<p>What exactly will I be losing if I switch to garlic in a jar?</p>
<p>I make a lot of curry and it’s really annoying to have to peel and chop six cloves to make one meal.</p>
<p>Garlic in a jar has less flavor, is more expensive, and you will have to use more of it.</p>
<p>You need to get the right kind of knife and learn to crush and peel and chop cloves correctly. Saves a lot of time. Something like a Cuisinart minichop is delightful if you do a lot of Indian and Asian cooking and need to chop up lots of ginger and garlic, but a decent chef’s knife also makes it much faster. Looking for heads of garlic with large cloves also helps. (I’m assuming that you are not buying those things in a box, right?)</p>
<p>I always use fresh.</p>
<p>It is time consuming, but you will get faster with experience – garlic crusher also saves some time (although I prefer to chop it fine).</p>
<p>Fresh is in a totally different league. Definitely make friends with it.</p>
<p>Galoisien - fresh is better, but I always keep a jar in the refrigerator because it is so convenient and I don’t think most recipes suffer appreciably by using it. I wouldn’t use it for a recipe where garlic was featured (garlic bread, for example), but for soups, rubs, etc., I think the jar variety is fine. I use mostly fresh ingredients - but I think you can cheat with this one.</p>
<p>OP, using the flat of a chef’s knife held in your dominant hand, press down on each clove of garlic using the heel of your non-dominant hand to partially crush. The skin will then come off easily. Trim the stem end of each clove and pike them together. Lightly holding the tip of the knife in your non-dominant hand, with the fingers of your other hand wrapped around the knife handle, repeatedly chop through the pile of cloves using a rocking motion, stopping as needed to scrape the pieces back into a pile. It really is quite quick.</p>
<p>I only use fresh garlic and think it tastes much better. It is also not expensive at all. It so happens at my market, they sell the cloves already peeled in a small container in the fresh vegetable aisle (in addition to cloves that are not yet peeled). I have been buying the peeled ones. There are likely about 20 cloves in the container and it costs 85 cents.</p>
<p>Hmm, the thing is, I use so much spices (tamarind, wine vinegar, tumeric, garam masala, copious amounts of cumin, onions, dried chili with the seeds kept) that I often chop less garlic than called for in a recipe simply because garlic is just one item out of many I have to deal with. In recipes with many ingredients, are you able to tell the difference?</p>
<p>I used to use fresh, but now I use the stuff in the jar. It’s just faster and easier and nothing to clean up. My family would never notice the difference. Try a jar and don’t feel guilty.</p>
<p>I like the jar. See if you can tell the difference. If you like the way the dish comes out, the food police will not come get you. :)</p>
<p>I prefer fresh but sometimes use powdered in a pinch. Especially where I just want the flavor spread around quickly.</p>
<p>One of my favorite things to cook in the past was sauteed garlic and onions. Take a bulb of garlic, chop it (not too finely) and saute with onions. Add salt, pepper and a few other spices.</p>
<p>I use 2-3 heads of garlic a week. There are some terrfic garlic presses and mini choppers you could try, but really if you’re curious about it you should just try the jar stuff in one of your recipes and see how you like it.</p>
<p>If there is any one food item worth the effort, it’s fresh garlic. It’s a foundation flavor of many dishes. The bottled stuff and especially the dried stuff and powders are an insult. It’s health benefits are also significant.</p>
<p>In cooking, often less is more. Using copious amounts of many spices can muddy most dishes. While dried spices can be wonderful, you need to be careful with them to not overwhelm a dish. During summer, fresh herbs are cheap. A little onion and garlic and a handful of fresh herbs is the taste of summer.</p>
<p>I like to cook (formerly in the restaurant business) and use fresh. DW uses the jar. </p>
<p>Use Consolation’s method. It is tried and true and doesn’t take much time.</p>
<p>Trader Joes sells frozen cubes of garlic (along with a few other spices)- super convenient!</p>
<p>I use a garlic press with fresh garlic - no peeling. Mine is from Pampered Chef. You leave the skin on and then just pull it out of the press after using.</p>
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<p>Of course, you could keep in the garlic and chop less onions or measure less cumin or whatever because there are so many items 
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<p>I’m teasing. Chopping fresh garlic is one of those things that becomes easier the more you do it. Regard this as a learning curve. The trick of smashing the clove with a knife to loosen the skin is an excellent one. You can also use any nearby heavy object, e.g. a large glass bottle of olive oil. In addition to removing the stem end, you’ll also want to halve the clove the long way and see if there is a green sprout inside. That should be removed–it’s somehow bad for you and it tastes bitter. The chopped clove will lose potency, so you generally want to chop it up right before using.</p>
<p>It really depends on how the garlic is being used, how important its form is. Though there are those who are adament that fresh is always, always, always better, if the garlic is being chopped very fine and used in something long cooking or with other strong dominant flavors, it is not as important. Clearly there is nothing like the real thing, complete with skins when you are serving roasted whole garlics (yum).</p>
<p>Experiment and compare. Some people are more picky than others about it. You can also mix and match. I use powdered, minced, fresh peeled and the whole clove with peel in combinations and individually as time, recipes and taste dictate.</p>
<p>Whew! I was starting to get a complex about not always using fresh garlic! This group is brutal :)</p>
<p>I was just feeling so pleased with myself since I mastered my own iced coffee and then this thread threw me back a bit.</p>