I am looking through some recipes that came with a French pressure cooker I just bought (in Belgium). It seems most of the recipes that use garlic ask for one or two upeeled garlic cloves (ongeschilde teentjes knoflook). Is this really a thing, or am I misunderstanding something? If you include unpeeled garlic cloves, do you still chop off the end that used to connect to the heart?
Unpeeled garlic cloves in French / Belgian cooking
garlicpeeling
Related Topic
- How to know whether the whole unpeeled garlic is still edible or not
- Why was our garlic butter made in France, much nicer than garlic butter in England
- Garlic Overflow — Why won’t the olive oil stay in its jug
- What are the white tendrils at the bottom of these garlic cloves
- Will peeled garlic cloves that are stored for later use lose their flavor
- Flavor – Garlic Cloves Size Differentiation
- Vegetables – What does “unpeeled” mean
- Separate garlic into cloves for storage
Best Answer
Unpeeled onions and garlic help thicken liquids (just a little). The skins of onions and garlic are at least 10% pectin, the substance that is used to thicken jellies. If you are making a stock or a soup, you can place the washed unpeeled garlic or onion quarters in an oversized herb sachet. After cooking you remove the sachet and discard its contents.
The skins have also been found to be rich in antioxidants. You can read all about the science of garlic and onions in Garlic and Other Alliums. While it does discuss the antioxidant effects of Alliums in general it does not treat the particular compounds that have been discovered in the skins.