By understanding garlic’s chemistry we can amp up its pungency in a fiery garlic sauce or tame it through gentle cooking to make mellow garlic confit, says Sam Wong
Humans 11 March 2020
Virusowy/Alamy
What you need
Garlic
Vegetable oil
Salt
Lemon
GARLIC can be big and fiery or soft and mellow. Understanding the chemistry of its flavour can help us amplify or tame it.
If you sniff a bulb of garlic, it doesn’t have a strong smell. But if you bite into raw garlic, it will produce a pungent aroma and a burning sensation in your mouth. This is garlic’s chemical defence, evolved to deter animals from eating the plant.
It is caused by a chemical called allicin, which activates the same pain-sensing receptors that respond to the capsaicin in chilli …