About garlic can be said the same way as about onions - it is “from seven diseases”. But garlic not only helps to avoid many diseases and cure those that have already appeared, but it is also a vegetable that improves the taste of the dish and increases appetite.
Garlic is well kept at home. But if there is a lot of it, for example, there is a vegetable garden with a garlic bed, and there is no place to store (although there may be other reasons), then garlic can be dried. After all, this is not such a time consuming process, as it seems at first glance. As well as dry garlic takes up little space and is very convenient to use.
How to prepare garlic for drying
Garlic is suitable for drying of such varieties as: Kirovograd, Starobelsky white, Southern purple, Bronitsky, Ukrainian white, Kalininsky, Rostovsky, Creole and others.
If your garlic is harvested, it should not be watered for several days before digging, as the ground must be completely dry. For the same reason, do not make a digging immediately after the rain.
Garlic must be ripe. This is indicated by the leaves themselves, which turn yellow and fall on the ground.
If you dig up the not quite ripe garlic, then its bulbs will be loose and loose. They will be bad and stored and dry.
But over-ripe garlic is also not very good, since when it is being dug up, the scales are easily separated from the heads, just like the cloves themselves. This makes further processing difficult. After all, cloves can be stained with earth, and washing garlic, which is going to be dried, is not recommended. Such garlic will dry for a very long time and can simply become moldy and deteriorate. For drying, only healthy, clean, and no fully formed garlic are suitable for drying.
Garlic is dried, disassembled into slices, cut into slices or make powder from it.
How to dry garlic in a bundle
Immediately after digging, dry the garlic. Primary drying is carried out directly in the field. For this, he is pulled out of the ground and left to lie there for several days. During this time, the tops and roots dry, garlic ripen. Scales also dry up, while tightly pressed to the bulb. In rainy or cold weather, drying is carried out in a warm room at a temperature of about 30 ° C for six to eight days.
When the tops are dry, they are pruned, leaving a small stump. But most often, garlic and tops are braided in braids and suspended for them in a dry, cool room.
How to dry garlic without destroying the bulbs
Garlic is cleaned from the upper hard scales, while not destroying the bulb.
Then the garlic is cut into 5 mm thick pieces.
Spread on sieves or trays, covered with parchment, and dried in an oven or oven at a temperature of about 50 ° C. To avoid steaming or uneven drying, garlic should be stirred periodically.
Garlic can be dried in the sun, spread out in a thin layer. But this method is inconvenient in that it is necessary to ensure that moisture from rain or dew does not fall on the garlic.
Garlic is considered dried when the slices stop bending and break easily. Chopped garlic is well cooled, putting it on the cloth, or on the same sieve.
The garlic is then hand-rolled to separate the slices from the scales.
Ready garlic is packed in boxes, paper bags, hermetically sealed glass jars and stored in a dry, dark, cool room for about a year.
How to dry already peeled garlic
Heads of garlic are taken apart and fully peeled. The cloves are cut off the root neck. Check that the cloves are undamaged and have brown spots.
Some people advise you to rub garlic on a grater, but this method produces a lot of juice, which makes drying garlic almost impossible. You can chop the garlic with a combine, but the slices should not be very wet. Therefore, the best way to cut still remains manual. That is, armed with a sharp knife, the teeth are cut into thin slices and immediately laid out on a baking sheet, covered with parchment.
Such garlic is dried in an oven or electric dryer at a temperature of 50--60 ° C.
The crushed garlic is periodically stirred with a spatula and aired, sometimes opening the door. This should be done so that the raw materials are not worn out and evenly dried. Drying continues for several hours.
Method 2. Garlic is disassembled into cloves, peeled, and cut off the root neck. Dental cut in half. They are laid out in a single layer on a baking sheet, covered with parchment, cut up. Dried in the oven or oven as in the previous case. Drying time depends on the quality of garlic, the degree of grinding, the drying temperature and the choice of the drying unit.
Ready dried garlic breaks easily.
It is cooled in air and packaged in paper bags or hermetically sealed glass jars.
How to make garlic powder from dried garlic
Well dried and cooled slices of garlic are ground in a coffee grinder or in a blender to a powder. Then sift through a sieve to the resulting powder was homogeneous. You can chop the garlic to a large crumb, then cooked topping in the dish will feel good.
If garlic cloves are poorly crushed, it means that they are not sufficiently dried. It is necessary to further dry them in the oven, cool again and grind.
Store garlic powder in glass, well-closing jars. Shelf life - about a year.
