Garlic, a very healthy and widely eaten ingredient all across
the world and almost in every home or restaurant made
recipes. It’s from the onion family and other family members
include Chinese onion, leek, shallot and welesh onion etc. as
the garlic is added and eaten in many dishes and in every
household and restaurant saving or storing it in large number
in restaurant or home is also common. So sometimes if you
store the garlic or if you have a garlic stock and you have
used or sold very little of that and the rest is just lying there.
After sometime you noticed that the garlic is changing color it
either turns blue or green but this is not a a sign that the garlic
has gone bad. So in this blog post I have discussed all the
details about the garlic changing color and below are the
details.
Well this is not something to be alarmed off if garlic changes
its color and it turns blue. The reason of this is because it is a
natural process and it happens when you put garlic in open
air for some days and don’t store it. The color change is a
result of a chemical reaction in garlic. The reaction is in
between the enzymes and sulfur consisted amino acids
present in the garlic. So it’s a natural process and there is
nothing to worry about. So now the question is is it safe to eat
garlic when it turns blue? And the simple and straight answer
to those questions is yes you can eat garlic without any
hesitation even if its color is changed to blue. It is not a signal
that the garlic has gone bad it its color is changed to blue it is
just a chemical phenomenon.
Why did my fermented garlic turn blue?
Well it’s just because of the natural chemicals that the garlic
possesses. It contains two kinds of chemicals one is the sulfur
acid and the other one is the amino acid. These two acids are
responsible for the color change of garlic both blue and green
color changes of garlic are a result of chemical reaction of
these two acids with enzyme or any other external substance.
So that’s the main reason the garlic looks or turns blue after
fermentation.
How do you know when garlic has gone bad?
So the color of garlic of either blue or green does not imply
that the garlic has gone bad because these two color changes
are as a result of chemical reactions which can occur either
naturally when you try to store them in poor conditions for a
long time or you deliberately perform or force the reaction to
start. In both cases the color changes do not imply the bad
condition of garlic. However the spots are the most feared or
alarming thing or the most accurate thing to know that now
the garlic has gone bad. These spots are of brown color and
these brown and semi-brown spots appear on the cloves. And
if you notice these kind of signs in your garlic then you its
100% sure that your garlic has gone bad.
How do you keep garlic from turning blue?
The color changes occur due to the chemical reaction of
enzymes present in the garlic. You cannot actually stop the
reaction from happening or turning to blue but the thing you
can do is to delay this process so the garlic remains in its pure
color for a long period of time. So in order to do this you need
to have hot water in a tub or something whatever you want to
use. Once this is done put the garlic in hot water for a smaller
or short time. Don’t leave them for too long. What this does is
it slows down the activity of enzymes or make them in active
for some period of time. But most important thing to
remember is that color changing of garlic does not have to do
anything with the taste of garlic. So you don’t have to worry
about anything if your garlic changes colors except for the
brown spots
which I have mentioned above.
Why do garlic cloves turn blue in vinegar?
As you know vinegar is also an acid and it also contains
enzymes. And the surprising thing is garlic also contains
enzymes. So when an acid like vinegar is added to garlic or
garlic I placed in vinegar the due to chemical reaction the
cloves of the garlic starts to change color to blue color. The
color changes occur due to breaking of the membranes of
cloves of garlic and allowing the amino and sulfur to mix up in
vinegar which causes it to turn blue.
Does fermented garlic go bad?
Yes, fermented garlic does go bad. It is not like that the
fermented garlic Well garlic unlike any other food substance
does not go bad in short period of time even in fermented
form it will take long time for it to go bad. Especially if you use
honey to ferment garlic than it would take for about one month
giving you enough time to refrigerate it. And I would
recommend you to at least let it ferment and taste it after
three months as it will give you the peek sweet taste. And if
you store the honey fermented garlic in an air tight jar and in
dark room than it
would be safe for around 3 years.
I hope you like this post and
if you have any questions about
this
you can ask me in the comment section without any
hesitation.
I will try my best to respond to every query.
