A Glossary of the Garlic Kitchen

A Glossary of the Garlic Kitchen

Allium sativum — the botanical name of cultivated garlic; a member of the onion genus, Allium, now placed in the family Amaryllidaceae.

Amaryllidaceae — the plant family in which modern classification places garlic and its allium kin, having moved them out of the old lily family, Liliaceae; the onion family in the broad sense, embracing onion, leek, shallot, chive, the wild ramp and the ornamental alliums.

Alliin — the odourless sulphur-containing amino-acid derivative (in full, S-allyl-L-cysteine sulphoxide) stored in intact garlic cells; the precursor from which the pungency is made.

Alliinase — the enzyme, kept apart from alliin in the living clove, that converts alliin to allicin the instant a cell is ruptured by cutting or crushing; switched off by acid and destroyed by heat, which is why raw, cooked and acidulated garlic differ so profoundly.

Allicin — the unstable, sharp-smelling thiosulphinate produced when alliin meets alliinase; the signature of fresh raw garlic, first isolated and named by Cavallito and Bailey in 1944, and the source of most of its reputed medical activity.

Thiosulphinate — the class of reactive sulphur compounds, allicin chief among them, responsible for garlic's bite; short-lived, decomposing into further sulphur compounds within hours.

Ajoene — an oily sulphur compound formed when allicin breaks down in oil or gentle warmth; its name built from ajo, the Spanish for garlic. It carries much of the mellow flavour of garlic steeped in oil, has a mild blood-thinning action, and, worked into a gel, cleared cases of athlete's foot in small clinical trials.

Diallyl sulphides — the more stable sulphur compounds, chiefly diallyl disulphide and diallyl trisulphide, into which allicin decays under heat; they carry the deep, cooked, faintly meaty reek of frying garlic and dominate steam-distilled garlic oil. The longer the chain of sulphur atoms, the more penetrating the smell.

S-allylcysteine (SAC) — the odourless, stable, water-soluble sulphur compound that forms slowly as garlic ages, in a black-garlic clove or a months-steeped "aged garlic extract." Unlike fleeting allicin it survives digestion and can be measured in the blood, which is why it is the marker compound of most aged-garlic medical research.

Maillard reaction — the slow browning of sugars and amino acids — not a burning, and not a fermentation — that gilds roasted garlic and, run for weeks at low heat, turns an ivory bulb into soft, sweet, jet-black garlic; the same family of reactions that browns bread and seared meat.

Hardneck / softneck — the two great cultivated groups: hardneck garlics send up a flowering stalk (the scape) and carry fewer, larger cloves; softneck garlics are stalkless, store longer, and are the braiding and supermarket types.

Cultivar groups — the named families of cultivated garlic within the two types. The hardnecks include the rocambole, porcelain and purple-stripe groups, prized for bold, complex flavour; the softnecks include the artichoke and silverskin groups, the longer-keeping shelf workhorses. "Elephant garlic," despite name and size, is not garlic at all but a form of leek, Allium ampeloprasum.

Scape — the curling flower stalk of hardneck garlic, cut young and eaten as a vegetable in its own right.

Bulbil — a tiny aerial bulblet formed in the flower head of hardneck garlic; garlic rarely sets true seed, so it is propagated instead from cloves and bulbils.

Aïoli / allioli — the garlic emulsions of Provence and Catalonia; at their oldest, simply garlic pounded with oil (and, in most modern versions, egg) into a thick sauce. In Provence the word also names a communal feast, le grand aïoli, at which a whole village shares salt cod and boiled vegetables bound by the sauce.

Toum — the Lebanese garlic sauce: garlic, oil, lemon and salt whipped into a brilliant white, egg-free emulsion of astonishing potency.

Skordalia — the Greek garlic purée, thickened with bread, potato or nuts.

Ajoblanco — the Andalusian cold soup of garlic, almonds, bread and oil; a white gazpacho older than the tomato.

Confit — cloves cooked slow and whole in fat or oil until meltingly sweet; delicious, but see the safety note below on storing garlic in oil.

Black garlic — whole bulbs held for weeks at gentle warmth and humidity until the cloves turn soft, dark and sweet through Maillard-type browning; an ageing process, not a fermentation, and one that leaves the finished clove free of both raw garlic's bite and the garlic-in-oil hazard.

AMS (allyl methyl sulphide) — the sulphur compound responsible for lingering "garlic breath"; absorbed into the blood and released through the lungs over hours, which is why it cannot be brushed away.

Apotropaic — "turning away evil," the folklorist's word for garlic's long protective magic: the braid at the door, the clove against the evil eye, the bulb pressed on the vampire of Balkan and Gothic tradition, the Four Thieves' vinegar of the plague years. Recorded in this volume as cultural history, never as endorsed power.

Theriac — an antique cure-all or universal antidote; the class of remedy to which garlic was assigned for the better part of two thousand years. The physician Galen is traditionally said to have called it theriaca rusticorum, the countryman's cure-all — a reputation the medicine chapter weighs against the modern evidence and finds far exceeded.