There are people in this world who are positively feral for garlic. “Needs more garlic,” they say as they read a thoroughly garlicky recipe. “More! More!” they exclaim, in the midst of cooking their 20-clove pasta. Whether you’re a garlic fiend or a more casual garlic appreciator, you still need to know how to store garlic properly. Today, we’ll learn just that.
First, a little garlic 101: Garlic is an allium in the same family as onions, leeks, and chives. It’s planted in the fall, survives the winter underground, and gets harvested in the summer. “There are two subtypes of garlic, softneck and hardneck,” as Carol Sherman and Jacques Rolland’s The Food Encyclopedia explains. “Softneck is the most common type found in stores in North America.” Hardneck has larger cloves. Softneck has more papery peel, which helps retain moisture, so it typically stays good longer.
Like all bulbs, garlic is meant to sprout in order to grow into a full plant. In certain conditions (say, on a sunny countertop), the bulb’s sprouting response can be triggered even if it isn’t planted. In this case, a small green shoot will begin to emerge from the head of garlic. If the garlic’s sprouting response isn’t triggered, the bulb will slowly shrivel and dry out over several weeks. You’ll want to use up your garlic before that happens, of course.
Now that you’ve got your garlic—with Double Garlic Roast Chicken on the meal plan for later this week—where do you put it?
How to store whole heads of garlic
Garlic is pretty hardy. A whole head can stay fresh for up to six months. But where you store it is a personal decision. Perhaps you store garlic on a cool, dry countertop, and that works great. Great! Storing garlic in a sunny area can lead it to sprout, which makes the garlic clove taste sharper and less sweet.
Our test kitchen is, if we do say so ourselves, extremely sunny, so our food editors store garlic in the walk-in refrigerator, which is reliably dark and chilly. While garlic can wilt faster in the fridge, we not-surprisingly go through garlic at lightning speed, so it’s always fresh.
Let your own kitchen lead the way. Avoiding a bright, warm environment is the best way to prolong a whole head of garlic’s precious life, prevent sprouting, and discourage mold growth.
How to store unpeeled garlic
After breaking apart a head, you can store leftover garlic cloves that are still in their peel the same way you’d store a whole head—that is, in a cool, dry, dark place. But be aware that, away from the rest of the head, single cloves will dry out much more quickly, so keep an eye out for shrivelling or bruising.
How to store peeled cloves of garlic
Peeled garlic is a different story. Its shelf life is even shorter because the papery peel isn’t there to protect the clove from drying out. Your best bet will be storing peeled garlic cloves in the refrigerator in an airtight container. The container will ensure each clove retains as much moisture as possible, and the cool environment discourages mold.
Garlic cloves are good for only a couple days once they’re peeled, so use them as soon as possible. Try Garlic Nori Fries, Squishy Garlic Dill Rolls, or a good old Garlic Confit. Once you see any mushy or moldy spots, into the trash it goes.
How to store pre-minced garlic
A lot of people use store-bought, pre-minced garlic because the work is already done, and its shelf life can be a respectable three months. But jarred garlic isn’t our first choice in the test kitchen because it lacks the complex, uniquely garlicky flavor we love. This is because jarred garlic is often pasteurized (heated to kill unwanted microorganisms) and it’s typically made with additives like citric acid and phosphoric acid.
That said, we get: Sometimes shortcuts are what makes life worth living. That’s why we love pre-prepped garlic cubes that live in your freezer. They’re made with just garlic, salt, and oil, which means they hang on to all that lovely garlic flavor, they’re perfectly portioned, and they keep for months. Win win.
Can you freeze garlic?
Some overachieving Bon Appétit staffers freeze garlic after puréeing it—mixed with a little oil and salt, much like those pre-prepped garlic cubes—so that it’s easy to add to recipes later. Freezing garlic that’s been peeled or chopped, which goes bad within a matter of days, can extend its life for several months. The trade off is that the garlic may lose a lot of its bright, kicky flavor.
Can you cook with old garlic?
A sprouted head of garlic isn’t dangerous to eat, but there is a caveat: It won’t taste as good as fresh, un-sprouted garlic. Once it begins to grow, a garlic clove will taste more bitter, and have less of the pleasant zingy and peppery notes we know and love it.
While sprouted garlic isn’t dangerous, moldy garlic most definitely is. Don’t eat garlic with fuzzy gray, black, or blue spots on the clove. Accept defeat and throw it out.
A light brown spot, on the other hand, is salvageable. “If you've just labored to remove the skin, and it's an otherwise plump clove,” food director Chris Morocco says, “I would not hesitate to just remove the brown spot.”
Do garlic keepers actually work?
Garlic keepers, sometimes called garlic cellars, are ceramic containers, punched with holes, that claim to keep your garlic fresher longer. They’re a relatively low-tech “gadget,” keeping your garlic heads in a dark, cool, ventilated space—the ideal place for garlic longevity. They won’t make your garlic last longer than any other cool, dry, dark, breezy space, but if your house is, I don’t know, completely flooded with sunlight at all hours of the day, then go ahead and treat yourself.
