Why You Should Soak Garlic Cloves In Water Before Peeling Them

What's not to love about garlic? Setting aside the amazing health benefits and its ability to repeal vampires, it gives many foods a unique flavor. While garlic is an essential cooking ingredient, the actual process of peeling garlic cloves can become tedious. After all, it might take a while before you actually get to the part of the bulb you want. Even then, accidentally ruining the bulb in an effort to get to the cloves can be common.

These issues are probably why you are reading this article. There are tons of ways to make peeling garlic cloves easy and quick. But have you ever tried soaking garlic cloves in warm water for 15 to 20 minutes before peeling them? Yep, it makes peeling so easy that you can literally do it with your fingers.

Once soaked in water for some time, take the garlic cloves between your palms and roughly rub them to remove soft skin. This technique, according to The Organic Kitchen, results in the clove peels swelling just right. The simple hack of soaking garlic cloves in warm water gets rid of all the annoying elements to reveal shiny naked pieces. It does work miraculously, but keep in mind that it takes time. We'd say that this hack is ideal for any recipe that requires a lot of garlic (think garlic mashed potatoes or creamy whole roasted garlic).    

Of course, this technique is not a new one. Although an exact origin cannot be traced, it has often been cited on message boards. However, it was brought to a larger audience thanks to a Netflix cooking show.

The talented "Great British Bake-Off" winner Nadiya Hussain highlighted the trick in her Netflix show "Nadiya's Time To Eat." She was making instant noodles and needed a paste as a base, so she waited around ten minutes for a pot of water to boil and then put two whole bulbs of garlic in it. After about a minute, she then took them out. 

"Rather than spending loads of time peeling them individually, let's stick some boiling water in there. One minute, they should peel very easily," she said in the "First Episode" of her Netflix show. 

Waiting around ten minutes for the water to boil (via Pure Wow) might seem time-consuming, However, this timesaving hack works best if you have a lot of garlic cloves to peel. Wait for a couple of minutes to let the garlic cloves cool slightly, as you don't want burnt fingertips. 

The next time you want to peel garlic cloves, don't feel frustrated by crushing or shaking. Put those little bad boys in warm or boiling water, then peel them with ease.