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From: wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin )
Newsgroups: net.cooks
Subject: Re:  Garlic Presses (& More on garlic)
Message-ID: <9215@brl-tgr.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 14-Mar-85 10:53:28 EST
Article-I.D.: brl-tgr.9215
Posted: Thu Mar 14 10:53:28 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 16-Mar-85 04:22:05 EST
References: <955@dual.UUCP> <2188@drutx.UUCP>
Organization: USAMC ALMSA
Lines: 38

> I have seen in several kitchen specialty shops a cast aluminum press that
> is easy to clean!  I looks like a normal press, but it has little prongs on
> the back so that when you reverse it, it pokes the stuff stuck in the holes
> back through.  These presses aren't cheap, but they're worth it.  They also
> stand up to tougher stuff such a pressing fresh ginger.
> 
I have one of these presses; I hope they are made by different manufacturers
out of differing materials, because the one I have cracked the first time I used
it -- it was made out of some form of pot metal and the thinner part at the
joint, where the most strain is felt when crushing a clove, snapped. It still
works, but not very well.

What I have done recently is to buy a batch of garlic bulbs, peel all the
cloves, throw them into a bottle-type mincer/chopper (one of those jars with
a lid which has a spring-loaded set of chopping blades built in) and chop them
all up at once. I then store the finely-chopped garlic in a container in the 
freezer. When I want some, it is but an instant to gouge out a knife-tip-full
which is the equivalent of a clove.

I have been doing the same with fresh ginger root, which I peel first (I find
that ginger-root-peel burns too easily when stir-frying). Saves several 
minutes on each dish, since I like to put garlic and ginger in EVERYTHING
(my wife cooks the desserts).

Now, a query -- just recently, on my first trip to a recently-discovered
oriental market, I ran across bottled chopped garlic. The label claims
"No Preservatives" -- it isn't refrigerated, just on the shelf. I believe
it was a pound for $3.75 (label said "equivalent of 300 cloves", I think).
This seems to be a good deal, if it tastes just like fresh. Anybody ever used 
this stuff? Can you recommend it or is it not good? (If I never hear
anything about this, I'll try it sometime, and report to the net, but I'd
like to avoid wasting $4 if somebody already has tried it and it's bad.)

Funny food forever!

Will

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