What is a clove of garlic

DirtPoorGuy

Sorry for sounding thick, but when you break open a bulb of garlic and it splits in to four segments are each of those a clove or is it the smaller segments that the four segments are made up of that are a clove?

Sally_A

A whole garlic is called a head. Each little segment (approx 6 - 8 per head) is a clove.

Sambucus_Nigra

DirtPoorGuy wrote: »

Sorry for sounding thick, but when you break open a bulb of garlic and it splits in to four segments are each of those a clove or is it the smaller segments that the four segments are made up of that are a clove?

In my garlic, I just have a head which is the spherical garlic with the paper-like covering; and then I break it up into cloves which have a single paper-like covering. There is nothing inside the clove that splits.

DirtPoorGuy

Now I am truly confused, maybe it is just the garlic I buy from Asda, but when I peel it I get 4 segments, which in turn is made up of 6 segments, when I have been cooking dishes it just seems like it is too garlicky, I thought I was maybe putting too much in.

taxsaver

Yes, the clove is the smallest segment that you get, not the 'quarter' one that you refer to.

Sally_A

Aaah DPG, think I know what your mean now, sometimes, despite splitting up a head (ie the complete round thing), some cloves are lumped together and covered by another layer of papery coating.

A clove is the smallest segment you'll get, normally the height of the garlic, and approx 5 - 10mm wide.

valk_scot

DirtPoorGuy wrote: »

Now I am truly confused, maybe it is just the garlic I buy from Asda, but when I peel it I get 4 segments, which in turn is made up of 6 segments, when I have been cooking dishes it just seems like it is too garlicky, I thought I was maybe putting too much in.

How big are the heads of garlic you buy? Most are around the size of a golf ball but if your garlic is the size of a tennis ball then it's elephant garlic and these do have groups of cloves inside them sometime.

Anyway, even in standard garlic you can get big cloves and little cloves. You sort of adjust it to suit your tastes. If you think you're putting too much garlic in, use less!

DirtPoorGuy

Golf ball size.

merlot123

http://www.google.co.uk/url?source=imglanding&ct=img&q=http://sdsuperfood.248.cx-dns.com/upload/photo/t20110816095040662.jpg&sa=X&ei=Qgh5Ttr5IuOQ0AXfo-2WDQ&ved=0CAcQ8wc4Jw&usg=AFQjCNEbOzYazO6JpTE7brQWUbBgStw8Kg

Garlic clove. hth.

merlot123

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRBiOF7kqiullfWDxiDGBNLx_wpC7hWSmn-caRf92Q4QGaYTaB3hg

Garlic bulb showing the segments (cloves) splitting open.

euronorris

DirtPoorGuy wrote: »

Now I am truly confused, maybe it is just the garlic I buy from Asda, but when I peel it I get 4 segments, which in turn is made up of 6 segments, when I have been cooking dishes it just seems like it is too garlicky, I thought I was maybe putting too much in.

Whatever is the smallest size it splits into, is a clove of garlic. So, in your case, it would be just one of the 6 'segments' you refer to.

Sometimes it happens like you describe, that the garlic simply grows that way. And sometimes all of the cloves (segments) grow quite separately from each other.

However, even when they are separate, some cloves can still be huge, and you just don't need that much garlic in a dish (unless you want it). So, I would aim for using a clove about 5mm wide, 10mm tall and about 5mm deep. Or cutting a larger clove to size, if required.