Garlic that has started to sprout?

[dddhokie]

My heads of garlic often start sprouting and have a green stemlike thing growing out of each clove. Are they still good to use in that state?

[relizabeth]

After years of throwing away the sprouts, just this past week, I've started using the whole sprouted clove. The sprout has a very pleasant and strong flavor, much like wild garlic.

[bolivianita]

Garlic Chives are a great garnish. simply stick the bulds in dirt and let it grow then snip some in your soup, on your eggs, in a salad, etc.

[Candy]

what you are talkling about are scapes. Garlic Chives are a totally different plant. They are chives that grow very long and are flat and wider than regular chives. They are also called Chinese chives and are used in chive dumplings.

[bolivianita]

I didn't know what the real name for them was but I always keep a little pot with some garlic sprouting in it. Thanks for the info.

[aliris]

You can also toss that sprouted garlic into soil and have seconds down the line...

[Nora Rocket]

Waaay down the line: garlic has to overwinter.

[Sarah]

What does that mean?

[HaagenDazs]

Actually you don't *have* to overwinter it. You can use "fresh" garlic right from the ground. In fact, some people prefer it that way.

Sarah, overwintering is a curing/drying process. All the garlic you buy at the store is overwintered.

[annimal]

it is super delicious when it's "green" (before drying). AND you get garlic scapes if you grow it.

[bolivianita]

Garlic is a bulb much like a tulip and therefore is planted in the late fall and then harvested in the spring.

[hotoynoodle]

it's a member of the lily family -- same as onions, leeks and scallions.

[choctastic]

garlic takes forever to grow and mature. longer than practically anything else. however, i do sometimes throw sprouting garlic in the garden and occasionally pull them up. it takes months for it to make a big bulb and even longer for the big bulb to seprate into cloves. I like pulling it while it's still one big massive bulb and use that. fun if you have the space and patience.

[dddhokie]

thank you!

[HaagenDazs]

Yeah, they're fine. It's certainly not the most fresh and it's on it's way out, but keep on cooking with it! If you're so inclined, drop one in a pot of dirt and you have yourself a little garlic plant!

[Niki in Dayton]

I use sprouted garlic all the time (if I didn't, I wouldn't be able to cook with fresh garlic in the winter in Ohio). I recommend "de-germing" the garlic (cutting it open and removing the sprout) as it can be bitter. It's easy to do, and you can easily pull out the sprout. However, if I'm roasting a head of garlic, I don't both with de-germing it. I always de-germ for sautees and the like, though.

Cheers
Niki

[Will Owen]

When I first got serious about cooking I was living in Tennessee. All my trendy cookbooks were telling me NEVER to use sprouted garlic, but that's the only kind I could get fresh, so I just pulled the sprout out and proceeded...and then I got a cookbook by an English writer, I think Elizabeth David, and she wrote, quite blithely, "Peel the garlic and discard the sprout." Just like that! I felt like putting that on a plaque and framing it...