garlic press - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2025, 11:24:48 pm
content: Is it me or is it a useless kitchen gadget? I found mine at the back of a storage box. I used it again. Half the clove squeezes up around the piston and pops out unminced.Are they just wasteful? I think I know why I put that one in storage. I think it's going to recycling next.

author: kite31
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2025, 11:40:09 pm
content: Ours does not let too much up the side. You can always push that down to squeeze again, or cut the clove a little smaller. It seems to produce a flavourful mash, and is a bit of a pain to clean.I never use it. I wield a cook's knife to flatten and dice. My wife prefers the press, but then she prefers a smaller (less suitable) knife as well.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2025, 11:48:08 pm
content: The really old ones from the 80's/90's are fine and don't do that squish out the sides thing, my parents still have one.It's all the cheap ones you get now that have this issue and it annoys me too.Sadly no brand has any motivation to make a proper one again with tight tolerances because consumers don't care enough to pay more for it.It's a similar thing with can openers. They used to last 10 or 20 years and now last 1-3 before the bearings are loose.I would love a brand to come along and sell quality kitchen tools again.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 28, 2025, 11:51:13 pm
content: I once saw a cooking video where a chef slammed his clever knife sideways over a few cloves of garlic, what remained underneath was perfectly minced garlic paste. It took less than a second, 0 loss of garlic, 100% conversion.Found the video:https://www.youtube.com/shorts/c6im4X8LX7I

author: kite31
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 29, 2025, 12:03:35 am
content: That is in the knife again. The deep blade of the cleaver allows the squash-and-sideways motion he demonstrates. A classical western cook's knife is not that deep, so the western method he demonstrates is appropriate. A small knife is pretty useless except for slicing. Japanese knives, it depends which one you are using.

author: Alex Eisenhut
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2025, 01:32:25 am
content: Hre's the thing, the usual borderline-stale dried-out sprouted and undersized cloves you get in the supermarket are, well, dry.Try the cleaver trick with in-season cloves the size of big grapes, there's garlic juice everywhere... That's why I dug out that press.I also use jarlic but I find it lacks flavor. It's handy though. I think the stuff in tubes is a lot better but haven't seen it in a while.

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2025, 03:14:51 am
content: Quote from: Alex Eisenhut on August 30, 2025, 01:32:25 amYup, I have my occasional 'lazy' month as well, then go back to the real fresh stuff and think, what was I thinking?

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: August 30, 2025, 04:17:52 am
content: I use mine all the time. It gives you a different texture of garlic compared to knife cut. Mine's an OXO branded one and it works well. Little to no "side leakage".

author: BrianHG
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2025, 05:23:14 am
content: Quote from: Halcyon on August 30, 2025, 04:17:52 amYup, the more you crush garlic to a pulp, the stronger it gets.Either that, or my vegan-friend who grows his own garlic, his stuff is so potent, it could easily kill you.

author: the Chris
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2025, 05:26:52 am
content: We are using this one for five years now, still looks like new, works like new as well, but doesn't seem to be available anymore:https://www.amazon.de/gp/aw/d/B0817PR1R1There is hardly any loss and as already said, you can push through the residue again as well.And believe me, it gets usedveryregularly.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2025, 10:15:26 am
content: Quote from: Alex Eisenhut on August 28, 2025, 11:24:48 pmLike with so many tools, people buy cheap ones and then from that incorrectly extrapolate that all designs of that tool must be bad. Bad toolsareuseless. Good ones are not.You have a bad garlic press. A good one won’t have those problems.With that said, it’s not a tool I bother with. I use a microplane grater (a regular grater is NOT the same thing) if I want it fine, or a mortar and pestle if I want it coarser, or a knife and cutting board if I want it minced, or a small mandoline slicer if I want thin slices.

author: Cyclotron
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 11, 2025, 07:12:02 pm
content: Quote from: the Chris on August 30, 2025, 05:26:52 amI have one like this and it works a treat. All of them will have some fibers left but presses like this one flip open for each clean up and since the stuff remains attached you aren't hunting for parts in the drawer.I admit that I have been a bad cook of late. I bought a big bottle of minced garlic from Costco and for my typical run of the mill recipes I use it. Where it matters to me, I still press fresh.

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 11, 2025, 07:56:23 pm
content: I was about to complain about my Ikea VÄRDEFULL garlic press.The piston wall gap is too big and sloppy- a lot of the mash just oozes around it.Then the holes clog with garlic film. It's pure comedy every time I use it because it's clogged by every clove, even well peeled."Due to a production error, identified after an internal investigation, indicatinga risk of small metal pieces detaching during use and subsequently being ingested with food, IKEA is recalling the IKEA 365+ VÄRDEFULL Garlic press, black, from date stamp 2411 (YYWW) until 2522 (YYWW). Affected products can be identified by a marking of the IKEA logo on the upper handle of the product...""... affected product has been sold in Canada under the article number 305.781.89 and under article numbers 201.521.58 & 601.636.02 in other countries."I have no date code marking on mine. It's made in china must include zinc casting shavings or something, maybe cadmium and some chromium as wellI'd never buy a flat press (piston squish through holes) design again (clogs) but this is the vast majority of designs out there.I see a new design, the piston has pegs that presumably clear the holes. Like the Swiss Zyliss Susi.Probably will try one like that next. But these presses are expensive if you don't want plastic.

author: Cyclotron
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: September 11, 2025, 08:13:40 pm
content: Quote from: floobydust on September 11, 2025, 07:56:23 pmOh, I think I have one of those presses from IKEA. I'll have to go rummage through the drawer.

author: tooki
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 12, 2025, 10:40:50 am
content: Quote from: floobydust on September 11, 2025, 07:56:23 pmThough I don’t own it, I think I’ve used the Zyliss one before and it’s good, since it’s robustly made. (If it wasn’t the Zyliss, then it was one very, very similar to it.)

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2025, 04:14:17 am
content: I got one of these things and found it faster/better than trying to use a knife, mezzaluna or garlic press.You have to press reasonably hard if doing 3+ cloves at once. I don't find that an issue, but some might.If you have good water pressure is easy to clean by just blasting it with water to clean out all the holes.The holes are larger than the small holes in a garlic press that always get clogged.The main issue with a two-part press style tool is the 'squeeze out the side' issue and the 'clean up' issue.This doesnt have the first issue and the 2nd is easer.Speed is also pretty good, you can scrape the inside with a knife to collect the garlic and then pull back against the side to dump the garlic off the knife to the chopping board. You can also slam it down at the end to dump out some of the garlic trapped in they holes.

author: floobydust
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 20, 2025, 06:59:30 pm
content: Have not tried - but that just looks like an inverted pressThe mesh is moving/compressing instead of a stationary mesh with the leaky piston compressing.I would not want the garlic juice going on the cutting board.Unfortunately almost all garlic here are from china and look highly tortured.Really dry yet some black mold on the outside wrapping, and they are making roots.Got some purple garlic (not from china) and it was super tasty. Better to use more of the smaller cloves, instead of fewer bigger cloves, for taste I found out. So I buy small bulbs.

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 21, 2025, 10:37:28 am
content: Quote from: floobydust on September 20, 2025, 06:59:30 pmYes, you are right about the juice getting on the cutting board. So that is one disadvantage,And yes to the 2nd point too, china garlic is a bit odd. Much less potent and worse flavour.I only buy the NZ grown garlic bulbs, they cost much more but are just better.

author: armandine2
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: September 22, 2025, 10:42:17 am
content: ...I have had a good purchase run of garlic bulbs lately, the other year they were very poor - no issues with my press.Never pitted anything though