Peel a Head of Garlic Quickly With a Chopping Board
There are many clever ways to peel garlic, but I’ve always liked to crush a clove with the flat side of a knife rather than trying to hold two bowls together while moving , even if I have a whole head to peel. I wasn’t particularly keen on improving this method until I saw the spatula while making the red sauce .
I only had five cloves of garlic left to peel, but given the large surface area, I figured I could do it a little faster with a spatula. I was right. Instead of pressing the blade five times, I just had to press once to free all five teeth from their sticky skin.
But why stop there? Why not increase the size of the object to be smashed again and clear all heads? I grabbed another head of garlic and another chopping board – you need the garlic to sit on one and smash the other – and knock the board down onto the onion with decent force. This loosened up the outer paper that I removed.
Then I smashed the board a second time, loosening the peel around each clove.
Only a couple of peels did not go right away, and it was easy to fix with my trusty knife. All in all, using a larger, heavier item did make peeling a lot faster, without the need for two bowls or a cocktail shaker. (What did I do with all these peels? I dropped them in my foldable bag , yeah.)