Whenever I mince cloves of garlic on a cutting board, it sticks to the sides of the knife making it a tedious task? Is there anyway to prevent this from happening when using a knife to mince garlic the old-fashioned way? Otherwise, I frequently have to wipe off the garlic remnants from the sides of the knife.
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see also cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/30110/… and cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/35569/…– rumtscho ♦Commented Feb 2, 2017 at 9:18
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5 Answers
As with franko's answer, the reason why you use salt (preferably sea salt) is that it helps to crush and mince the garlic whilst you are chopping. If you are worried about too much salt in your diet, then do not use any other salt than what is used whilst mincing your garlic. Like above, I don't understand why you have to discard what is on the knife, I am assuming that you have peeled your clove. If you are worried about cutting yourself, simply scrape the side of the knife on the edge of the board, gather it up into a little pile and carry on mincing, a bit of chop chop, then scrunch down with the sea salt.
As an aside to this, though this was always my preferred method in the past, I have now taken to grating garlic with the very fine part of a cheese grater. This not only takes a second or two but also you don't have to peel your clove as the skin is left on the top side of the grater, whilst the grated garlic is on the underside.
answered Feb 1, 2017 at 5:38
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Is there a specific type of cheese grater that you recommend? Obviously, some of the cheese graters have rather wide grooves for cutting, which wouldn't be preferable for grating garlic. I've heard about garlic planes but am not sure what the difference is between that and a cheese grater. I do like fresh garlic rather than buying it canned... Commented Feb 2, 2017 at 3:08
I have read that sprinkling some salt on the minced garlic as you chop helps alleviate the sticking, but you may not want extra sodium in your recipe.
I've found that using either (a) frozen minced garlic or (b) adding a little oil to the garlic both work pretty well.
Why not simply get a Garlic Press and make things easy on yourself?
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Different texture to minced or crushed garlic, also different taste. Commented Feb 2, 2017 at 9:39
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A knife can be used for other tasks, while a garlic press mostly occupies space in your cupboard. You can easily crush garlic with a knife. Commented Feb 2, 2017 at 9:47
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The reason why I don't have a garlic press is due to the problems with cleaning them, sometimes they seem to be almost impossible. Also in a kitchen with little space, the fewer items you have the better. Commented Feb 2, 2017 at 10:37
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They're really not hard to clean if you rinse and leave in water right after use. When you go to wash dishes after that it'll all come out easily. Decide if it's worth it for you, of course, but it's way faster than crushing+mincing with a knife.– Cascabel ♦Commented Feb 2, 2017 at 15:23
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If what a garlic press produces can be called minced garlic, I might as well suggest using a mortar and pestle :) Commented Feb 3, 2017 at 9:14
If the problem is readily minced garlic sticking to the knife, this is hard to solve (some pros seem to avoid it by using very high chopping speeds leaving no time for anything to stick).
To get (properly) minced garlic off the knife, a plastic(!!!) scraper card is very handy.
If uneven mincing due to big lumps being stuck to the knife is to be avoided: Actually dicing the clove (board parallel cuts 9/10 of the length, lengthwise 9/10, then slicing) will deal with that, at the cost of wasting (or having to re-chop) an end piece. Also, this can get time consuming if you need to prep a whole head worth of garlic...
answered Feb 2, 2017 at 9:58
