How to Utilize a Glut of Garlic

There are so many great conversations on the Hotline — it’s hard to choose a favorite. But we’ll be doing it, once a week, to spread the wealth of our community’s knowledge — and to keep the conversation going.

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Today: Too much of a good thing can still be a good thing — as long as you know what to do with it.

This isn’t the first time this has happened. You’re overwhelmed with an excess of one ingredient, and you’re running out of ideas for putting it to good use before it spoils, or you can’t stand the thought of eating one more bite. This time we’re talking about garlic, a lot of garlic. Erica has a 3-pound bag of whole peeled garlic (that expires at the end of the month), so she headed to the Hotline in search of recipes calling for huge quantities of garlic. You all came through with recipes using dozens of cloves, as well as strategies for saving some garlic for later:

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Cook Now

• Kate suggests making garlic soup — whether it’s a recipe that uses one head of garlic or a whopping 44 cloves. 
• James Beard’s chicken uses another 40 cloves of garlic. “Make this a few times and you’ll be all set,” reassures Brette.
• A little spice and jilhil propose roasting it and having a party — all you need are garlic-loving friends and some crusty bread.

Store For Later

• HalfPint suggests chopping up the garlic in a food processor, putting it into a large jar, and covering the garlic with dry sherry. This blend will keep for a long time in the refrigerator, and is especially good in a stir-fry.
• Regine offers the easiest option: “Put them in the freezer in a sealed bag. I always buy a container of peeled garlic and keep it in the freezer. When I need a few cloves, I just get what I need.”
• boulangere stores garlic in the freezer too: “I routinely roast large amounts of garlic in olive oil, then purée it, and press it into ice cube trays. Once frozen, I pop the cubes out into ziplock bags which I stash in the freezer so as to pluck out as many as I need at any given time.”

What are your favorite ways to handle an overabundance of garlic? Let us know in the comments!

Photo by James Ransom