Garlic, the pungent bulb that’s a cornerstone of cuisines worldwide, is often taken for granted. But for those who truly love to cook, like my chef husband Ham, even the smallest details matter. Ham, a chef’s chef if you will, obsesses over culinary techniques that often seem, well, excessive to me. Perfect quenelles? Seven-sided potatoes? He’s mastered them. So when I noticed him meticulously removing the germ from every single garlic clove, I just chalked it up to another one of his kitchen quirks.
Or was it more than just a quirk? The question of whether removing the garlic germ is actually necessary is a culinary debate worth exploring. And so, armed with a mountain of garlic – enough to ward off any vampires – I embarked on a mission. My goal? To challenge my husband’s germ-removing habit and, more importantly, to uncover the truth about this common kitchen practice.
To conduct a fair test, I waited for summer, the season of fresh produce, when both new, vibrant garlic from the farmers market and older, drier garlic from the supermarket would be readily available. I experimented with both types, using them with and without the germ, in both raw and cooked dishes. After subjecting my colleagues to a series of rather pungent taste tests, the results were surprisingly clear. It turns out, my husband was right… mostly. (Don’t tell him I admitted that.)
The Short Answer: Garlic Germ and Flavor
Here’s the quick rundown on the garlic germ debate:
- Young Garlic: Freshly harvested, young garlic boasts a bright, well-rounded garlic flavor that our taste testers loved in both raw and cooked applications. Removing the germ from young garlic made virtually no noticeable difference.
- Old Garlic: Older garlic, especially when the germ was left intact, presented a different story. Raw, it was overwhelmingly pungent and harsh. Cooked, it developed an acrid, almost burnt flavor.
The Verdict on Garlic Germ Removal:
- If you’re using fresh, young garlic, especially the kind you find at farmers’ markets, feel free to skip removing the germ. It won’t significantly impact the flavor.
- However, taking a moment to remove the germ from older garlic cloves, particularly those from the supermarket, is definitely worthwhile, especially for raw preparations.
Now, let’s dive into the garlicky details and understand why this difference exists.
Decoding the Garlic Clove: A Quick Primer
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Image: Fresh, unpeeled garlic bulbs, highlighting their natural form.
Garlic belongs to the allium family, a group that also includes onions, leeks, and shallots – all known for their distinctive pungent flavors. While garlic is available year-round, it’s actually a seasonal vegetable, typically harvested from late summer through fall.
Most garlic we consume is cultivated asexually, meaning it’s grown by planting individual cloves rather than from seeds. At the heart of each garlic clove lies the garlic germ, nestled in a small cavity. This germ is essentially a baby garlic plant, the precursor to a new garlic bulb. For those interested in delving deeper into the fascinating world of garlic, Eric Block’s book, Garlic and Other Alliums: The Lore And The Science, is a treasure trove of information, filled with intriguing garlic facts (including quirky laws about eating onions in Vermont!).
Botanically speaking, garlic cloves are classified as storage buds. The papery outer layer we peel away is called the protective leaf, while the clove itself, composed of fructose chains, is actually a swollen storage leaf. And within this storage leaf resides the garlic germ, the potential for future growth. Plant a clove, and you’ll get a whole new head of garlic.
The germ itself is a miniature stem and leaf in waiting. As it develops, it draws energy from the starch reserves in the surrounding clove (the storage leaf), eventually sprouting upwards through the soil. This sprout grows, forming leaves, much like a young onion or leek. The bases of these inner leaves then swell, giving rise to three to five new cloves each.
After harvesting, garlic undergoes a curing process. The bulbs are stored in dry, well-ventilated conditions for about two weeks. During this curing period, garlic loses up to 20% of its moisture content, which intensifies its flavor. Freshly harvested garlic is surprisingly mild. Garlic only develops its characteristic pungency after curing and when its cells are broken open through crushing, chopping, or mincing.
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Image: A close-up showing the process of removing the garlic germ from a clove using a paring knife.
Remember garlic’s seasonality? Garlic harvested in summer and fall is often stored in refrigerated, nitrogen-rich environments for extended periods, making it available throughout the year. However, the longer garlic is stored, the more moisture it loses, the more concentrated its flavor becomes, and the more pronounced the germ grows.
