cdkitchen > feeddaily blog
How much is a clove of garlic?
by Guest Writer, Valerie Whitmore A few years ago we were at my husband's high school reunion. He's from a small town, so of course word got around about what we do. Some people were curious about what goes into starting a website. Some were interested in how we lived and worked together all these years and still stayed happily married. Others, had cooking questions.
One of these questions has been on my mind ever since the reunion. A classmate of Brent's had recently started to learn how to cook. He was really enjoying it - trying new ingredients, finding new recipes, and learning new techniques
But he had a complaint "Recipes never seem to specify what size clove of garlic to use. How are we supposed to know how big a clove of garlic we need?"
As someone who cooks a lot, this is never really a question I have so I wasn't quite sure how to respond. If a large clove seems appropriate for the recipe, I use a large clove. If less garlic is needed, well, I use small clove. But for someone new to cooking, who maybe doesn't yet understand the role garlic can play in a dish, I can see how this might be challenging. I don't typically measure each clove of garlic I use, I grab whatever I think will work best. But as you can see in the photo below, not all cloves are created equal. These are all from the same head of garlic but their sizes range from about 1/4 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons. It's easy to see how someone new to cooking might be thrown off by the simple measurement of "1 clove of garlic".
I wanted to see if there was a "definitive" answer to how much a clove of garlic is. I perused my vast library of cooking reference books and did an internet search. This is what my research found
1 small clove = 1/2 tsp
1 small clove = 1 tsp
1 medium clove = 1/2 tsp
1 large clove = 1 1/2 tsp
1 large clove = 2 tsp
As you can see, it all depends who you ask. There apparently is no definitive answer even among the published reference books, so even if a recipe does specify a "large" clove of garlic someone who isn't familiar with garlic still doesn't know exactly how much to use.
When a new cook is first starting out there are lots of these burning questions. How much is a clove of garlic? How much juice is the juice of one lemon? What part of the green onion do I use when it just says 1 chopped green onion?
Unfortunately, a lot of times the answer is a matter of personal preference and only with experience and experimentation in cooking will you gain that knowledge
So jump in, play with ingredients, get to know the role they play in the final outcome of a dish. Don't be afraid to experiment.
Remember, probably the worst that can happen is that you add too much garlic.
One of these questions has been on my mind ever since the reunion. A classmate of Brent's had recently started to learn how to cook. He was really enjoying it - trying new ingredients, finding new recipes, and learning new techniques
But he had a complaint "Recipes never seem to specify what size clove of garlic to use. How are we supposed to know how big a clove of garlic we need?"
As someone who cooks a lot, this is never really a question I have so I wasn't quite sure how to respond. If a large clove seems appropriate for the recipe, I use a large clove. If less garlic is needed, well, I use small clove. But for someone new to cooking, who maybe doesn't yet understand the role garlic can play in a dish, I can see how this might be challenging. I don't typically measure each clove of garlic I use, I grab whatever I think will work best. But as you can see in the photo below, not all cloves are created equal. These are all from the same head of garlic but their sizes range from about 1/4 teaspoon to 2 tablespoons. It's easy to see how someone new to cooking might be thrown off by the simple measurement of "1 clove of garlic".
I wanted to see if there was a "definitive" answer to how much a clove of garlic is. I perused my vast library of cooking reference books and did an internet search. This is what my research found
1 small clove = 1/2 tsp
1 small clove = 1 tsp
1 medium clove = 1/2 tsp
1 large clove = 1 1/2 tsp
1 large clove = 2 tsp
As you can see, it all depends who you ask. There apparently is no definitive answer even among the published reference books, so even if a recipe does specify a "large" clove of garlic someone who isn't familiar with garlic still doesn't know exactly how much to use.
When a new cook is first starting out there are lots of these burning questions. How much is a clove of garlic? How much juice is the juice of one lemon? What part of the green onion do I use when it just says 1 chopped green onion?
Unfortunately, a lot of times the answer is a matter of personal preference and only with experience and experimentation in cooking will you gain that knowledge
So jump in, play with ingredients, get to know the role they play in the final outcome of a dish. Don't be afraid to experiment.
Remember, probably the worst that can happen is that you add too much garlic.