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Garlic
One of the most versatile ingredients to ever grace the kitchen, garlic may be incorporated into everything from pesto to pasta to mashed potatoes, and the nutty flavor even makes a surprisingly nice addition to desserts, such as brownies or ice cream.

Originating in Central Asia and dating back over 6,000 years, garlic has been grown not only for culinary uses, but also for medicinal and religious purposes. Egyptians worshipped it and placed clay models of garlic bulbs in Tutankhamen’s tomb. Garlic was so highly regarded, it was even used as currency.

Long considered an herbal “wonder drug,” garlic has been used for centuries to combat everything from the common cold and flu to the plague. Hippocrates even used garlic to treat cervical cancer.

Today, garlic is consumed to lower high blood pressure, prevent blood clots, and reduce coughs. Garlic remedies have also been employed to treat cancer, diabetes, high cholesterol, atherosclerosis, and more. Studies have proven that garlic, especially aged garlic, can exert a powerful antioxidant effect that protects the body against damaging “free radicals.”

Dubbed “The Stinking Rose,” garlic is actually a member of the lily family and is a close cousin to onions, leeks, chives, and shallots. Vver 400 varieties and 600 cultivated sub-varieties are grown worldwide — and most of them differ in size, color, shape, taste, number of cloves per bulb, pungency, and storability.

The most commonly found garlic today is Allium sativum, which means “cultivated garlic,” and Allium ampeloprasum, or elephant garlic. The source of some confusion in the garlic world, elephant garlic is not a true garlic as it is more closely related to the leek than ordinary garlic. Due to its less intense and sweeter flavor profile, it is often recommended for people who don’t particularly like garlic. People are attracted to this “garlic” due to its size — the bulbs are very large and can weigh over a pound in size, with a single clove of elephant garlic sometimes being as large as a whole bulb of ordinary garlic. In cooking, elephant garlic should be used when a subtle hint of garlic is desired.

Garlic falls into two general categories — hardneck and softneck. Softneck garlic is the most commonly found and is recognized by its white, papery skin and abundance of cloves that form several layers around the central clove. The softneck garlics are known to have excellent longevity, tend to be more difficult to peel, and exhibit a mild taste.
Hardneck garlics produce flower stalks called scapes that coil from the top. On top of scapes grow a number of bubils, which are often mistakenly referred to as garlic flowers. Hardneck garlics have fewer, larger cloves than the softneck varieties and are characterized by a more intense flavor and a wider span of tastes, and tend to be easier to peel. They also have a shorter shelf life than softnecks since they have less of an outer bulb wrapper.

There are three main subdivisions of hardneck garlics: Rocambole, porcelain, and purple stripe. These varieties tend to be red, purple, purple-striped, or white.

Artichoke, Asiatic, and Silverskin are the three subdivisions of softneck garlic. The bulbs are usually all white, but can be purple-tinged. Following are descriptions and flavor profiles of each garlic variety.

Hardneck Garlics
Rocamboles
Possessing a deep, earthy, full-bodied, complex taste Rocamboles are the most widely known and richly flavored of all garlics. They produce an abundance of heat and are excellent for eating raw (if you’re daring). Preferred by professional chefs, they produce large cloves that peel easily. They are not as white as other hardneck garlics and their thin bulb wrappers yield a much shorter storage life than most other varieties. Varieties of note include Spanish Roja, the best-known and best-loved hardneck garlic; the fiery but quickly turning sweet and buttery Russian Red; Yugoslavian; and the Japanese Hokkaido Zai Tai.

Porcelains
Of all the garlics, Porcelains are the largest plants and not surprisingly, produce the largest and fewest cloves. Though they are still relatively rare in North America, garlic connoisseurs seek them out for their unique properties. Considered to be the most beautiful of all the garlics, they appear as if they were sculpted by an artist. The bulb wrappers tend to be very thick, satiny, and parchment like. The outer bulb wrappers are usually white, and as they are peeled away some purple striping is revealed. Their flavor is considered highly superior, rivaling that of Rocamboles. Generally strong tasting, they can be stored for up to eight months or more at cool temperatures. Varieties of note include Romanian Red; Zemo; the mild, almost sweet Georgian Crystal; and Russian Giant.

Purple Stripes
Purple Stripes are identifiable by their purplish stripes that accent the bulb wrappers. Though rich in flavor, they are not overly pungent and are renowned for their excellent flavor when roasted. Chesnok Red and Persian Star produce the sweetest roasted garlic and often win “best-baked garlic” taste tests.
In addition to the standard purple stripes, there are two other subvarieties of this variety — the glazed group and the marbled group. Both have thicker bulb wrappers and fewer cloves than the standard group, and seem to last longer. Varieties of note include the very-strong Bogatyr, Metechi, or Skuri #2; and the very-mild Siberian.

Softneck Garlics
Artichokes
Artichokes vaguely resemble the artichoke flower due to their large, overlapping layers of cloves. Many artichoke strains have three to five clove layers that contain 12 to 20 cloves. Bulb wrappers are coarse and thick, often with light purple blotches or a yellow stain. Some strains produce large, round symmetrical bulbs, while others display knobby, asymmetrical appearances. Most, like Simoneti and Red Torch, possess a mild flavor and are a favorite among people who want only a hint of garlic in a dish. Others, such as Inchelium Red and Susanville, have greater depth of flavor, while the Chinese Purple and Purple Cauldron are much stronger in taste and last longer. The popular California Early and California Late have a mild, slightly sweet, tame taste.

