Forum: lifehacks.stackexchange.com
Tags: <kitchen><food>
Title: Any hacks for peeling garlic?
Question: I have tried smashing the garlic with a knife and even bought a fancy garlic peeler once. Smashing with a knife has the downside of deforming the garlic which is not always desirable. The garlic peeler was still slower then smashing with the knife and had the down side of shooting the garlic across the table if one was not careful. Is there anything else I can do?

Answers:
sents: text: Take two large bowls.
text: Put the garlic cloves into one of the bowls.
text: Place the second bowl upside down on top of the bowl with the cloves.
text: Shake the hell out of it.
text: In about 10 seconds, all cloves are peeled and you can fish them out of the bowls.
text: For a more visual explanation; Youtube - How To Peel a Head of Garlic in Less Than 10 Seconds
text: Instead of using the two bowls, @KellyThomas suggests using a plastic container like a lunchbox (or the 1L plastic container used by @KellyThomas).
answer_details: author: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/128/RichardBernards
score: 12
sents: text: Placing the whole clove of garlic in the microwave for ten to fifteen seconds will make the skin almost fall off a garlic clove.
text: Very easy to peel without the use of a knife to smash it or any other peeling tool.
text: The only downside is that it does cook the garlic slightly.
answer_details: author: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/117/Jon
score: 7
sents: text: Smash the garlic with a bowl Put it into a container, close the lid and shake them well.
text: Take out the garlic skins from the garlic easily.
text: source
answer_details: author: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/115/Joachin Joseph
score: 5
sents: text: Here is a popular method that is also explained on WikiHow: Soak the garlic cloves in a bowl of water for 5 minutes before peeling, the WikiHow article says that it is advisable to have the whole garlic clove underwater.
text: After soaking for the allotted time remove the garlic, cut both ends off and then peel the Garlic.
text: The Garlic should be easier to peel because the water loosened the seal between the garlic and the peels.
answer_details: author: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/None/
score: 1
sents: text: Use a sharp paring knife and slice down the back side of the clove (the convex part).
text: With the tip of the knife, push it under the skin and that should let you peel it off the rest of the way.
answer_details: author: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/1505/Jason Hutchinson
score: 1
sents: text: Take an empty clean glass jar (I find that a 1 litre empty honey jar works best, but you may prefer smaller jars).
text: Place the garlic
text: clove(s) in the jar, and close the lid tightly.
text: Employing vigorous up/down movements on the jar, let the cloves bounce off its lid/bottom.
text: After a few repetitions of step (3), the clove(s) will be peeled (either completely or to a degree that you can peel them like you'd peel a banana).
text: That's it.
answer_details: author: lifehacks.stackexchange.com/users/2001/boardrider
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
There are a few different ways to easily peel garlic. One method involves enclosing the cloves in a container and shaking them vigorously. Another method involves soaking them in water for 5 minutes or placing them in the microwave for a few seconds before peeling. Finally, if you cut down the convex side of the garlic, this could help to simply slip the skin off.
The options include placing in a bowl putting another bowl on top and shaping for 10 seconds, microwaving for 10 to 15 seconds, smashing with a bowl then placing in a container and shaking, soaking for 5 minutes and slicing first down the convex side.