Question
Julie Cannon
When do you choose to mince garlic manually versus use a garlic press?
Answer
So, basically, a garlic press, what it does is it's basically got a lot of little holes in it, and when you push down on it, it basically just pushes that through, kind of like a potato masher, basically. So it completely obliterates that garlic and puts it more at a cellular level. So if you're looking to be able to have a garlic paste, that's a pretty easy way to do it. It does typically leave back some of the skin that's on the outside of the garlic that's a little bit harder. But if you're looking to be able to get emaciated garlic, that will help completely obliterate it, basically, into little, tiny pieces, which will also help spread that flavor pretty well. Mincing garlic will give you a little bit more subtle, but even if you're mincing it, those little tiny pieces, when you bite into them, pop out as bits of flavor as they come into it as well, too. I typically don't use a garlic press. Even if I want to have a paste of garlic, I will typically just flatten out that garlic and mince it into a paste. Just put a little salt on your blade, and you can easily do that to be able to get the garlic as you're mincing it down to a paste-like level. That being said, if you're in a huge hurry and you have a lot of garlic to go through, a garlic press is an easy tool to be able to bring into it as well. But typically, you're going to use that garlic press to be able to have the garlic melt away into a sauce or soup or something like that, where the mince is going to be put in with other ingredients. So you get those kinds of pops of flavor and a little bit more mild of that flavor as well, too. Hope that helps, Julia.
