What if you come under a vampire attack and all your days watching and re-watching Twilight movies reminded you that you need garlic to fight these creatures. But the problem is, you don’t have any fresh garlic stored.
Well, yeah. The chances of that happening are probably pretty low. You most likely would want to store garlic for convenient cooking. So, here is all you need to know about do garlic keepers work and how to preserve garlics for long time.
Garlic keepers are a great little tool to store them since they have holes that allow for ample airflow.
If you keep these herbs (yes, some people consider garlic herbs) in an enclosed place, then they might start to mold. But these nifty little containers don’t give you that much of a difference.
What Are Garlic Keepers?
What are garlic keepers in the first place? Are they people who harvest garlic, similar to beekeepers? Well, not quite. Garlic keepers are essentially a container that you can use to store garlic.
Moisture can ruin garlic; it can grow mold and also deteriorate. That is why garlic keepers will have holes in them that allow airflow. This airflow will keep the garlic fresh and essentially extend its shelf life.
Do Garlic Keepers Work and Are They Worth It?
Here is a little secret; you don’t really ‘need’ a garlic keeper. Now, we aren’t saying that you shouldn’t buy one, don’t expect it to be a life-changer.
An experiment was carried out to see, specifically, if garlic keepers worked and if there were any significant benefits.
The results were somewhat disappointing. Garlic keepers did keep the garlic from molding, and it didn’t sprout. But compared to garlic just kept in a wooden bowl, they didn’t outperform by a large margin.
The convenience of having a dedicated place to store garlic is an intriguing proposition. Garlic keepers are still a good option.
To conclude, they aren’t a magical solution to extending the shelf life of garlic but are still a pretty cool and convenient little way of storing garlic.
There are a few things you need to keep in mind, to extend the shelf life of garlic and preserve them for a long time. So, let’s touch on that.
What to Keep in Mind When You Want to Preserve Garlic for a Long Time
Whether you use a garlic keeper or not, these steps are important to follow since they will give you the best chance of preserving garlic. There are some specific tips you can employ.
Before we go into the ways you can preserve garlic, you need to know some basic rules. Cool and dry is the name of the game here.
You want to keep your garlic in a cool and dry place and never refrigerate them. Refrigerating will cause them to go bad and also become moldy. Yuck!
1. Pickling
Pickling is an easy and sure-fire way of preserving garlic. It’s a cool way to preserve several foods, and garlic happens to be one of them.
You can pickle raw and dried garlic, and the best part is you don’t have to worry about its vinegary taste either.
Garlic has natural oils that will prevent the vinegar you used to pickle it from being absorbed. That’s pretty convenient, isn’t it?
When you need to use the preserved and pickled garlic, all you need to do is take out the number of cloves you need, give it a good rinse with water and use it.
What if you want a slight kick of the vinegar? The solution then is pretty simple as well. Just skip the rinsing part.
2. Keep Bulbs Intact
Keeping the bulbs intact, or in other words, storing whole garlic will also increase your chances of preserving them longer. The whole garlic will stay good for up to eight weeks. Given that you stored them properly in the first place.
Once you break the bulbs, the shelf life immediately decreases. When it comes to storing broken garlic bulbs, you are looking at only three days to one week of freshness. So, the best thing to do if you have broken garlic is to use the cloves as fast as possible.
In case you have minced garlic leftover, then store them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. But don’t just set it and forget it. You still need to use the refrigerated garlic quickly as well.
3. Air Circulation is Critical
Good air circulation around the garlic heads is especially important for proper storage. Without adequate airflow, the garlic will become bad very fast. That’s why garlic keepers aren’t such a bad idea since they have tiny holes in them to allow airflow.
Never put them in a closed environment. Leaving them in a place like that will cause them to mold, and we are sure you don’t need us telling you that’s pretty disgusting.
4. Keep the Skins on
Leaving the skin on will reduce the drying out process. If you peel the skin off, it will dry much faster. So, leave the skin on.
How to Select the Best Garlic from the Market
One way to set yourself up for success from the get-go is to select the best and freshest garlic when you’re at the market. Obviously, you want the freshest you can get.
One way of telling whether the ones you are getting are fresh or not is checking how firm they feel. They should have papery white skin too.
If you feel the garlic is soft, they are overripened and will not stay fresh for long. And, of course, do not buy shriveled garlic or ones that have visible sprouts.
Since we already mentioned not to store garlic in the refrigerator, don’t buy them from a store that has them stored in the refrigerator either.
Wrapping Up
There you have it. Now that you know all there is to know about do garlic keepers work and how to preserve garlics for long time, you can store them in the safest way possible.
Sure, garlic keepers may not dramatically increase the shelf life, but they are still a pretty convenient and cool little way of storing them.
Perforated containers or not, no matter how you choose to store garlic, make sure to follow the tips we mentioned. That will give you the longest shelf life and help keep them fresh for longer.