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How Not To Burn Your Garlic

Garlic cooked well is amazing, mouthwatering stuff, but burnt garlic is a total ruiner. In an instant something intensely fragrant and delicious can turn into crispy little beige pieces of disappointment.

Argh! Not cool. The culprit is oil that is too hot. If you add garlic to very hot oil you are basically fucked, in that if you want an epic tasting meal, you will have to go through the giant drag of starting over again with fresh garlic.

It’s all about that initial temperature of the pan. You get a feel for when the temperature is good for adding the garlic – hold your hand over the pan, you want to feel heat on your hand, but not a whole lot of it. If in doubt, best to add your stuff sooner rather than later.

Here is my simple 3-step trick for keepin’ shit tight garlic-wise:

1. Briefly heat the oil in a pan over medium-low heat and add the garlic once the pan is warm but not hot.

2. Once the is garlic sizzling slightly, remove it from the heat and stir constantly until the sizzle dies down. Return it to the heat until the sizzle picks back up (it’ll happen fast!).

3. Stir for 10 seconds or so away from heat, then return to the heat again and continue with the recipe.

Voila! Garlic victory.

The whole process, oil heating aside, takes maybe 30 seconds. Works every time.