If you cut open a freshly harvested garlic clove, you’ll barely notice the germ – just a faint, fuzzy lining. But slice a clove from a head of garlic purchased in January, and you’re likely to find a thick, green shoot in the center. This is because that January garlic was probably harvested in September and has been in storage for months.
Interestingly, refrigeration can encourage premature sprouting in garlic. Cold temperatures can cause your garlic to sprout sooner, intensifying its harshness and making September’s harvest taste like January’s stored garlic.
The question of what to do with this shoot, the garlic germ, has been a subject of debate among chefs for some time. Some chefs adamantly remove it, believing it imparts a harsh, hot flavor. Others only deem removal necessary for raw preparations where the germ’s flavor is more noticeable. Still others argue that the germ has no harsh taste at all, suggesting that it is simply young garlic and as mild as freshly harvested cloves.
So, who is right? Well, as we hinted earlier, we have the answer, but let’s explore the “why” behind it.
Testing the Flavor Impact of the Garlic Germ
To put these differing opinions to the test, I waited until summer, when both new and old garlic were simultaneously available. I divided both types of garlic into two groups: “with germ” and “without germ.” For the young garlic, which hadn’t yet developed prominent germs, I carefully carved out the central cavity where the germ would have grown using a tourné knife, to maintain consistency in the test.
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Image: Side-by-side bowls of tomato sauce, one made with garlic including the germ, and the other with germ-removed garlic.
To assess the flavor differences in both cooked and raw applications, I prepared both toum, a potent garlic sauce, and tomato sauce with each set of garlic. The traditional toum recipe typically calls for de-germed garlic, but I made batches both ways. For the tomato sauce, I doubled the garlic quantity in the recipe to accentuate any flavor variations. In the end, I had eight samples ready for tasting.
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Image: Containers of toum prepared for a blind taste test, showcasing the different batches.
Before even starting the taste tests, I noticed a striking difference simply while peeling the cloves. The fresh garlic from the farmers market was sticky and moist, incredibly fragrant, and admittedly, a bit challenging to peel.
Taste Test Results: Germ or No Germ?
The toum and tomato sauce made with the new-harvest garlic were the clear favorites among all tasters, outperforming the old garlic in every form, with or without the germ. As expected, there was no significant flavor difference between the fresh garlic prepared with and without the germ, primarily because young garlic has a barely-there germ to begin with.
The real revelation came with the old-harvest garlic samples. The toum made with older garlic and its germ was described as harsh and intensely spicy, reminiscent of wasabi or horseradish. Conversely, the toum made with old garlic that had the germ removed was still distinctly garlicky, but without that unpleasant, aggressive heat.
Even in the simmered tomato sauce, where I initially anticipated less variation, tasters consistently identified the sauce and toum made from old garlic with the germ as inferior. Although not burnt, some tasters even described an acrid, bitter note in these samples.
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Image: Garlic cloves with germs removed being added to hot oil in a pan, demonstrating a cooking preparation.
So, armed with this newfound knowledge, will I now religiously remove the germ from older garlic cloves? Maybe – if I remember, and if my husband isn’t around to see my sudden conversion. Frankly, it still feels a bit fussy, and I don’t personally mind a bit of extra heat (and then there’s the issue of admitting my husband was right).
It’s important to remember that this test represented the extremes: pristine, just-harvested garlic versus older garlic that had spent considerable time in commercial storage. In reality, there’s a spectrum of garlic freshness throughout the year, and the importance of removing the germ likely exists on a sliding scale.
However, the biggest takeaway for me is a newfound appreciation for the vibrant, full flavor of recently harvested garlic, especially when compared to older, stored garlic. Young garlic is packed with garlic flavor, but it’s sweeter and less aggressively pungent than I had previously assumed all garlic to be.
From now on, I’ll think of summer not just as the season for berries and peppers, but as the season for glorious, fresh garlic. Let’s all fill our farmers’ market bags with heads of this amazing allium and celebrate the season of garlic!
August 2018
Read More About Garlic
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