Can we discuss this garlic thing?

I know the recipe has been pulled down, and completely understand why, but wondering who tried it, and what your results were?

I tried it on Sunday, unsuccessfully, though didn't have the dark burnt results of some others. I had 3 heads in separate jars, cooked 40 minutes at 20% power (1000 watt rated oven, though actual efficiency is unknown). I looked in at 40 minutes and it was not yet showing any evidence of maillard browning. I went another 5 minutes at 20% and it was just beginning to show some evidence of a light brown color. But when I poked it with a fork, the garlic was completely dried out and hard, although not burnt. When I went back to the recipe to scour for details I might have missed, I saw it had been pulled down.

So I tried again tonight. This time, just a single head, for 35 minutes at 20% power. At about 27 minutes I checked in on it, and it was black and burnt. The oil was vigorously boiling in the jar, and I'm guessing that any water in the bulb had long since evaporated at those temperatures.

I'm wondering if the recipe was ever tested with single jars? I believe the video showed 5 jars. If we assume a constant energy output, and that 100% of that energy is absorbed by the food load, then the higher that load, the longer you'll need to go to reach the same temperature. So 5 jars might take 40 minutes to an hour. That give a decent window for success. But with a single jar, that same energy output is absorbed in only 10 minutes or so. There is likely significantly less energy loss to convection during that time as well.

I'm guessing that although the same energy may ultimately be absorbed by 5 jars in 40 minutes and a single jar in 8 minutes, the end result may be very different. A single jar over 8 minutes may absorb the same energy, but not have the slow sustained heating that you get with a higher load. I'm wondering if that slower heat build up over the 40 minute cook cycle allows a slower and more even progression of the maillard reactions to occur, resulting in a soft, spreadable, luscious brown roasted garlic. I'm guessing the low power and high load keep the oil temperature at a relatively stable temperature as the oven cycles on and off.

If so, then cooking a single jar for 8 minutes at 20% power, would not work. However, a single jar at 4% power for 40 minutes would give the desired result. Unfortunately, I can't go to 4% power on my microwave to test this (increments of 10 only).

If all this is true, I'd also guess that going to six jars (or more within reason) may not significantly alter the results. The additional dispersion of the energy load starts to decrease and perhaps lowers the overall temperature, but I'm guessing the trick is to have a high enough load to keep the temperature controlled throughout the cook cycle. More jars may take a bit longer, but would be an even more gentle heat.

Any other thoughts out there? Was anyone successful with this recipe on a single jar? Hopefully ChefSteps is ok with continuing dialogue around this in the forum.

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Shivam_Daryanani_92859

Thanks for starting this topic. I don't know too much about how microwaves operate, but this is really interesting.

For what it's first I tried it with one jar, 20% 40 minutes and the end result was burnt garlic. The oil was indeed vigorously boiling, and I thought that was expected based on one of the comments made. Around 30 minutes, the house was smelling great, that changed completely in the next 10 minutes.

Also another thing to not, about 25% of the oil left the jar and was all over the microwave plate.

douglas_bd

It struck me this morning that I don't think the oil is boiling. Boiling point of oil (at least the olive oil that I used) would be well above the smoking point - at 572F according to wikipedia. I did not see any evidence of that in the remaining oil. The vigorous boiling must be from the residual water in the garlic. I too lost a significant portion of oil during cooking. I could also hear steam escaping from the jar (or possible the garlic cloves) during the cook cycle. This must be what gives it the appearance of the oil boiling.

I wonder if you could temper the cook by adding a large load into the microwave along with the garlic. For example a single container filled with ~20 oz of water (5 x 4 oz jars worth). That might be worth trying.

douglas_bd

Also @Jess Voelker, @Karen Taylor Quinn - I'm not exactly sure who curates the recipe pages, but the garlic recipe still remains on the site in a sidebar for the microwave vegetable confit recipe. It is a bit less detailed, and doesn't seem to have caused much trouble there, but you may want to review.

