Food experts have revealed that we’re storing one key ingredient wrong. For many, garlic is essential for jazzing up countless dishes, from soups and pastas to your favourite sauces – but a poor storage choice could mean you’re not getting the best from your garlic.
If you’ve been chucking your garlic in the fridge along with your other veggies, you might want to think again. That’s because according to researchers at Cornell University, “storing fresh garlic in the fridge is generally not a good idea”.
Chilling out in your fridge tricks garlic into thinking it’s autumn time which makes it sprout prematurely, according to chef Richard Temples from Sur La Table, as reported on Martha Stewart’s site. “The cold temperature in the fridge mimics autumn to garlic, and causes it to sprout within a couple [of] weeks,” he explained. “Sprouts are edible but can have a bitter flavour.”
If you’ve made garlic confit or oil at home yourself, it can actually be dangerous to store it in the fridge. Researchers shared: “This is because garlic bulbs are low-acidity, making them prone to Clostridium botulinum, better known as the culprit behind botulism”.
You should really be keeping your garlic at around the 15.5C to 18C mark, far away from any sunny spots, tucked into something that’ll let it breathe, like a paper bag, mesh bag or a fancy wire basket, reports the Daily Record.
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Garlic isn’t the only ingredient you may have been storing in the wrong place. That bottle of oil you’ve got perched next to the hob is also a kitchen faux pas.
Experts at gut health company ZOE have warned that this might just be the worst spot to stash your cooking oil, thanks to the fluctuating temperatures and light exposure. On ZOE’s podcast, olive oil aficionado Elizabeth Berger advised: “You want to keep it where the temperature is constant.”
“So away from the stove, away from a window where the temperature will fluctuate quite a lot. If you can keep it, you could always keep it in a cupboard, perhaps where you keep your salt and pepper and that sort of thing.”