What Is Garlic and How Can I Use It?

Garlic powder is dried garlic that has been finely diced to create a powdered form. It should not be confused with garlic salt, which is a combination of garlic powder and table salt. You’ll find garlic powder in the spice section, and some cooks advocate using it in place of fresh garlic.

Other cooks like the taste of garlic powder but find that the taste is different than fresh garlic, not as sharp and somewhat sweeter. If you’re out of fresh garlic, a powdered form can be a good substitute though the taste may be slightly different.

People may really enjoy using garlic powder because of its garlicky taste. If you’re on a low sodium diet, you can really benefit from this seasoning.

Since it contains only a trace amount of natural sodium, you can use garlic powder liberally without being concerned about adding extra salt to your diet.

It doesn’t always blend well if you want a smooth mix of ingredients. You might try garlic juice instead if you don’t want little tiny flakes of garlic in a dish.

Garlic is widely used around the world for its pungent flavor as a seasoning or condiment. The flavour varies in intensity and aroma with the different cooking methods. It is often paired with onion, tomato, or ginger.

Garlic may be applied to breads to create a variety of classic dishes such as garlic bread, garlic toast, bruschetta, crostini and canapé.

Oils are often flavored with garlic cloves. These infused oils are used to season all categories of vegetables, meats, breads and pasta.

In some cuisine, the young bulbs are pickled for 3–6 weeks in a mixture of sugar, salt, and spices. In eastern Europe, the shoots are pickled and eaten as an appetizer.

Immature scapes are tender and edible. They are also known as "garlic spears", "stems", or "tops". Scapes generally have a milder taste than cloves. They are often used in stir frying or prepared things like asparagus.

Garlic leaves are a popular vegetable in many parts of Asia. The leaves are cut, cleaned, and then stir-fried with eggs, meat, or vegetables.

Garlic powder has a different taste from fresh garlic. If used as a substitute for fresh garlic, 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder is equivalent to one clove of garlic.

Garlic salt is a blend, not pure garlic.

It is ground dehydrated garlic cut with table salt, usually about one part garlic to three parts salt, plus a pinch of anti-caking agent so it pours. That ratio is the one fact that makes everything else make sense.

When you reach for garlic salt, you are reaching for salt first and garlic second.

So treat it as a seasoned salt that happens to taste of garlic, not as a garlic shortcut. It works in the background of grilled meat, fries, and roast vegetables, but it is the wrong tool when garlic itself is the point.

A garlic bulb is the whole head: the papery white knob you buy at the store, made up of a dozen or so individual cloves packed around a central stem. Pull it apart and each segment is one clove.

So when a recipe says a bulb or a head, it means the entire thing, while a clove is a single segment. That difference matters: a recipe calling for one bulb wants roughly ten times the garlic of one calling for a clove.

For everything else about flavor and prep and storage, see the main garlic page.

Garlic paste is exactly what the name says: garlic cloves crushed down to a smooth puree, with nothing chunky left to bite. It comes two ways.

You can buy it in a jar, blended with a little oil plus salt and an acid like citric acid to keep it shelf-stable. Or you make it in seconds at home from fresh cloves.

The whole point is convenience. It drops a hit of garlic into a sauce or marinade without the peeling and mincing and the sticky bits stuck to your board every time.

In Indian and Pakistani cooking it is a daily workhorse, usually paired with ginger as ginger-garlic paste. It gets stirred into curries and rice and marinades by the spoonful.

Garlic oil is just what it sounds like: a cooking oil, usually olive or a neutral oil, infused with the flavor of garlic. It carries garlic's punch in a pourable, brushable form, without bits of garlic to burn or brown.

You can buy it bottled or make it, and the two are not quite the same thing. Commercial garlic oils are formulated and acidified to be shelf-stable.

A homemade jar of raw garlic sitting in oil is a different and more delicate creature, with a real safety rule attached (more on that below).

The appeal is convenience and control. A drizzle delivers even garlic flavor across a whole dish, where chopped cloves can scorch in the pan and turn bitter.

Instant minced garlic is fresh garlic that has been chopped and dried into hard, sandy little granules.

It is the same idea as garlic powder, just left in coarser pieces instead of being ground to a fine dust, so you get visible bits of garlic and a slightly chunkier texture in the finished dish.

Drop the granules into anything wet and they soften back up, releasing a mellow, toasted garlic flavor. It is rounder and less sharp than raw garlic, closer to roasted than to a freshly crushed clove.

The appeal is pure convenience. No peeling and no sticky fingers, and it keeps in the pantry for months.