Garlic Gadgetry
COOL TOOLS
June/July 2005
By Susan Belsinger
Bring out the best in your garlic with tools that crush,
smash and squish.
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Being a known alliophile, I often receive
garlic-related gifts — from aprons, linens, dishes and jewelry to
unusual garlic gadgets. Many of these gizmos look a bit like
implements of torture, designed to crush, smash, mash, screw and
press. Some work great, while others seem frivolous because a plain
old kitchen knife does the job just as well. With some gadgets, it
is worth the extra money spent on top brands and models, while
others work the same regardless of price. Here are some of my
observations from years of experimenting with an array of garlic
tools.
PEEL APPEAL
I have received two different types of tools called,
inventively, Garlic Peelers ($3.99 to $6.99). One is a pliable
plastic tube that resembles an empty cannoli shell. You place a
clove or two of garlic inside the tube, press down on the peeler
with the heel of your hand and roll back and forth, thus loosening
the skin from the garlic clove. This technique peels the garlic,
but the papery skin gets stuck inside the tube and has to be rinsed
out.
The other rather dangerous-looking peeler is made from hard
plastic and looks like a hand-held cherry pitter with a claw and a
basket. You place the garlic clove in the basket and squeeze the
handles so that the open claw presses down and forces the clove
through the closed claw, which more or less skins it. The first
peeler is easier to use and does a better job, and it also doesn’t
cut into the cloves as the latter does. Personally, I find that a
firm whack with the flat side of a chef’s knife is the best way to
loosen the skin from a clove of garlic, and I don’t have to wash
anything.
A PRESSING MATTER
I grew up in a house without garlic, let alone a garlic press.
My favorite book when I was a kid was Suzuki Beane by Sandra
Scoppettone (Doubleday, 1961). Suzuki is a kid from a beatnik
family who runs away from home and takes the garlic press with her.
This totally fascinated me — why a child running away from home
would choose to take a garlic press with her. I wasn’t sure what a
garlic press was, but I knew it must have been pretty
important.
Now, I realize that the garlic press is just as important to me
as it was to Suzuki. Granted, one can live without a garlic press,
but why would you? Pressing garlic yields the strongest garlic
flavor possible because the press so thoroughly crushes the bulb
that it breaks down the herb’s structure, thereby releasing the
sulfur compounds all at once. And, happily, the tools are
convenient, inexpensive and getting better all the time.
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