Fermented garlic
Fermentation takes most of the harshness out of garlic: after three weeks the cloves are mild, slightly sour and crunchy, and the smell they leave on your breath is much fainter than with raw garlic. It is one of the simplest ferments there is — salt, water and patience.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Peeling the cloves 20 min
- 3% brine 5 min
- Fermentation 28800 min
Step by step
0 / 5 donePeel the cloves
Break up the heads and peel every clove. Discard any with green shoots or soft patches — the shoot brings bitterness and soft spots rot rather than ferment. Do not cut the cloves.
Ingredients: 300 g garlic
TipPour boiling water over the cloves for 30 seconds and the skins slip off. Cool them straight away in cold water.
Only healthy white cloves — no shoots, no discolouration.Mix a 3% brine
Dissolve 21 g of salt in 700 ml of cooled water. That is exactly 3%, a strength that holds back spoilage bacteria while letting lactic acid bacteria work. Use non-iodised salt without anti-caking agents: the additives in table salt can cloud the brine and spoil the flavour.
Ingredients: 700 ml water · 20 g salt · 1 pcs flowering dill · 1 tsp peppercorns · 2 pcs bay leaves
Three percent salt to the weight of water.Fill the jar
Pack the cloves into a scalded one-litre jar, layering in the dill, peppercorns and bay. Pour over the brine so it covers the garlic by 2 cm; keep any extra in the fridge for topping up. Hold the cloves down with a weight or a small jar.
Ingredients: 700 ml water · 20 g salt · 1 pcs flowering dill · 1 tsp peppercorns · 2 pcs bay leaves
TipAnything sticking out above the brine will mould. A weight is not optional here.
Ferment for three weeks
Screw the lid on loosely and leave at 18–22 °C for 20 days, out of the sun. Bubbles appear in the first days and the brine turns cloudy and smells sour — that is the normal course. Loosen the lid once a day to release gas. Fuzzy mould or a rotten smell means the whole jar must go.
Ingredients: 300 g garlic
Move to the fridge
Once the bubbling stops and the cloves taste mild, refrigerate the jar. Fermentation practically halts and the garlic keeps up to 6 months, always under the brine. A blue-green colour is a reaction of sulphur compounds and is harmless.
Ingredients: 300 g garlic
Before you start
Blue garlic
Turning blue or green is a reaction of sulphur compounds with acid. It looks odd but is perfectly safe.
With honey
You can cover the cloves with honey instead of brine, but keep that jar in the fridge only and use it within a month: garlic is low in acid, and in honey at room temperature, without pH control, there is a risk of botulism. Do not give honey to children under one year old. Good in tea and dressings.
How to use it
In salads, spreads, hummus and sauces. Do not throw away the brine — it is excellent in vinaigrettes and meat marinades.