Best Way to Peel Large Amounts of Garlic

Question

Hi Milk Street team and community,
We are looking for a good way to peel up to 300 cloves of garlic at a go. Any suggestions on tools? It'd be nice to switch from using peeled conventional and/or frozen  garlic when we need a lot of it for our little cafe bar in Fiskars, Finland, to using organic, and when it's available, local. Plus, our fermenter friend spends HOURS peeling her garlic, and thinking we could share a good small commercial tool.

April Dodd · Accepted Answer

Great question, Elizabeth! Our go-to approach for peeling garlic is to crush cloves under the heel of the hand, or under a knife - a nakiri works particularly well here - then peel away the papery skin. However, for 300+ cloves of garlic at a go, this technique might not be speedy enough. A faster approach that you can try is to use a sharp knife to cut off the very top of entire heads of garlic. Then, break the cloves apart and place them in a large, stainless steel mixing bowl. Cover that bowl with another bowl, hold the edges firmly, and vigorously shake the whole thing for about 20 seconds. You should find that almost all the skins slip off or can very easily be picked off. Give that a try and let us know how it goes!
-The Milk Street Team

Best Way to Peel Large Amounts of Garlic

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