. So, you can generally expect the garlic to cost more than fresh or chopped garlic. It is usually formed into a paste and sold in a jar, but you can purchase whole black cloves if you desire to.

How Do You Use Black Garlic?

You can use the black garlic in your recipes as a substitution for garlic. You can also hand mix the garlic with some olive oil and use it to cover chicken, fish, and other types of meat. The same mixture can also make a good coating for vegetables and salads.

The garlic can be added to salsa and sauces too to add depth to the flavor. One good option is to mix the garlic with some soy sauce when cooking stir fry and other Asian inspired recipes.

Black garlic is also a great substitute if you are trying to follow a low fat and reduced calorie diet. Instead of putting mayonnaise on your sandwiches, spread a bit of the garlic paste instead.

If you want to know more about black garlic and how you can use it in one or several of your recipes, speak with a retailer, such as Scenario International LLC.

Share