Freezing Chinese Garlic

alittlebitofmagic

I can not seem to find an anwer through searching, so maybe someone knows about garlic freezing?

My friend was going on holiday today, so yesterday came around with some food she had not used up. This was frankly hilarious as there was an immense amount of food!

The strange one is a sack of garlic(she is not british and buys in bulk). These are not normal, with cloves, they are chinese garlic, kind of one big bulb like an onion. 107 in total.

I use garlic, but not in this amount and I am off too soon, so decided to chop it, bar 7, to freeze. My garlic press snapped last week and I decided not to replace it, this was a bad mistake, I have never spent such a dull few hours in my life.My skin has gone rather odd too, like when you deal with too much mango or smoked salmon!

Now I have no idea whether to freeze in oil, water, white vinegar. In ice cubes to pop out into a bag or one tub. Nor how long it will keep for. Although in all honesty the smell and memory of how sore my fingers are will probably put me off for life. Any ideas folks?

She also dropped a massive paper sack of potatoes round, think i'm going to need to do lots of wedges/mash etc to pop in freezer too as we rarely eat potato. Any ideas on how long this will keep too?

I feel glad that I have run our freezer down though, although if I could turn the clock back, I would have thrown the garlic

Nordictat2

Cut the tops off...pour a bit of olive oil down among the bulb and then wrap in wax paper and then store it in a container or ziplock bag.

alittlebitofmagic

Yes but I have diced the majority of them ready to freeze lol due to going away myself

So I am wondering-in ice cubes or one big container, in white vinegar, oil or a bit of water etc

Does oil freeze? Because if not ice cubes would not work, but then again would this mean if I put it in a tub that I could scoop out some with a clean spoon each time?

Mands

alittlebitofmagic wrote: »

Now I have no idea whether to freeze in oil, water, white vinegar. In ice cubes to pop out into a bag or one tub. Nor how long it will keep for. Although in all honesty the smell and memory of how sore my fingers are will probably put me off for life. Any ideas folks?

Put the whole cloves in a tupperware or two, leaving plenty of free space. Put it in the freezer and after a couple of hours remove, shake to separate the cloves then return to the freezer.

When you want to use the garlic take the cloves you need out of the freezer and give them a minute or two to defrost, then use as usual.

I always freeze garlic; for me its worth the 10 mins prep once a month to deal with 2 or 3 heads of garlic in one go rather than a couple of minujtes each time I want one clove.

Mands

alittlebitofmagic

These are Chinese garlic, they are like an onion, they do not have cloves, so you need to chop the whole rather large thing!

I too freeze standard garlic in cloves, but these could never be used in one go as they are huge.

Plus they are already diced and are currently filling an ice cream tub and a bag lol

Mands

alittlebitofmagic wrote: »

Plus they are already diced and are currently filling an ice cream tub and a bag lol

Sorry, lost the plot a little there then ;-)

alittlebitofmagic

Me too. Mands never ever chop tons of garlic, makes you feel sick. Plus the smell from doing it for so long has made me very agitated which I think is coming across in my replies *blushes madly* I want the damn stuff gone lol

alittlebitofmagic

Upon further googling, it seems that diced garlic can be stored in olive oil in a freezer container and when spooned out it, the oil is not crystalized and is kind of 'mushy' so ice cubes would not be best.

Also a few suggestions of open freezing, then bagging up, as per onions etc

greenbee

If you're storing it in oil, do you actually need to freeze it? Could you just put it in glass bottles or jars and store in the cupboard (or use for Christmas hampers...!)

ubamother

I'm sure there is a theoretical risk of botulism or something equally nasty about keeping garlic in olive oil for a long time.

I think I would try roasting them whole then freezing - you'd get a nice soft garlic addition to whatever you added it to.

greenbee

ubamother wrote: »

I'm sure there is a theoretical risk of botulism or something equally nasty about keeping garlic in olive oil for a long time.

I think I would try roasting them whole then freezing - you'd get a nice soft garlic addition to whatever you added it to.

I guess it depends how long you keep it - plenty of places sell it!