While I was working my way through college at a vegetarian restaurant, one of our daily tasks was peeling two large jars’s worth, about a quart/liter each, of garlic cloves. That was what we went through in one day, smashing the cloves with the sides of our cleavers before adding them to soups, stews, and a salad dressing called Rugged Garlic Dressing, which people would order with a chuckle. But each ladleful contained a room-clearing amount of garlic. It was not for the meek. Americans love garlic, and we like to use a lot of it. (And for some reason, we like to brag about it.) We use so much of it that Marcella Hazan accused us of ruining Italian food by adding too much garlic to it. No one boasts about how much garlic they use in Paris. And while the French do use garlic, unless it’s aïoli, it’s never a dominant…or even discernible, flavor. If you use too much of it in Paris, people have a hard time with it. Lulu Peyraud, the late, great Provençal cook, said in her book that she toned down anything made with garlic for les Parisiens. She also said she did that for Americans as well, which I’m not boasting about, but find hard to believe. When I worked at Chez Panisse, we weren’t supposed/allowed to smash garlic, as I had learned to do when working in the vegetarian restaurant. We were to chop it by hand, although for aïoli, a mortar and pestle was called into play. Later in life, on a visit to Tuscany, my friend judy witts francini taught me to slice garlic, rather than mince it, since minced garlic burns easily. Paulie in Goodfellas took that to the extreme, using a razor blade:  And Chris Kimball did a video about cooking whole crushed cloves of garlic in oil, then removing the garlic before continuing the recipe, which he says is why Italians don’t have garlic breath. Like everything these days, preparing garlic is complicated…and controversial. So I bought a garlic press. I don’t remember the exact year, but everyone seemed to have fallen in love with the garlic press when it came out. Garlic could be used with reckless abandon since you were no longer burdened by the task of chopping, mincing, or slicing garlic. You just put the clove in and press, and BAM!, as Emeril used to say, you had fresh garlic ready to go. Then, the mood soured on the garlic press. An online search a few days ago reveals that they’re still divisive devices:
So why did I, in spite of the wrath it’s incurred over the years, get one? Well,Ruth Reichl recently wrote in a newsletter post, why she still uses cups and tablespoons over weights: Bakers are precise people who believe in perfection. They are deeply invested in results. Cooks, on the other hand, prefer the journey to the destination and don’t fret over the occasional mistake. Cooks prefer recipes that leave room for your imagination, allowing you to improvise at will. - Ruth Reichl I was a professional baker for many years who turned his nose up at time-saving devices. I never bought a bread machine or an Instant pot, and while I sometimes dream about owning a tahdig rice maker, I reached one of my life’s goals by figuring out how to make tahdig on the stovetop, in a skillet, without one. ... Continue reading this post for free in the Substack app
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Tuesday, January 14, 2025
I bought a garlic press, and I'm not apologizing. Yet.
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