Quickly Peel A Head Of Garlic With A Cutting Board

There are many “clever” ways to peel garlic, but I have always been a fan of crushing the clove with the flat of my knife rather than trying to hold two bowls together while flailing about, even if I have a whole head to peel. I wasn’t particularly looking to improve upon the method, until I eyed a spatula whilst making red sauce.

I only had about five cloves of garlic left to peel but, given the larger surface area, I figured I could get it done just a little faster with the spatula. I was correct. Instead of having to press down on my blade five separate times, I just had to press down once to free all five cloves from their sticky skin.

But why stop there? Why not increase the size of the smashing object once more, and peel whole heads at a time? I grabbed another head of garlic and another cutting board – you need one for the garlic to sit on and another to smash with – and brought the board down on the allium with a decent amount of force. This loosened up the outer paper, which I removed.

I then smashed the board down a second time, loosening the peel around each clove.

Only a couple of peels didn’t immediately come free, which was easily remedied with my trusty knife. All in all, using a larger heavier object did make the removal of the peels much faster, without requiring two bowls or a cocktail shaker. (What did I do with all those peels? I threw them in my stock bag, duh.)