We love garlic. We wish food TV shows loved garlic as much as we love garlic.
Yes, some people are afraid of garlic so food shows, even on PBS, have to assume everyone is scared of garlic. They aren't scared of onions. They chop onions in tiny pieces.
The spiel is essentially the same. Slice the garlic so the garlic won't be too strong.
They rarely point out that the smaller pieces you have of garlic, the more flavor you will get. Yet they never cut the garlic into smaller pieces.
That common denominator means garlic goes in, just not to do what garlic could to improve a recipe.
The garlic press can get garlic into tiny pieces without resorting to a knife. This can be good if your clove is small enough. Wrestling a larger clove into a garlic press is an activity that would never make it into a cooking show. Watching Mary Berg use a garlic press on Mary Makes It Easy proves she makes it easy by not getting all the garlic into her dish.
"[G]arlic that has been tragically smashed through one of those abominations, the garlic press, are all disgusting. Please treat your garlic with respect … don't put it through a press. I don't know what that junk is that squeezes out the end of those things, but it ain't garlic." — Anthony Bourdain.
Chopping garlic into small places gives you more of the garlic in a dish than a garlic press will provide.
Alton Brown has an excellent episode on garlic: Season 4, Episode 11 of Good Eats called In The Bulb of the Night (Garlic). Brown counsels an unseen Count Vlad of the virtues of using garlic in recipes.
Brown cooks up for Count Vlad the 40 Cloves and a Chicken dish and Vlad's Very Garlicky Greens.
Brown is one of the few who goes into the power of smaller pieces and celebrates the beauty of strong garlic into a dish, especially with a skeptical vampire in his midst.
He doesn't introduce one of his many scientific replicas to reinforce the magic of smaller pieces. Otherwise, the episode is a joy to those of us who love garlic more than most cooking shows.
The cautious count is definitely a metaphor for the other cooking shows that seem as afraid of garlic as Count Vlad is on the program.
There was a Match Game '75 episode that mentions garlic. Start at the 6:00 mark in the video for the question. There may be some questionable answers but this survived broadcast standards in 1975. Margaret, the contestant, gives garlic as her answer. She ends up winning by a soupçon of garlic, thanks to Patti Deutsch.
Back then, garlic had a bad reputation. We should know better now to get more people to appreciate what strong garlic can bring to a dish.
Garlic may be in season at your local farmers market. If you are going to experiment with garlic, buy local garlic.
Some of us with heartier palates want a strong blue cheese flavor in a dish, more umami such as fish sauce, and yes, a stronger garlic flavor. We love the cooking shows to be "now, with extra garlic."
photo credits: me; Food Network; Good Eats
video credit: Match Game Productions
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