Garlic is famously frustrating to peel, especially when the cloves are fresh and the skins cling tightly. You end up with garlicky fingers and a sense of dread whenever a recipe calls for more than a few cloves. I know that feeling well, until my mother handed me a small silicone tube and announced, “It’s a garlic peeler!”
I’ll admit I was skeptical. This seemed like just another single-purpose gadget destined to clutter my kitchen drawers. In my mind, it belonged in the same category as herb scissors, avocado slicers, and quesadilla makers, all of which seem unnecessary when you already have kitchen shears, paring knives, and cast iron skillets.
For a long time, I completely forgot about the peeler. Then a recipe for toum caught my eye. It needed eight cloves of garlic. With a sigh, I remembered the little tube and decided to give it a try. I popped in a couple of cloves, rolled it back and forth a few times, and out tumbled perfectly peeled garlic along with the papery skins. Eureka!
If you have one of these tubes sitting in a drawer somewhere, I urge you to take it out and use it in good health. Or do what my mom did, and buy one for the garlic lover in your life. Or for yourself. That way, you can conquer recipes like my coworker Nina Moskowitz’s Giant Garlic Knot, which calls for a whole head of garlic. Served with marinara for dipping, it was a star in the test kitchen.
Of course, there are plenty of other ways to peel garlic. In culinary school, I learned to use a paring knife to trim off the root and then peel the skin with the blade. It’s precise but time consuming. The most common method is smashing the clove with the flat side of a chef’s knife and then peeling it with your fingers. It’s efficient, but sticky, and it compromises the clove. Some people use hot water, shaking cloves in a jar, or microwaving them for 15 seconds. They all work, but they are either messier or take longer than the tube. The tube is also easy to store and dishwasher safe. I’m a convert.
The only caveat is that the tube can really only peel three or so cloves at a time. For something like Chickpeas With 40 Garlic Cloves, I’d probably grab a container of pre peeled garlic instead. But don’t tell my test kitchen colleagues that. Even so, this $6 tool has proven its worth, and I’m happy to have it in my drawer.
