It’s pungent and acrid when raw, but has a pleasant aroma when baked or sautéed. You probably wouldn’t want to eat it uncooked, but it’s delicious as an ingredient in a wide range of foods and sauces. It’s often associated with bad breath and is reputedly able to ward off vampires, but it's also one of the healthiest foods in your kitchen and even has medicinal properties.
Yes, garlic is full of contradictions. Even those of us who love cooking with it are probably unaware of its fascinating history and how various cultures have fallen in and out of love with the plant. For instance, it was widely reviled in Britain up until the mid-1900s, despite its widespread popularity in many other cuisines.
Accounts from Egypt, Greece, Rome, and China document the use of garlic in many parts of the ancient world. Its association with protecting humans against malign forces like vampires, witches, and demons also goes back hundreds of years. Garlic has been tried as a "cure" for pretty much every affliction, from baldness to epilepsy to the common cold. Pliny the Elder even called it an aphrodisiac (when consumed along with fresh coriander and wine).
In more modern times, scientific research has given credence to garlic’s role as something of a natural pharmacy. While garlic probably won’t protect you from scorpion bites or the Black Plague, it has been proven to have antifungal and antibacterial properties. It’s packed with micronutrients like manganese, potassium, iron, calcium, and vitamins B1, B6, and C. Garlic has also been linked to supporting a healthy immune system, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure, among other health benefits. Long used in traditional medicine in Russia (as well as many other parts of the world), the nickname “Russian penicillin” was cemented during World War II when, due to a lack of antibiotics, the Soviet army used diluted garlic solutions as battlefield antiseptics on soldiers’ wounds.
Surprisingly, garlic might also have a role to play in the fight against climate change. The initial results of a three-year study conducted by researchers at Aberystwyth University in Wales suggest that giving cows a diet containing garlic could reduce the animals’ methane emissions by as much as 50%. Cow burps (and, to a lesser extent, flatulence) are a significant source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat. Just one cow can produce between 200 and 500 liters of methane in a single day. Allicin, the sulfurous substance that gives garlic its antibacterial properties, appears to be able to limit the amount of methane-generating bacteria in a cow's digestive system.
Pass the garlic, please:
- Allicin is also responsible for the unmistakable aroma that is released whenever you crush or chop a garlic clove.
- Garlic’s antibacterial activity was recognized as early as 1858, identified by French biologist Louis Pasteur during his experimentation with garlic juice.
- Garlic (Allium sativum) is closely related to leeks, scallions, onions, shallots, and chives.
