Minced garlic – a very small spice but do huge effort to improve your dish’s flavor.
Mincing garlic, it’s also a small step compared to a whole cooking process. Usually, for about two tablespoons of minced garlic, it just takes roughly 30-50 seconds to get this task done. However, there’re still a lot of people looking for the best way to mince them with less effort and time. Why?
Just imagine, your pan is preheating, and the oil is boiling, it’s just waiting for you adding some minced garlic to flavor up. And where they are now? Not done yet because you have just done the peeled-off stage.
Now, there’re two cases: If oil is overboiled, its smell bad and even burn the pan. If you choose to turn off the power source to get some more time mincing the garlic, it’s okay but a little bit inconvenient because next time preheating, you need to wait some more time. Not saying that the dishes’ flavor is faded a little bit.
So, just a couple of minutes finding out the best way to mince garlic, you can save a bit time in a lot times doing this task later. Why not?
Mince garlic with a knife
This is also the traditional way.
It’s quick, just take advantage of the kitchen knife you are using and bam, everything is done within a few seconds.
First up, you should separate individual cloves from the bulb.
I see many people use a knife to have this task done, or just use their fingers to free them. However, my tip is to press your palm down on the bulb before starting to separate them. It will save some more time!
Next, peel the clove. There are a couple of methods to do this:
- Cut off both of its hard stem ends -> squeeze the clove out
- Use the flat side of a chef’s knife on the clove -> press down firmly (don’t smash them) -> separate the skin off the clove by fingers.
Now is the main part: mince the garlics!
There’s a basic rule of thumb: the thinner, the better. A sharp chef knife here will give a lot of help. Just pay close attention to your hands while mincing them because sometimes, slippery garlic might cause some bloody injuries.
One trick to help you avoid such pity accident is changing the way you hold garlics. Place your cutting board firmly, put the bend side of their knuckles to let the knife’s side rest against them and leave a small gap between your fingertips and the blade.
For better control, hold the clove against the cutting board while repeat the rocking motion to mince it rather than slicing up and down.
Now, turn the clove 90 degrees and repeat that rocking motion once more. A fine mine should be in thin cut. You can keep slicing garlics to reach your desire. The more you mince them, the smaller they are and more flavor they will be.
Particularly, if your dish calls for it, keep your knife moving back and forth over and over again.
However, to be fair, this method takes most effort in this list. And what if your knife is busy? Well, then consider these two methods below:
Mince garlic without a knife
Use a fork
Yes, you didn’t hear it wrong – mincing garlic with a fork!
Truth to say, this method won’t save you much effort, if not saying that it takes the same hard effort to mince them. However, in such case like I mention above – your knife is busy and you don’t have anything else but just a fork nearby, this is the best way.
To start off, peel their skin off. (Use the same method as the previous)
Next, put the fork on top of the garlic clove, use your palm press gradually and gently down it until you feel the clove break apart a little bit. Now, once the clove is softer than its origin, keep using your fork and pressing it down the clove until it’s minced into pieces as small as your desire.
Yeah, there it is!
Use tool
Sound crazy at first, but if think again and clearly, it’s reasonable.
What if your dishes call for a big amount of minced garlic? Are you going to flatten it one by one by your knife or your fork?
Imagine how tiring your arm is, guys. That’s why you need to consider a tool called “garlic press”.
It’s really convenient and importantly, very affordable. Big bonus, super small size to fit any kitchen area, spacious or crammed.
And, they are easy to use, too. There are usually two types of garlic press: the traditional and the modern.
By pressing or twisting, your garlic is minced into pieces within just 10-15 seconds – save much time, right?
Aside from garlic, you can use it to mince other spices like ginger. And to learn more about it, kindly consult my separate article about the best press garlic on the market, which I believe you will also find some more useful products there.
Besides, to optimize your cooking tasks with as least effort as possible, there’s another tool called “garlic peeler”. It helps to peel the garlic’s hard outer skin off more easily and less effort. If you want your cooking process more convenient, consider these two golden garlic tools, guys!
