How to Ferment Garlic – Lacto-Fermented Garlic

Have you always wondered how to ferment garlic in brine? Fermenting garlic is really easy to do. All you need is some good quality ingredients to get started.

The Pros of Fermented Garlic

If you don’t like eating raw garlic because it is too spicy, but still want the benefits, fermented garlic is a perfect choice. After garlic ferments for several months, the spicy taste calms down a lot.

Every batch will be different, but from all of the batches that I’ve made they were much less spicy that regular raw garlic. Not to mention, much easier to digest.

The Power of Salt – How to Ferment Garlic

I like to eat raw garlic, or fermented garlic when I am feeling unwell. Fermented garlic is salty and crunchy. Thats right, you might think that garlic sitting around in water for 3 months might get soft, but it doesn’t. That is the power of salt!

Ferment Tools

• You’ll need some mason jars, like a 2 quart sized mason jars or I like to use 1 half gallon mason jar, when making larger batches.
• My favorite Fermenting Tools are these plastic lids and an airlock! I like the plastic because they never rust, and are easy to clean.
• Always try to use Fine Himalayan Salt. It’s simply the best salt to use for fermenting.
• Wooden spoon for stirring.
• For some ferments you might also need glass weights, to hold the food under the brine.
• Toothpicks for taste testing, don’t use a fork, the metal may mess with the good bacteria that are growing.

The airlock helps keep out mold spores that float around in the air. They don’t let air in but let the gas that occurs during fermentation escape!

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Fermented Garlic

It will take at least 3 months to ferment garlic, but it’s so worth it! We like to eat fermented garlic when we don’t feel well.

Course: Snack

Cuisine: American

Keyword: fermented recipes

Author: Kristi @HomesteadWishing

Ingredients

• Enough garlic to fill up your mason jar (leaving 1-2 inches of headspace at the top.)
• 3 % brine
• Filtered water

Instructions

• Peel all of the garlic, try to keep it intact as much as possible.
• Add the garlic to the mason jar until it’s almost full, leaving a 1-2 inch head space.
• Add 1-2 glass weights on top of the garlic.
• Mix brine, add your measurement of salt and water to a separate jar and mix until the salt has dissolved. Learn how to calculate how much salt to water ratio by using this brine calculator.
• Ferment for 3 months or more, make sure to store away from light in temps between  60 – 70ºF. It gets better with age! I usually start eating it after 3 months, but the flavors are even better if you ferment it for much longer.

Throw out the garlic if you see any sign of mold. Fermented garlic has a strong odor of garlic, be prepared for this. Sticking it in a cabinet that doesn’t get opened very often will help cut down on the stench!

I happen to love the smell, lol! If you smell the garlic and it smells bad, like its gone bad, check it for mold. Remember if you see mold, the whole batch is bad. Mold grows in wet, warm conditions. 

A high enough salt content should keep out mold, so if you are seeing mold you may have not calculated the salt content properly. If you need help with this leave me a comment!

How to Eat Fermented Garlic:

• Any recipe that would keep the garlic raw. You don’t want to cook it, because it would loose some beneficial bacteria.
• In a green salad. Enhance the taste of a plain old salad with fermented garlic!
• In a pesto, like my Kale and Basil Pesto!
• In a wrap, or on a sandwich. I love eating garlic this way!
• Garlic Hummus calls for garlic, and fermented garlic will add tons of flavor!

Let Me Know What You Think!

I would love to know what you think, Please leave me a comment or a question below… Thank you for visiting. 🙂

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