PSA: I spent 5 years peeling garlic wrong until a line cook set me straight

Was making pasta at a friend's house last Saturday and she watched me smack a clove with the flat of a knife. She just goes 'you know you're supposed to cut the root end off first, right?' Turns out I'd been mangling cloves for years and never noticed. Now I'm wondering what other basic kitchen stuff I'm doing backwards. What mundane thing did you learn you were doing totally wrong? And how did you figure it out?

2 comments

2 Comments

williamschmidt3d ago

Cutting the root end off first is good advice for some things but not a hard rule. A lot of cooks just smash the clove with the knife and peel it from the root side since the paper sticks there. I was a prep cook for a summer and the head chef would just squeeze the clove between his thumb and finger until the skin split. Different methods work for different garlic freshness too.

noran213d ago

Fresh garlic is the boss of all methods. @williamschmidt that squeeze trick only works on really fresh cloves. Dry papery garlic? Forget it. I do the smash and peel thing. Knife flat, quick whack, skin slides right off. Never bother cutting roots unless the clove is huge.