Garlicy garlic

annamcmahon

Hi. This might seem a bit of a mad question but does anyone know where I can get garlic that actually tastes of garlic? I've tried everything from bog standard Chinese garlic from different supermarket to organic Spanish garlic to French garlic from Fallon and Byrne. All of it tastes bland.

I love garlic and put it nearly every savoury dish I make but recently I starting to not use it because I'm so disappointed by the quality of it.

Itsdacraic

annamcmahon wrote: »

Hi. This might seem a bit of a mad question but does anyone know where I can get garlic that actually tastes of garlic? I've tried everything from bog standard Chinese garlic from different supermarket to organic Spanish garlic to French garlic from Fallon and Byrne. All of it tastes bland.

I love garlic and put it nearly every savoury dish I make but recently I starting to not use it because I'm so disappointed by the quality of it.

Not much help, but grow your own!
It's really easy, but takes about 6 months, the taste is fantastic. Nothing like shop bought garlic.

It could easily be that you're building up a tolerance to it. I find shop bought garlic to be grand, whereas my mother who eats it all the time is always complaining it's bland. She got some garlic powder and now adds it instead of garlic and apparently it works much better. It's usually on the same set of shelves as herbs and spices and comes in the same little jars/shakers as the herbs and spices.

She puts it on everything. Really. EVERYTHING.

John Mason

you will need to grow your own

annamcmahon

I had a feeling that people would suggest growing my own. I have grown my own but each clove was tiny so I'd end up using nearly a whole bulb for pasta sauce. Not good when you've an impatient 9 month old. Why does it take as long to peel a tiny clove as a giant clove?

I suppose I'll just have to go pull some more from the allotment and hope it wasn't washed away.

the beer revolu

And now is the time to plant it!

m.j.w

i found the shop stuff to be the same but i tried the tescos organic stuff which is a little dearer and it is much better. you can tell its much stronger by the smell alone when its peeled

Little Alex

I think what we get here in the shops is battery chicken garlic, probably grown in huge greenhouses.

To me, real garlic should be heavy in weight and the skin purple and white. The stuff in the shops is often too light and dried out, already weeks or months old.

I think growing your own, as has already been said, is the way to go. I'd say garden-grown garlic in the South of Europe tastes nothing like the stuff we get on sale here. This is certainly true of tomatoes!

castlewhite

as someone mentioned you need the wet garlic, it is a large bulb, lots of colour purple, either from France or Argintina. Wasting your time in the super markets, try listons camden st; F& B, exchequer St; Roy Foxes, Donnybrook; Beaument drive-in, Beaumont road; Larry Swan in Naas might have some too

CJhaughey

Strange as it may seem I like the Lidl single clove garlic.
The head instead of having small individual cloves just has one bulb, like a small onion.
Purple and white skin and about the size of a shallot.
Its quite a bit stronger than the regular garlic that you usually get this time of year.

enda1

Maybe you are not cooking it right? It's very easy to destroy the taste of garlic - the garliciness by overcooking it.

annie.t

+1 on the lidl single clove garlic, really nice, and the skin under first layer is actually white and purple

SillyMcCarthy

Roma do a tube of garlic paste. Just like a regular tube of toothpaste.
Good stuff! Give it a go!

mikeyboy

SillyMcCarthy wrote: »

Roma do a tube of garlic paste. Just like a regular tube of toothpaste.
Good stuff! Give it a go!

I've tried that as well and found it far too salty, maybe because I'm on a low salt diet. Now I get mine in one of the Polish food shops, lovely and fresh and full of flavour.

annamcmahon

Thanks for all your suggestions. Apologies for not getting back sooner. Does anyone know if garlic can be grown indoors? Only have a front garden and it doesn't get much sun.

I'll check out the lidl single clove stuff. I'd dismissed it since it's chinese but I think it's a Chinese variety rather than European stuff grown there.

I'm definitely not overcooking it, it doesn't taste or smell strong when it's raw. To be honest the problem is that is all tastes old and musty even the stuff I got in Fallon and Byrne.

Might have to resort to a jar but hoped not to.

the beer revolu

annamcmahon wrote: »

Thanks for all your suggestions. Apologies for not getting back sooner. Does anyone know if garlic can be grown indoors? Only have a front garden and it doesn't get much sun.

I don't think garlic would grow well indoors (I could be wrong) cause apparently it need a spell of cold weather to form the cloves.

I'd try it in your front garden. It's just a matter of sticking a few cloves into the ground.

annamcmahon

I've grown it in pots on an allotment but don't have one anymore. I'll just have to stick some in a pot in the garden and hope for the best. In the meantime I'll use the lidl stuff.

WindSock

Oh man, I love garlic. Garlic is the best!

The Black Oil

A French friend gave us some, the bulbs are much larger than the Chinese stuff. Same in Rick Stein's recent Spain programme.