What is the best way to preserve fresh garlic.?!
Answers: my father recently tried to preserve fresh garlic in vinegar,he rang me and said it had turned bright blue.first question is it still edible,second is what is the best way to preserve garlic.
It is safe to eat! Here is an article about it:
"According to the Food Network at www.foodtv.com (published in the Rocky Mountain news 2/20/2002), they looked into the reason pickled garlic sometimes turns blue or green. Garlic contains anthocyanins, water-soluble pigments that turn blue, green or purple in an acid solution. While this color transformation tends to occur more often with immature garlic, it can differ among cloves within the same head of garlic. The garlic flavor remains unchanged, and it totally edible without bodily harm.
On the same subject, our friend, Bob Anderson, explains that garlic contains sulfur compounds which can react with copper to form copper sulfate, a blue or blue-green compound. The amount of copper needed for this reaction is very small and is frequently found in normal water supplies. Raw garlic contains an enzyme that if not inactivated by heating reacts with sulfur (in the garlic) and copper (from water or utensils) to form blue copper sulfate.
The garlic is still perfectly safe to eat.
Garlic exposed to excessive direct sunlight can also turn green and acquire a bitter taste." http://www.thegarlicstore.com/index.cgi/...
The best way to preserve garlic is just to keep it dry and in clove form, you can place it in net bags or braid the cloves with the "stems" still attached. http://en.allexperts.com/q/Food-Safety-I...
Good luck!
Garlic keep well with no help - just store it in a cool, dry place.
Other ways to USE garlic - add it to olive oil to make a really powerful oil for dressings etc., steam it slightly & then freeze it (once it is cooked in any way the cell wall are broken and it can be freezed without damaging it).
I just use a garlic keeper in the fridge - a box with a dessicant pillow in it to keep any excess damp away.
I peel and chopped them in a food processor. I put it in a jar/bottle and add a few teaspoon of oil. It keeps for a long time. I kept mine for about 1year it still worked fine..
I used to put it in the fridge and it kept sprouting so I asked around. the best thing to do is put it in a cupboard at room temp and leave it and it will keep for ages. If you put it in the fridge then it thinks it is winter and starts sprouting and goes off quicker. hope this helps.
if you buy them on a string and hang them in your kitchen
i would be suspicious of any food item that had turned blue without it being a berry, as it's not a natural food stain. So i would not use the vinegar garlic that's blue, as this probably means it's contaminated. As to preserving, the storing in oil will work wether chopped or just peeled and will give you a nice garlic oil for after. You can also freeze without blanching but chopped so that you can use staright from frozen. or you might just want to buy the amount you will use in a month at a time and just leave in a drawer as they start to shrivel after that.
if you want to pickle garlic put peeled whole garlic cloves into a sterilised jar, heat wine or cider vinegar to just below boling point , pour over garlic and cap tightly for 3 weeks, the garlic should be pickled and the vinegar is great in dressings.