Garlic is infamously annoying to peel. The fresher the cloves, the tighter their skin. (And, inevitably, the more your fingernails will smell like garlic post-peel.) I used to see a recipe that called for more than four cloves and feel my heart rate go up. Then one day, my life changed. My mother gifted me a little silicone tube. “It’s a garlic peeler!” she exclaimed.
I mentally rolled my eyes at the idea of a unitasker, which would only take up precious drawer space. I figured it would be just like herb scissors, an avocado slicer, or a quesadilla-maker—clickbait gadgets that are objectively unnecessary when kitchen shears, paring knives, and cast-iron skillets already exist.
Quite frankly, I forgot about the garlic peeler for a long time. Then, a recipe for toum caught my eye: I needed to peel 8 cloves. Ugh. And then I remembered that little tube. Let’s give it a try. I popped in a couple cloves, rolled it back and forth a few times, then dumped out the naked garlic, plus papery skins. Eureka!
Maybe you have one of these things knocking around in your junk drawer. I urge you: Take it out and use it in good health. Or be like my mom (hi Mom) and buy one for the garlic lover in your life. Or for yourself! That way you can make my coworker Nina Moskowitz’s Giant Garlic Knot, which calls for a whole head of garlic. Served with a dunking dish of marinara, it will be the talk of the town, like it was in the Test Kitchen.
Of course, there are plenty of other ways to peel garlic. There’s the way I learned in culinary school, which is using a paring knife to trim off the root, then peel the skin with the blade. Precise, but time-consuming. There’s the original way I learned (and the most intuitive): smashing with the flat of a chef’s knife, then peeling off skin with your fingers. Efficient, but sticky (and compromises the clove). There’s also the hot water method, and shaking cloves in a jar method, and the microwaving for 15 seconds-method. They all work, but all are either messier or take longer than the tube. Which is, by the way, also very easy to store and dishwasher-safe. I’m a convert.
The tube’s only caveat: It really can only peel three or so cloves at a time. If I were going to make, say Chickpeas With 40 Garlic Cloves, I would probably just buy a big container of pre-peeled garlic. But don’t tell my Test Kitchen colleagues that.
