Fermented Garlic

Fermented Garlic

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I have been on a roll with fermenting lately, so I thought I would share this tutorial/recipe with you as well! Tamara gave me the idea to ferment a bunch of cloves of garlic. How nice would that be to have a fermented garlic, in the fridge, ready to put in fresh pico de gallo, guacamole, or whatever?

I thought the idea was brilliant, so one weekend at the farmer's market, I grabbed a few heads of garlic along with other goodies! Fermenting garlic is SO simple. The only drag is that it takes a long time to peel all of those cloves.

I decided that I wanted to fill a pint jar, but had no idea how many heads of garlic I would need. I used one of those rubber tube rollers to peel the garlic because I wanted the cloves to be whole, not crushed or minced. As I peeled them, I threw them into the jar.

Once I had peeled three heads of garlic cloves, I got tired. And bored. All of that peeling took me about 30 minutes. As you can see, I definitely could have fit more garlic into the jar. Almost another head, I bet!!

For this jar, I used the same method as I use for the Dilly Carrots. Except, cut in half. So, after all of the cloves were in the jar, I added half a tablespoon of sea salt and half a tablespoon of whey. Then I topped it off with filtered water and added my lid.

Then, I waited. An entire week. When my garlic was ready, I noticed that some of the cloves had turned this weird blue/green color. Before I tossed the whole jar into the trash, I did a little research. This is what I found: (source)

• Blue or purple pigments are caused by all amino acids (proteins) (except for cysteine, proline and 4-hydroxy-proline) in crushed, sliced, or fermented garlic.
• Some amino acids may react with sulphur, causing blue or green discoloration.
• Under acidic conditions, isoallin, a compound found in garlic, breaks down and reacts with amino acids to produce a blue-green color.

Phew!!! I also noticed that not ALL of my garlic had turned green. Only the garlic that had been somewhat smashed or cracked during the peeling process. So, the garlic is still safe to eat. Unless of course, it otherwise seems spoiled. I have used my fermented garlic in my other ferments that require garlic and it has been great!

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Enjoy!

How will you serve your fermented garlic?

Original article and pictures take ohlardy.com site