40 days seem to have gone fast. Yes today is Black Garlic Day and I have just been down to the oven with my fingers crossed.
Here it is, about to be removed from oven.
Looks promising, I can see blackness through the papery skin.
Look at the colour difference after it's cooked.
Do you want the good news or the bad news?
As I eagerly tore into the bulbs they were certainly black and not the pale gooey stuff I had the first time I did this when the oven wasn't hot enough.
But oh dear....
They've now gone the other way, completely solid like garlic charcoal and absolutely useless and over cooked. I just checked the oven temperature and it is still about 140 as should be.
This isn't an easy experiment to try out and who knows whether the so called fresh organic garlic I used was fresh enough, or is my oven thermometer a bit out and maybe a tad too hot on this occasion. Who knows, one things for sure, I'm not trying it again!
Here we go again, I won't go into too much detail about Black Garlic as I did that earlier in the year (June 2011), but just to say I am trying the fermentation experiment again. Today is day 1 of 40 and this time I'm wrapping the container in foil which I don't think I did last time. Foil helps to stop contamination and also supposedly less garlic vapours escape.
Fingers crossed.... see you in 40 days!
Well, I interrupt my Wales postings to announce that today is Black Garlic Day. Yes for 40 days and 40 nights the 3 bulbs of garlic have been sat undisturbed, maturing away in the aga. I know a couple of my blogging friends have been as eager as me to see the results and oh dear, are you sitting down,... as predicted half way through, it hasn't worked.
Damn and drat that old aga! It hasn't been hot enough to ferment the bulbs to blackness. The pictures show the sequence of me taking it out and seeing they were still pretty white on the outside, to cutting one open and seeing it was just caramel coloured.
It had obviously matured a bit just with the amount of time in there but I'm not sure I'm going to keep it. I guess that at the higher and correct temperature there is no risk of bacteria but when something is sat in a luke warm environment for 40 days then I think it is more likely a breeding ground for bacteria so I think it's destined for the recycle bin. I did cut a bit to try and rather than tasting garlicky it now tastes sort of more oniony, like a really strong pickled shallot. Oddly enough, after you swallow you don't really have much of an aftertaste like you would with raw garlic.
Oh well, you've got to try these things. I will only attempt it one more time if the temperature is suitable after I get the aga serviced.
I came across an article on Black Garlic the other day which was a new concept to me but I soon became interested when I read about the health benefits of this matured and fermented garlic.
To give you a brief sum up, garlic bulbs are slowly fermented by continuous heating in a low oven for 40 days. When the garlic comes out, the individual cloves are black and almost fudge like in texture.
The taste is supposed to be delicious, more mellow, sweeter and almost Marmite like without the garlic after taste so it is very versatile.
Black Garlic has all the health benefits of regular garlic and nearly twice the antioxidants and is good for lowering blood pressure and cholesterol.
It seems you can buy it at some of the larger Tesco shops and online but it is quite expensive due to the process.
This got me thinking as I wanted some, could you make your own? For anyone with a properly functioning oven this would be quite an expensive and possibly inconvenient experiment to commit to for 40 days.
However, as some of my friends will know, I have to cook on 'the Aga from hell!' This house has such a manky old Aga (no alternative cooking facility other than my camping stove) which is a solid fuel to oil conversion and it never reaches anywhere near the right temperature, even after a service. As I always say, good job I don't eat animals or I'd have food poisoning all the time! Anyway as with all bad there has to be some good and it does make great meringues. I thought this is the perfect opportunity to try fermenting some garlic in the porridge making oven.
I found these instructions on how to make black garlic, you can also see a pic of it on the link
http://www.ehow.com/how_5902625_make-black-garlic.html
I bought the best garlic I could find and a little glass dish to place them in and away we go for the next 40 days. Actually I 'm not sure if the oven is hot enough even for this as it is about ready for a service but I'm having a go.
I just need to be patient now but as that compartment of the oven hasn't been used for ages it should be ok.
All will be revealed on July 10th.