Karen_Taylor_Quinn_36329

Thank you, Brian! I'm working on this now to make sure the suggestion is caveated appropriately, or removed if need be. It'll be updated within the next couple hours.

douglas_bd

Ok, day 3 of testing. I put a head of garlic into a jar and filled with olive oil. Total Weight: 89g. Then I filled a second (larger) jar with 356g of water. Set microwave for 40 minutes on 20% power. Starting to get somewhere. There was never any vigorous boil activity in either jar. A little oil bubbled out of the jar, but much less than previous attempts. At the end of the cook, I measured the water temp at 209. Did not measure oil temp because the lid had vacuumed down onto the jar and took some time to open. Garlic was not burnt (good), and a medium brown (decent). It had the best roasted garlic aroma of any attempt so far (good). Unfortunately, the texture was somewhere between gummy and hard (not good). Water jar had 306g remaining. I feel like this may have been more successful with about 5 minutes less cook time. That still doesn't seem like it provides a great window for success, but I think that additional water weight in the damper jar could help with this. Next time I'd increase that water weight significantly to see if it makes a difference. Unfortunately I am out of garlic, so further testing will have to wait.

Setup (Actually post cook, but didn't snap a pre-shot)

Slight bubbling at end of cook, also very little oil puddled around jar.

End result...looks better than it really was.

One final thought as I look at the pics. The garlic originally sunk in the jar, then about 25 minutes into the cook, it started floating. Not sure of the significance, just an observation.

The_Rock_Chef_75022

Wow, I actually had great results (save the oil boilover) with my first attempt. 4 cloves in one jar, about 51 minutes total @ 20%. I figured I would leave more headroom in the jar next time to try to get by the oil boiling out. Followed with an ice bath.

T__2156

1. it's so great that folks are continuing to play with this.

2. I'm assuming the key is in attending more precisely to megawatts and total mass of food. Although maybe the water content of the garlic head makes a difference?

grant

Are you guys trying with no lid? We used to just cook it like in this photo.

grant

Are you guys trying with out a lid? We used to cook it just like in this photo.

11215mark

I tried it without a lid and also tried with plastic wrap (and a few holes punched in the plastic). My microwave is very powerful and I backed the power down to 10% because at 20% it looked like it was going to take flight. Final result was that the garlic was rock hard, but the oil flavor was really good. I usually avoid microwave unless it's a huge time saver, so in this case I'm going back to my simple, wrap a garlic head in foil with some oil, time and salt, lower oven, 1 hour and done.

Chris_156173

I did the recipes but used pealed garlic cloves, covered with olive oil and 5 small jars in the microwave at 40 minutes with 20% power. I did get some oil coming out but the garlic was soft and spreadable with a slightly browned color. Even though it was not caramalized it was very smooth and delicatly flavoured.

douglas_bd

Success! I garlicked up for more testing today.

Armed with a dozen bulbs, and taking a cue from @The Rock Chef and @Grant Lee Crilly's comments here, I thought I'd push to the other end of the testing spectrum. I placed 5 bulbs (320g total)into a jar, and covered with oil (additional 423 g).

Then I filled a second jar with an equal weight of water. 40 minutes at 20% power. The garlic was nice and soft, several cloves had sprung free from the bulbs and settled on the bottom of the jar, but still white...no evidence of browning.

Water temp measured 61C, garlic temp 94C. After another 10 minutes water was 64C and garlic 96C. Another 10 and starting to see some browning.

A final 10 minutes and the oil measured 98C, water 71C. There was some bubbling, but small, slow bubbles, never approaching the vigorous rolling 'boil' of earlier trials. Also, no boil over to clean up later.

Garlic was nicely brown, soft and spreadable.

Oil was also significantly more cloudy...not sure why. But, it worked! I think it's likely the water jar was unnecessary here, but interesting that the water and oil reached such different temperatures. At this point, I really don't see any way this could be adapted for a single bulb of garlic. The oil seems to heat much quicker than water, so even adding a large heat sink (Gotta love a good pun!) of water seems like it may not work. A larger oil quantity would probably help, but seems overkill. Has anyone had success with a single bulb of garlic?

And finally, I leave you with the payoff:

Glynn_162348

Can someone post the recipe of combining the garlic with the rest of the ingredients for the final spreadable product shown in this picture?

douglas_bd

I'd say that this is mostly to taste rather than something to measure out. I took a spoonful of ricotta and spread on a toasted baguette slice. Then topped with garlic, garlic oil, salt and italian parsley combined in the mortar and pestle. Sprinkled on some crushed red pepper flakes.