Asiatics
Sometimes referred to as genetic softnecks from the Artichoke subvariety, these unique garlics combine large bulbs with a single-layer clove arrangement, a false flower stalk, a purple or marbled color, and plump cloves of stiff necks. The bulbil capsule is long and wrinkled like a dried bean pod. Varieties of note include the rich, long-lasting flavored Asian Tempest; Russian Red Streak, with its very sharp initial taste and long-lasting heat; and North Korean Pyongyang.

A sub-variety of the Asiatic group, Turbans usually deliver a unique sweet and hot flavor that distinguishes them from other garlics. Their large, purple pinstriped bulbs have a single circle of large, nearly rounded cloves; a strong, aromatic flavor; red and purple striping; and easy-to-peel cloves. Varieties of note include Dushambe with a rich, buttery taste; Chinese Purple with its fiery hot taste; and Chinese Tzan.

Silverskins
Silver-white exteriors, a clean appearance, and long, thin necks, make Silverskins the most popular garlic for braiding. The highest-yielding variety, they offer a very long storage life. Total cloves per bulb can vary from 12 to 20. Varieties of note include the strong-flavored Nootka Rose or Rose du Var; Nichol’s Silverskin, the whitest of all silverskin types; and the large-bulbed Silver White.

Creoles are a subgroup of the Silverskin variety and are considered one of the easiest garlics to eat raw. Their initially sweet flavor is followed by a heat that builds in intensity and they seem to retain their flavor well when cooked. Both the bulb wrappers and the clove covers have a vivid rose color arranged in a circular configuration. Varieties of note include the stronger Creole Red and Ajo Rojo, Burgundy, and Spanish Morado.

Wine Openers
Opening a bottle of wine can be tricky. How many times have you broken a cork trying to extract it from the bottle, or taken an unusually long time to remove a stubborn cork?

Many people enjoy the ritual of pulling the cork — the gentle creak, squeak, and final poping sound. Most corkscrews will do the trick most of the time, but a well-made one is less likely to have you fishing cork crumbs out of your glass. The corkscrew is a necessary barware device that everyone is familiar with; however a wide, perhaps even confusing selection is available on the market today. Even the simplest corkscrews take some practice to master but have an attractive compactness, while others with much greater bulk perform the job easily with little effort from the operator.

The most basic corkscrew is one with a metal helix, or “worm,” that is attached to a handle. The worm is twisted or screwed into the cork, which is then removed by pulling on the handle. The worm is the corkscrew’s most important element and should be at least two inches long in order to penetrate deep enough into the cork without breaking or damaging it. Better worms have five instead of four turns and are covered with a Teflon coating for easier insertion. Typically, a helical type worm works best, but spiral worms are also available that do an excellent job. Following are descriptions of the most commonly used wine openers on the market.

Removing the Foil
The first step in accessing the wine is to remove the foil hood, or capsule, that covers the top of the bottle. You can cut the foil or plastic from the bottle with a knife, or the small blade found on many corkscrews, but a foil cutter tends to work better as it slices the foil or other sealing material just below the bottle’s lip, allowing it to peel off in a neat sheet.

Waiter’s Corkscrew
The most commonly used corkscrew in restaurants and all over the world, the waiter’s corkscrew has a short knife blade on one end, a foldaway worm in the center, and a short hinged lever on the other end that enables the user to lift the cork from the neck of the bottle. Using this type of wine opener requires practice and because force is applied at an angle, frequent cork breakage occurs if it is not used properly. If your cork does break and part of it becomes stuck in the bottle’s neck, the waiter’s corkscrew is indispensable for removing the remaining piece.

Wing Type Corkscrew
Though most wine lovers just can’t bring themselves to use the wing type corkscrew, it does have its fans since it is so basic. A metal device that resembles a pair of pliers, it works by inserting the screw’s tip into the cork’s center and then twisting the top, which forces the two “wings” to open out from the corkscrew’s center.

Screwpull
This lever-style corkscrew consists of an arched piece of plastic that straddles a long worm coated with a nonstick finish. After removing the foil, the user simply clamps the device onto the bottle with one hand, then closes and opens the lever with the other. The worm plunges into the cork as the lever closes, and removes the cork as the lever opens. Repeating the motion recorks the bottle so that it’s airtight.

Ah-So or Butler’s Friend
Because it extracts the cork “ah so” easily from the bottle, this odd-looking four and a half inch device is a favorite for opening rare bottles of antique vintage wines with old, delicate corks. Two thin, flat flexible blades are attached to a wide, oblong handle. The longer of these pieces is inserted between the cork and the bottle and wiggled downward until the shorter piece enters the other side. Using a back-and-forth seesaw motion until the top of the Ah-So is resting on the top of the cork, the cork is twisted while it is gently pulled up. The advantage of the Ah-So is that it doesn’t pierce the cork, resulting in less breakage, but this method does require dexterity.

Screwless Wine Opener
Also known as Corkpops, this device employs a low-pressure propellant cartridge to make opening wine similar to opening a bottle of champagne. By inserting the device’s needle all the way through the cork and pressing on the cartridge, the propellant forces the cork to pop out.