Fresh Garlic vs Prepared Garlic: Can You Taste the Difference?

garlic taste test we are comparing freshly peeled and chopped garlic with pre peeled garlic garlic powder garlic paste from a tube jarred garlic paste from an indian grocery and jarred and minced garlic to my shock the freshly peeled and chopped did not quite come out decisively on top for the test I made garlic bread to make two portions of each sample I mixed 20 grams of softened butter with a tiny pinch of salt and 10 grams of garlic except for the garlic powder because it's dehydrated it's way lighter so I just kind of eyeballed it 6 samples all mapped out on parchment there is my key so I won't forget which is which I smeared the garlic butters onto my bread for the record this is proportionately more garlic than you probably want in your garlic bread I just wanted to make sure the garlic flavor would be loud and clear for the purposes of comparison gaaah running out of room I baked it for 15 minutes chopped it up and served it to my tasters this is novelist and noted garlic lover Lauren Morel Miley catchphrases there's no such thing as too much garlic she and I are married this is chemistry professor garland Crawford he and I worked together at Mercer University he's really into food science I gave them water and apple slices to use as palate cleansers and here we go with sample number 1 the freshly peeled and chopped garlic I feel like that's the fresh garlic because I'm very spicy got a lot of punch to it I like that sample too is pre peeled garlic which I actually froze before chopping up because I don't think there's any point in buying a big container of pre peeled garlic unless you can freeze most of it it was actually easier to chop up when it was frozen solid a little milder almost a little sweeter yeah it's still got the local spiciness sharp but not that one was like so to understand what's going on here let's take a break and learn about garlic chemistry the stuff that makes garlic taste hot is a molecule called allicin it's created inside the garlic when the garlic is damaged ie when you cut it up crush it or chew it garlic treats it as a defense mechanism so you've got the molecule that generates that garlic flavor is separated from the enzyme that utilizes that molecule so as you take the garlic and break it down more finely you cut it the more the interaction happens but you bring that alamin molecule in contact with the a Linnaeus enzyme that gives us that Allisyn molecule that's what we think that was our distinctly garlic flavor and there's a similar process that happens in for example the Browning of apples that when you cut those open you're putting together the substrate and the enzyme because you broke in cell walls or they're normally separated coming back to this pre peeled garlic it tasted a little bit less hot perhaps because it had been refrigerated and indeed frozen a little bit less Allison had been made inside of it since it's an enzymatic reaction it's one of the things you can do to slow that reaction down is to put in the fridge in the freezer it helps to hold on just some of those things all right sample number three is the garlic bread made with garlic powder I think that one probably is garlic powder oh yeah I got it mmm yeah I'm a big fan of garlic powder but it's just an entirely different thing from fresh garlic it's like dried mushrooms versus fresh mushrooms two really great things but not really interchangeable sample number four is the garlic paste from a tube very convenient shelf-stable you don't have to refrigerate it until you open it there's a distinct flavor mmm it's almost cheese like like really mild on the garlic's and doesn't have any punch to it right like these yeah you're right almost very green almost money so what's going on here why no hot and spicy Alison this paste as far as I know had not been refrigerated or frozen before I used it well as soon as you create the Alison by damaging the garlic it starts to break down into other compounds that don't taste as pungent in 2008 Japanese researchers who were studying the many health benefits of Alison found that the Alison in crushed garlic has a chemical half-life of just 11 days at least 11 days when stored in a water-based solution at room temperature in oil the half-life was only three hours if you cook it of course you're talking about minutes or even seconds to break down the Alison that's why cooking mellows out garlic but coming back to this paste it was probably chock-full of Alison when it was first manufactured but by the time it got to my kitchen all of that Alison had broken down it has no pungency whatsoever sample 5 is the bottled garlic paste that I got from the Indian grocery here in Macon garlic paste is very important in the South Asian food though I think it's often made fresh in the home no sour little acidic this particular garlic paste has vinegar and citric acid in it probably to function as preservatives to slow down those enzymatic processes we talked about : being able to slow it down pass it also does some of the same thing number 6 the sixth and final sample is the jarred minced garlic garlic wise is very subtle no no the pungent see none of the the short taste it almost tastes a little synthetic or something it was made to taste like garlic right now it tastes like you'd get it like a right I'm gonna have to believe that so we don't get sued at a fast casual Italian eatery yeah I'm sorry the Allison and this has just totally broken down even if you use double or triple the amount to compensate you would never get any of that hot pungent flavor that you get from fresh garlic the flavor that I'm looking for most of the time and yeah it kind of tasted artificial too and this is this one is well garlic water phosphoric acid and phosphoric acid as a preservative it helps to stabilize experiment over here are our conclusions if the question is can you tell the difference between fresh garlic and the jarred mints because that's what everyone always asks right yes jarred garlic is not for me no judgment if it gives you the flavor that you're looking for garlic powder and surprisingly this garlic paste both offer interesting flavors that could be used for all kinds of things in the kitchen but probably not for replacing fresh chopped garlic actually come to think about it in a long cooked dish where most of the Allisyn would break down anyway maybe this paste actually could be a good substitute you know in a sauce or a braise something that cooks for a long time fresh chopped is of course great but surprisingly so is pre peeled from the refrigerator in fact before I told them which sample was which Lauren and garland both said the pre peeled garlic bread was their favorite it seemed to offer a nice balance between the hot Allisyn flavor and all of the other flavor compounds inside fresh garlic partly that might be the cold slowing down the Allis and creating reaction when you chop it up but it might also be that some of the garlic's potential Allison was created in the peeling factory surely the process that results in this garlic being peeled is traumatic to a few cell walls and then that Allison has simply broken down by the time it gets to your kitchen and you cook with it but yeah pre-peeled is good and you can refrigerate it or freeze it but if you're after that super hot punch go with the real deal for pasta with garlic and olive oil or butter I'm still going old-school grandma Ragusa I hope you are appeased

Channel: Adam Ragusea

Views: 1,097,693

Rating: 4.9175062 out of 5

Keywords: garlic bread, garlic benefits, health benefits of garlic, raw garlic benefits, garlic clove, garlic bread recipe, garlic clove peeling trick, garlic cloves minced, garlic clove hack, benefits of garlic, garlic uses, how to, how to cook, garlic uses for health, taste test, jarred garlic, fresh garlic, garlic paste, garlic paste for garlic bread, garlic paste recipe, tubed garlic vs garlic, tubed garlic, indian garlic paste

Id: CIFXhnSXPYw

Length: 7min 21sec (441 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 08 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/DrPsyc]

TLDR: Yes

[u/happyhour4til6]

A L L I C I N

Someone call Brad Leone.

[u/ruthless_tippler]

great video, but damn be that amplified munching noises

[u/Whitworth]

I grew up rural midwest meat and potatoes and never ate garlic until I was out of college. I'm making up for years lost. Pile that shit on.

[u/tayk47xx]

ITT: People infuriated by different cooking techniques for no reason whatsoever

[u/blankman99]

I cant take this guy seriously after his why i season my cutting board and not my steak video lmao...

[u/Lunchable]

This whole video is an allicin wonderland.

[u/TryNottoFaint]

Her bleeped restaurant was 100% Olive Garden. And that jarred minced garlic is nasty.

[u/polishgravy]

No amount of garlic is too much garlic.