Garlic paste from a jar vs fresh, the numbers shocked me

I read a piece in Cook's Illustrated last month that said fresh garlic loses like 40% of its allicin within 10 minutes of being chopped. I always thought the jar stuff was just a lazy shortcut, but apparently the commercial pastes are processed fast enough to keep more of that punchy compound than what I do at home. On the other hand, I've tasted the difference side by side in a slow braise and honestly, after 2 hours in the pot, I couldn't tell which was which. My wife swears fresh is the only way for anything raw like a chimichurri, and I get that. But for weeknight pasta where garlic is just background, is the 20 minutes I save ever worth the flavor loss? Has anyone else actually done a blind taste test on this or am I just overthinking my Sunday sauce?

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abby30817d ago

Garlic is one of those things where the line between convenience and flavor gets blurry, especially when you're standing over a hot stove after work. I've done my own side by side with a ragu and came to the same dead end, after an hour of simmering, my taste buds just gave up trying to tell them apart. The raw stuff is a different story though, your wife's right about that. I keep a jar in the fridge for weeknights and a head of fresh for anything that's not cooked to death. That 20 minutes adds up fast when you're feeding a family.