Garlic, known as the "stinking rose," may have a pungent odor but is exceptionally nutritious: it not only contains potassium, iron, selenium, zinc, and folic acid, but also highly medicinal elements like Allicin. Even the odor it releases is beneficial to the human body, consisting of sulfides and medicinal enzymes. How could one miss out on such a healthy and nourishing food? Below, the editor recommends 4 fresh ways to enjoy it for both deliciousness and health benefits.
I. Soy Sauce-Pickled Garlic
Soy sauce-pickled garlic, miso soup-pickled garlic, and vinegar-pickled garlic are all medicinal. However, garlic prepared this way is less of a medicinal herb and more of a delicious appetizer.
While eating pickled garlic and drinking alcohol, your alcohol tolerance will be lower than usual, and you will feel drunk more quickly. This is largely because the acid and other components in garlic stimulate the stomach wall, causing the stomach to rapidly absorb the alcohol, thus leading to intoxication.
The alcohol content of beer, champagne, and iced whiskey is not high, yet people can easily get drunk. The situation of getting drunk easily with garlic is quite similar.
In other words, the carbonation in beer, champagne, and iced whiskey speeds up the stomach's absorption of alcohol, causing people to get drunk quickly. The stimulation that garlic's components give to the human stomach works on the same principle as carbonation.
However, when consuming soy sauce-pickled garlic, it must be noted that although garlic is delicious, it should not be eaten in excess. If you eat too much soy sauce-pickled garlic, it will lead to excessive sodium intake. In soy sauce-pickled garlic, about 10% of its composition is salt. For every 10 grams of soy sauce-pickled garlic consumed, 1 gram of salt is ingested.
Special attention must be paid to those with kidney disease or high blood pressure who have excessive salt intake; they should only eat one clove per day.
Additionally, because the ingredients of miso soup are very similar to soy sauce, the consumption method for miso soup-pickled garlic is exactly the same as for soy sauce-pickled garlic.
Vinegar-pickled garlic is a simple and convenient medicinal preservation method. Like soy sauce-pickled and miso soup-pickled garlic, it involves eating garlic after it has been pickled.
Garlic pickled for over a year will be found to have no characteristic garlic odor when eaten, its color will turn brown, and it will be full of fragrance like a leek, making it very delicious.
II. Laba Garlic
Laba garlic is also a type of pickled garlic, specifically vinegar-pickled garlic. Soaking Laba garlic is a custom in northern China, especially in the North China Plain. As the name implies, it is garlic soaked on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month. The ingredients are vinegar (preferably rice vinegar) and garlic cloves (preferably red-skinned garlic), and the method is very simple: place the peeled garlic cloves in a sealable jar, pour in vinegar, seal it, and store it in a cool place.
Slowly, the garlic soaked in vinegar will turn green, and by New Year's Eve, it will become a vibrant jade green. The taste of Laba garlic is very unique and is an ideal condiment for eating dumplings on New Year's Eve. At the same time, Laba garlic also has therapeutic effects such as preventing colds and lowering blood pressure, but if eaten in excess, it can produce an enzyme that makes people feel mentally fatigued.
III. Garlic Wine
The consumption method of wine-soaked garlic is completely different from soy sauce-pickled, miso soup-pickled, and vinegar-pickled garlic. You don't eat the garlic in the wine, but drink the wine mixed with garlic juice.
When it comes to the most common medicinal method for garlic at home, it would have to be garlic wine. Typically, 1 milliliter of garlic wine contains 8000 micrograms of Allicin. This might be hard to understand. In other words, drinking 100 milliliters of garlic wine has the same effect as eating 5 grams of raw garlic.
Moreover, while the stomach wall absorbs the alcohol, it also absorbs the Allicin, making the effect of drinking garlic wine better than eating raw garlic.
The consumption method of wine-soaked garlic is completely different from soy sauce-pickled, miso soup-pickled, and vinegar-pickled garlic. You don't eat the garlic in the wine, but drink the wine mixed with garlic juice.
When it comes to the most common medicinal method for garlic at home, it would have to be garlic wine. Typically, 1 milliliter of garlic wine contains 8000 micrograms of Allicin. This might be hard to understand. In other words, drinking 100 milliliters of garlic wine has the same effect as eating 5 grams of raw garlic.
Moreover, while the stomach wall absorbs the alcohol, it also absorbs the Allicin, making the effect of drinking garlic wine better than eating raw garlic.
IV. Drying Method
One of the processing methods for garlic is to sun-dry it and then grind it into powder. At this time, garlic powder can retain one-third to one-half of the efficacy of fresh garlic.
When drying garlic, if high temperatures used for drying ordinary vegetables are applied, the components of garlic are easily lost, and its medicinal effect is greatly weakened. It is not difficult to find through experiments that drying garlic by heating it at a temperature above 70 degrees Celsius will cause its components to change, and the effective Allicin content will be significantly reduced.
Therefore, the freeze-drying method, which lowers the temperature, is more suitable for garlic. Freezing garlic at a low temperature of around -20 degrees Celsius can retain 50% of the original Allicin. However, this method is difficult for household use. By sealing the freeze-dried garlic powder, it can be stored for a long time. Experience has shown that after 3 years of sealed storage, the garlic powder still retains its effectiveness.