I cook with garlic a lot, to the point I think our hearty consumption of this vegetable, along with ginger, has kept my family from colds and the flu for the past three years. While I cook with fresh garlic the majority of the time, I use powdered garlic in canning recipes, rubs, salts, and dips. Store bought dehydrated garlic has burned, harsh taste to me, so I started making my own. I don’t grow my own garlic yet, so I bought large packs of peeled, fresh garlic for my own powder. Fresh garlic powder is nothing like store bought, much like homegrown dried herbs are very different than commercial.
I got this three pound bag at Costco for $8.99.
The process is simple, you just dump peeled garlic in a food processor and mince.
Then, spread on dehydrator trays lined with fruit roll up sheets and dehydrate at 125, until totally dry. I put my dehydrator on my covered front porch to keep the house from smelling like garlic.
Take dehydrated garlic and pulverize in a coffee or spice grinder into a powder as needed.
Before and after powdering
I actually bought two of these bags and used part to make fresh minced garlic in olive oil, which I store in the refrigerator. While garlic can be purchased already minced in oil, store bought just tastes bitter to me, so I prefer to make my own. Also, it’s much less inexpensive to make minced garlic in olive oil at home, and any oil left over can be used in cooking. Just take a teaspoon out for every clove of garlic called for in your recipe.
Give your dishes a fresh zip with home dehydrated garlic, and a boost to your health.
I grow all kinds. All varieties. Softneck and hardneck. They are all very flavorful and delicious. And when you grow hard neck you get the added bonus of scapes! Very good in spring greens and broccoli. If you put your scapes in the fridge, they will keep maturing into the little bulbils. Tiny little tasty garlic. There are a ton of organic sources for seed garlic. I like allicins ranch. You can also get some garlic from your local farmers market and plant that. Once you harvest your garlic, set aside the largest bulbs to plant again in the fall. If you plant some garlic you certainly won’t be disappointed. I don’t think I will mind the smell in my kitchen, I just won’t want garlic flavored fruit! Glad to hear it won’t taint my dehydrater. Thank you!
Sara, when I go to plant garlic I might revisit this post and ask you some questions, if you don’t mind! I can’t wait to garden next year. We live in a totally shaded lot and can’t garden unless we paid tens of thousands to have it cleared. Thanks!
That’s terrible. If you have a partially sunny spot it should be okay. I have a small city yard, but it is mostly garden. I also rent 2 large beds at a community garden nearby. My friend lives in a condo and she rents beds as well as has pots on her balcony. Maybe instead of clearing one huge plot, you can just drop the tree limbs. I have a tree and I have cut all the limbs on my garden side with a pole saw and ladder. It’s not pretty but the tree doesn’t mind and my garden gets alot more sun.
So growing garlic is super easy. You plant in fall and harvest late spring early summer. I seen where they have Chinese prisons peeling garlic. Their finger nails come off so they use their teeth. So gross, just saying. Anyhow, I just would like to know does it ruin your dehydrater? I have wanted to do this for a while but I dehydrate alot of fruit and don’t want it to taste like garlic. I have the larger Excalibur. I was thinking I may get a cheap dehydrater for garlic. Garlic will be coming out soon, and I have 3 beds full! For real grow your own you won’t go back to store bought!
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I agree about some unappetizing reports of how garlic is grown in China, and all the garlic I had been buying from the grocery stores was from there! Yuck! Most of the US garlic is produced in China, and I have no idea why! This is another reason I sought out bulk garlic is so I could get some grown in healthy conditions. Yes, I am so excited to grow my own garlic! What variety do you grow? I have a dream of my home grown garlic, braided, and hanging on my walls. Regarding your question about the dehydrator, I also have the large Excalibur and I just wash the trays in the dish washer and lightly wipe out the box and it’s fine. I do onions as well and no residual smell. I would just put the dehydrator outside while running.