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 possibly miss out on such a healthy and nourishing food? Here, the editor recommends 5 fresh ways to enjoy it for both delicious taste and health benefits.
Soy Sauce-Marinated Garlic
Garlic marinated in soy sauce, miso paste, or vinegar can be medicinal. However, such prepared garlic is less of a medicinal herb and more of a delicious appetizer to go with drinks.
When eating marinated garlic while drinking, your alcohol tolerance will be lower than usual, and you will feel tipsy 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 in beer, champagne, and whiskey on the rocks is not high, yet people can get drunk easily. The situation of getting drunk easily with garlic is quite similar to these.
In other words, the carbonation in beer, champagne, and whiskey on the rocks speeds up the stomach's absorption of alcohol, causing people to get drunk quickly. The stimulation that garlic's components give the human stomach works on the same principle as carbonation.
However, when eating soy sauce-marinated garlic, it is important to note that although it is delicious, it should not be eaten in excess. If you eat too much soy sauce-marinated garlic, it will lead to an excessive intake of salt. About 10% of soy sauce-marinated garlic is salt. For every 10 grams of soy sauce-marinated garlic consumed, 1 gram of salt is ingested. Special attention must be paid to patients with kidney disease or high blood pressure who have excessive salt intake; they should only eat one clove a day.
Additionally, since the ingredients of miso paste are very similar to soy sauce, the consumption method for miso-marinated garlic is exactly the same as for soy sauce-marinated garlic.
Vinegar-marinated garlic is a simple and convenient medicinal preservation method, similar to soy sauce and miso-marinated garlic, where garlic is pickled before being eaten.
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 shallot, and very delicious.
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 region. 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 cloves), 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 jade-green all over, like jade. Laba garlic has a very unique taste 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 eating too much Laba garlic can produce an enzyme that makes people feel mentally fatigued.
Garlic Wine
The consumption method of garlic-infused wine is completely different from soy sauce-marinated, miso-marinated, and vinegar-marinated garlic. You don't eat the garlic in the wine; you drink the wine mixed with garlic juice.
When it comes to the most common medicinal use of garlic at home, it must 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 garlic-infused wine is completely different from soy sauce-marinated, miso-marinated, and vinegar-marinated garlic. You don't eat the garlic in the wine; you drink the wine mixed with garlic juice.
When it comes to the most common medicinal use of garlic at home, it must 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.
Drying Method
One way to process garlic is to sun-dry it and then grind it into a 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 if dried with a temperature above 70 degrees, the components of garlic will 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 minus 20 degrees can retain 50% of the original allicin. However, this method is difficult for household use. Sealed freeze-dried garlic powder can be stored for a long time. Experience shows that after 3 years of sealed storage, the garlic powder still retains its effectiveness.