Dehydrating garlic

[puglogic]

I have a dehydrator, but confess that I've never tried to dehydrate garlic.

Now that I find myself with a large surplus of garlic, it would be great to turn some into dried garlic (we're also roasting, storing, etc.)

Is it as simple as peel, slice, dry? How do you know when it's done?

Thanks,
pug

[razz]

I dried some peeeled garlic after slicing it in the processor but I think I overdid it. You need to move the dryer outside or the house will stink of garlic bigtime!

Last year I simpy hung the garlic bulbs in a mesh bag downstairs in a dark dry room of the basement and they have kept beautifully so I prefer that approach. I still have bulbs that we are using.

[puglogic]

I turn to this method only because I think I have to. Normally, we would just store everything (though it's nice to have roasted garlic in the freezer for a variety of reasons...) But there were about 24 heads of garlic that, I'm ashamed to say, stayed in the ground too long, and so they won't keep. But thanks for the tip about moving the dehydrator outside. I think I'll try the garage, with the door open during the day...

[Marianne]

Oh ya, or you'll have a gas filled house, big time! LOL A friend uses a mortar and pestle to grind some, adds salt to make garlic salt. It doesn't take much, either.

I can't keep anything nearly as long as what a lot of people do, so I freeze my garlic. 'They' don't recommend it, but I haven't had any problems. I peel the cloves and pop them in a freezer bag. They don't freeze rock hard, so it takes just a moment holding them under warm water to be able to chop it up and use it for cooking.