How to get the garlic flavor IN the food?

[Peter_Kleban]

We’ve been noticing that in really good food made with garlic, the flavor is infused into the food itself, while when we cook ourselves, it often tastes like an add-on. Any ideas on how to make it “go in”?

[Frank_Deis]

When do you add the garlic? Normally I put it in pretty early, right after the onions have been fried. If you throw in minced garlic too early it will burn but at the end of frying the onions, you get the fragrance to come up from the garlic and then you start to add the wet ingredients.

Of course garlic tastes different depending on how long you cook it. Some dishes like garlic soup or chicken with 40 cloves of garlic – the garlic cooks long enough that it mainly tastes kind of sweet and umami-ish.

I don’t often use garlic raw but I do mince it up in guacamole, and once again to my taste it is blended in.

Give an example of a recipe you use where it tastes “added”?

[Rich_Sutton]

One thing I have found helpful is to give extra time for rubs and marinades. A couple of years ago I got busy and a chicken to be roasted sat for 2 days in a 5-spice rub, not just overnight. That really made a difference in how well the flavors permeated the meat. This Sunday I will roast a Flannery bone-in pork rib roast. Tonight I will bore a hole through the center and pack it with a paste of olive oil, garlic, rosemary, sage, salt, and pepper.

Enjoy,
Rich

[Enzo_Ruffalo]

[Robert.Fleming]

@Enzo Ruffalo

You … have to … do a quick and very hot browning in a fry pan to reseal the meat …

Despite its almost universal hold on the popular imagination, food scientists (McGee, Corriher, et al.) say that sealing juices in by searing is a myth. Searing for added flavor? Yes. For sealing juices in? No. Or so they say.

[Rich_Sutton]

@Enzo Ruffalo

For solid cuts of meat, I will often take a fork and pierce the meat repeatedly before doing the marinade or rub. You then have to really work the seasonings into the pierces and do a quick and very hot browning in a fry pan to reseal the meat as the juices will want to flush the spices out while cooking. And I know what you mean by tasting “add on”. It’s the sensation that you only really taste the treatment when you have some of the outer portion of the meat in a bite. Center pieces are “lacking”.

Another trick is to place a clove of garlic in slits made in a roast with a small knife. I’ve done this to good effect but it always worries me that the roast will dry out. I try to orient the slits on the top so I don’t drain the juices out the bottom into the pan.

Rich

[Peter_Kleban]

@Frank Deis

When do you add the garlic? Normally I put it in pretty early, right after the onions have been fried. If you throw in minced garlic too early it will burn but at the end of frying the onions, you get the fragrance to come up from the garlic and then you start to add the wet ingredients.

we do it that way too

@Frank Deis

Give an example of a recipe you use where it tastes “added”?

For instance, chicken pieces made as you describe above. Chicken added later, sauteed a bit, then cooked covered ca 20 min until done.

[Peter_Kleban]

@Rich Sutton

One thing I have found helpful is to give extra time for rubs and marinades. A couple of years ago I got busy and a chicken to be roasted sat for 2 days in a 5-spice rub, not just overnight. That really made a difference in how well the flavors permeated the meat. This Sunday I will roast a Flannery bone-in pork rib roast. Tonight I will bore a hole through the center and pack it with a paste of olive oil, garlic, rosemary, sage, salt, and pepper.

Enjoy,
Rich

Thanks, Rich. Maybe this is the main thing. Perhaps the flavor doesn’t penetrate very far on its own unless you let the spices sit in contact for a good long time.

[Nola_Palomar]

Here they take a couple of halved garlic cloves and fry them in the EVOO. Then they remove and add the onions, chop up the garlic and add it back. They say that you want the oil to take the flavor of the garlic, but not overly scorched either.
Sometimes when I am sort of lazy I slice the thick edge of the garlic but leave it unpeeled. the skin protects it from getting over cooked and still imparts the nice garlic flavor to the EVOO and whatever you are cooking.

This is perfect for lamchops, mushrooms, just about anything.

[Peter_Kleban]

@Nola Palomar

Here they take a couple of halved garlic cloves and fry them in the EVOO. Then they remove and add the onions, chop up the garlic and add it back. They say that you want the oil to take the flavor of the garlic, but not overly scorched either.
Sometimes when I am sort of lazy I slice the thick edge of the garlic but leave it unpeeled. the skin protects it from getting over cooked and still imparts the nice garlic flavor to the EVOO and whatever you are cooking.

This is perfect for lamchops, mushrooms, just about anything.

Thanks, have to try that. Especially when we don’t plan a day or two lead time to let the food be in contact with the spices (which is most of the time).

[Frank_Deis]

@Rich Sutton

Another trick is to place a clove of garlic in slits made in a roast with a small knife. I’ve done this to good effect but it always worries me that the roast will dry out. I try to orient the slits on the top so I don’t drain the juices out the bottom into the pan.

Rich

That is the prescribed method for the famous Tuscan pork roast, the “Arista.” And I’ve done that several times – putting garlic slivers into the slits and then tying on branches of rosemary. But I’d say that the Arista roast is one example I can think of where the garlic flavor strikes me as being “apart” from the flavor of the meat. The garlic and rosemary give a striking smell and flavor to the pork but they don’t seem to have merged with it. Otherwise I am having trouble even visualizing the problem Peter describes. When I am talking with people who “don’t like garlic” I usually try to tell them, you don’t like the smell of raw garlic, but when it’s cooked properly in a dish you don’t taste it and say “Ew! Garlic!” but rather “Hey, what’s that great flavor?”

[Nola_Palomar]

Please do, and let me know what you think! Lots of people here do not peel the garlic if they are not chopping it and are just frying.

[Peter_Kleban]

@Frank Deis

@Rich Sutton

Another trick is to place a clove of garlic in slits made in a roast with a small knife. I’ve done this to good effect but it always worries me that the roast will dry out. I try to orient the slits on the top so I don’t drain the juices out the bottom into the pan.

Rich

That is the prescribed method for the famous Tuscan pork roast, the “Arista.” And I’ve done that several times – putting garlic slivers into the slits and then tying on branches of rosemary. But I’d say that the Arista roast is one example I can think of where the garlic flavor strikes me as being “apart” from the flavor of the meat. The garlic and rosemary give a striking smell and flavor to the pork but they don’t seem to have merged with it. Otherwise I am having trouble even visualizing the problem Peter describes. When I am talking with people who “don’t like garlic” I usually try to tell them, you don’t like the smell of raw garlic, but when it’s cooked properly in a dish you don’t taste it and say “Ew! Garlic!” but rather “Hey, what’s that great flavor?”

Frank, we like garlic and use it all the time. The problem is that sometimes the garlic flavor tastes like it was added on, almost as if something garlicky was poured over the food, but in well-prepared dishes the flavor permeates the food. Just trying to figure out how to make that happen.