Dry garlic at home

Do you have plenty of garlic at home and do not know what to do with it? Garlic is a precious thing and you do not want it to go bad, but many gardeners store garlic in conditions that are not really suited for a long-term storage. Probably the best way to store garlic is to dry it. Dried garlic lasts the longest and it is easy to use in the kitchen. In the following lines we shall tell you how to dry garlic at home properly.

Drying in the oven

This is a very quick method and it is not complicated at all. The drying temperature should be around 50 °C and you should maintain it for about 45 minutes. Do not exceed this temperature, because if you do, garlic may lose its typical aroma, strength and taste. You can dry slices or the whole garlic and you do not need to move or shift pieces of garlic around the pan during drying. You may even burn yourself…

Do you have a dryer? Great!

You can use an electric dryer to do the same. Dried in this way will not lose its original whitish colour and keep all the properties we value garlic for. You can also do slices or the whole garlic, but we recommend to cut each clove in half. You will be drying for about 6 hours at a low temperature, which should not exceed 50 °C.

Photo: Pixabay

Room temperature drying

If you do it the regular way, you will have to wait for the result a bit longer.Air drying takes 7 days. You should also have a sufficient amount of space because when you lay out all the trays or baking paper around, it could take a quite a bit of space, depending how many cloves you have. You will save money on energy too, but there is a slight chance that garlic could catch a mould, or that some pests may take interest in your harvest.

Photo: Pixabay

The importance of proper storage

And what should properly dried garlic look like? It must be crispy and taste excellent. Again, you can store slices or whole garlic. A great idea is to grind garlic and then store it in a dry and dark place. The biggest culprit is an excessive moisture as garlic absorbs moisture quickly and dried powder could become a lumpy and you don’t want that.

Preview photo: Pixabay