Pickled Garlic (Mellow, Tangy, and Great on Everything)
A simple pickled garlic recipe that mellows raw garlic's sharp bite into a tangy, genuinely pleasant pantry staple worth the wait.
Pickled garlic mellows raw garlic's sharp, aggressive bite into something tangy and genuinely pleasant to eat directly - a good pantry staple to have going at all times, and one of the longer-lasting quick pickles in this guide.
Pickled Garlic
Prep time: 15 minutes, plus resting | Makes: about 1 pint
Ingredients
- 2 to 3 heads garlic, cloves peeled (about 1.5 cups peeled cloves)
- 3/4 cup white or rice vinegar
- 3/4 cup water
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1.5 tsp kosher salt
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 tsp red pepper flakes (optional)
Instructions
- Pack the peeled garlic cloves into a clean pint jar, along with the bay leaf and red pepper flakes if using.
- In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, water, sugar, and salt. Warm over medium heat, stirring, until fully dissolved.
- Pour the warm brine over the garlic, making sure the cloves are fully submerged.
- Let the jar cool to room temperature, then seal and refrigerate.
- The garlic is ready to eat after about a week, with the flavor mellowing and deepening considerably over the following weeks.
Notes
Give this one real patience - a week is a genuine minimum, and pickled garlic actually improves for a month or more as the raw sharpness continues to fade and the flavor rounds out.
Peeling Garlic Efficiently
Peeling several heads of garlic by hand, clove by clove, is tedious - a faster method is to separate the cloves from the head, place them in a covered container or between two bowls, and shake vigorously for 20 to 30 seconds, which loosens most of the skins at once.
Why Patience Matters More Here Than With Other Pickles
Raw garlic's sharpness comes from compounds that take real time to break down and mellow in a vinegar brine, more time than a thinly sliced onion or cucumber needs. Eating pickled garlic too soon results in something still quite sharp and closer to raw garlic than the tangy, mellow result it becomes with proper time.
What to Use It For
- Eaten straight from the jar as a snack (genuinely, once fully pickled, it's mild enough for this)
- Chopped into salad dressings for a milder garlic flavor
- Added to a cheese and charcuterie board
- Mashed into compound butter for a milder garlic flavor than raw garlic would give
Variations
- Herbed version: Add a sprig of fresh rosemary or thyme to the jar for extra flavor.
- Spicy version: Increase the red pepper flakes, or add a whole dried chili.
For more pantry-staple pickles, see the complete pickling guide.
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