Preparing recipes from scratch is a healthy and fulfilling activity, but you may hit a roadblock when you find yourself asking, “What is a clove of garlic?” If you have minimal experience with cooking, this is a perfectly reasonable question to have. Recipes often measure garlic by the clove, but if you haven’t cooked with whole garlic before, you might still be wondering what a clove of garlic even is, let alone how to properly use it in a dish.
Fortunately, garlic is a fairly easy ingredient to figure out, and once you understand how to break apart a bulb of garlic, it’s sure to become one of your favorite foods to work with in the kitchen. To help all the novice chefs out there, we’ve put together a guide on everything garlic cloves, answering questions from “What does a clove of garlic look like?” to “How do you measure it for a recipe?”
First thing’s first: A clove of garlic is not the same thing as a head of garlic. The head is the entire bulb that’s covered in papery skin. When you peel back the skin, you’ll find individual segments — these wedge-shaped sections are called cloves.
How Many Cloves In a Head of Garlic?
Garlic sizes are fairly consistent, and each head of garlic usually has between 10 and 12 cloves inside. This may vary depending on the type of garlic you use and how the garlic was grown. If your garlic bulbs look smaller than normal and your recipe requires quite a lot of garlic, you may want to grab an extra bulb to make sure you have enough for your recipe.
What Is a Clove of Garlic?
So, what is one clove of garlic? You start with a garlic bulb, that lumpy white item that’s covered in a layer of papery material. When you peel open a bulb of garlic (also called a head), you’ll see these small pieces inside, similar to the shape of orange slices. Each individual slice is one clove of garlic. To use a clove of garlic, all you need to do is take off the papery layer around it and then follow a recipe’s instructions. As you learn to cook, you’ll discover all kinds of methods for using garlic cloves.
In terms of what a clove of garlic looks like, it should be very clear when you open up the bulb. Each little white clove is individually wrapped in a skin, and they are all about the same size. In a way, nature has done the slicing and measuring for you, making garlic a remarkably easy ingredient to prepare for a recipe.
1 Crushed Garlic Clove a Day…Your Heart & Arteries Will Thank You in Many Ways | Dr Mandell
FAQ
Is a clove of garlic a piece?
How much garlic is 1 clove?
What’s 1 clove of garlic look like?
Is a clove of garlic one segment?
Is a clove of garlic the same as a head of garlic?
For starters, a single garlic clove is not the same as a head of garlic. When shopping for fresh garlic, you’ll find that fresh garlic is sold in whole heads – bulb-like-looking things covered in thin papery skin. Remove the outer skin and what you’ll find underneath are individual lobes, or cloves, also covered in papery skin.
Is garlic powder just as effective as a garlic clove?
In terms of flavor profile, garlic powder is much stronger as it has been dried and granulated. Around 1/4 teaspoon of garlic powder is the same as a garlic clove. The health benefits of garlic would remain the same if it is pure garlic powder.
How many parts are in a clove of garlic?
Garlic cloves are made up of two parts: The head or bulb and a thin peel. But the main thing to remember is that a clove of garlic is actually one of the individual segments from the bulb of garlic, not a single piece or head of garlic (which is the whole garlic). What is garlic?
What is a medium clove of garlic?
A medium clove is about 1 teaspoon of minced garlic. It’s helpful to know how to convert from cloves to teaspoons when minced, because some recipes refer to number of cloves, while others use measurements. Whether you’re using fresh or pre-minced garlic you store in the fridge, here are some standards you can use: