Garlic: traditional uses, everyday preparations and cautions

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Garlic (Allium sativum) is a bulb that earns its place twice over: once on the chopping board, once in the herbalist’s cupboard. This page sets out which part to use, how to turn it into an infusion, a syrup, a tincture or an oil, what it tastes like at each stage, and who should be careful with it.

A very old reputation

• Garlic spread from central Asia across Eurasia at speed, and every people that met it kept it.
• The writers of antiquity credited it with two things above all: being a powerful tonic, and being a protection to carry through times of epidemic.
• European country herbalism kept it as a winter plant, taken in syrup and vinegar through the cold months.
• In Ayurveda and in Chinese kitchen medicine alike, it is classed as a warming food, given to people who feel the cold.

What it is credited with

• Circulation and warmth. Traditional Western herbalism has long used garlic as a circulatory tonic, for people with cold hands and feet and a sluggish, heavy feeling.
• Winter coughs. Garlic syrup is one of the classic household preparations of European folk medicine, used to ease tickly coughs and loosen a chesty winter cold.
• Seasonal resilience. Naturopathy credits a regular course of raw garlic through the cold season with supporting the body’s defences.
• Digestive comfort. Herbalists have traditionally recommended garlic for a heavy, over-fermenting gut, and it has a long reputation as a gut-flora plant.
• Worming. Garlic in milk is one of the oldest domestic worming remedies in the European tradition, used for pinworms in particular.
• Aching joints and stiff backs. Country remedies rubbed garlic oil or garlic lard into stiff shoulders and sore backs, for the warming, reddening effect on the skin.
• Hard skin. A slice of garlic held against a corn, a callus or a wart is folk practice across Europe, used for its softening, blistering action.

How to use it

Raw, the simplest form

• Crush or finely chop one clove and let it stand 10 minutes before eating: this is when the aroma develops fully.
• Stir it into a vinaigrette, a yoghurt dip, a tomato salad or over warm bread.
• Taste: fiercely hot and lingering. One clove a day is plenty for most people; more than that and the stomach usually complains.
• Take it with food, never on an empty stomach.

Decoction in water or milk

• Crush 2 or 3 cloves, drop them into a cup of water or milk, bring to the boil and simmer 10 minutes.
• Cover while it cools, then strain.
• One cup in the evening, for a week or two at a time, is the traditional rhythm.
• Taste: milky and mild, or sharp and broth-like in water. A spoonful of honey makes it drinkable.

Garlic syrup, the winter standby

• Simmer about 1 ½ oz (50 g) peeled cloves in a cup of water until soft.
• Strain, then dissolve roughly the same weight of sugar or honey into the warm liquid.
• Two or three spoonfuls spread through the day, for no more than a week or ten days at a stretch.
• Keeps in the fridge in a sealed jar for about two weeks. Taste: sweet first, savoury afterwards.

Tincture

• Mash a large quantity of cloves, press out the juice, and combine it with an equal volume of 40% spirit.
• Bottle in dark glass, label it, keep it in a cool cupboard.
• The traditional pattern is a teaspoon two or three times a day for ten days, once a month, well diluted in water.
• Not for children, and not for anyone avoiding alcohol.

Oil, ointment and poultice, for the skin only

• Mash garlic with twice its weight of oil or lard — for 0.35 oz (10 g) garlic, 0.7 oz (20 g) fat — and leave it to macerate a few days.
• Rub a little into stiff shoulders or a sore back, then wash your hands.
• Poultice: garlic mashed with a little mustard, wrapped in a cloth, laid on for a few minutes only. The smell is formidable.
• Never leave raw garlic in direct contact with skin for long: it reddens and blisters, and burns are common.

In the kitchen

• Raw cloves lift salads, dips and cold sauces; cooked cloves flavour roasts, lamb, pork, stuffings and fish.
• Slice for a mild, even flavour; crush for a punchy one. Slicing and crushing both release far more aroma than using the clove whole.
• Garlic mash: boil one whole head for 20 minutes in about ½ quart (½ litre) water, drain, then mash with a tablespoon of olive oil and two pinches of salt. Spread on toast.
• To soften the breath afterwards, chew fresh parsley, mint or a coffee bean.

Frequently Asked Questions

The one thing to remember: crush a clove, let it sit 10 minutes, eat it with food — and keep medicinal courses short.

Raw or cooked, which is better?

Raw garlic is far more pungent, because the aroma compounds only form when the clove is cut and then keep developing in the air. Cooking mellows it into something sweet and nutty and much kinder on the stomach. Naturopathy leans towards raw for its tonic reputation, but a cooked clove you can digest beats a raw one you cannot.

How much garlic a day is reasonable?

One clove a day, taken with a meal, is the amount most household traditions settle on. Larger quantities tend to bring burning, wind and a smell that follows you around. Concentrated forms such as syrup or tincture belong in short courses of a week to ten days, not continuous use.

Can I put a slice of garlic on a wart or a corn?

It is a widespread folk practice, held in place for a short while and then removed. Raw garlic is strongly irritant, though, and will redden and blister healthy skin around the spot. Never leave it on overnight, never use it on a child, and stop immediately if it stings or the skin breaks.

I take medication — is garlic still fine?

Garlic used as a seasoning is food. Syrups, tinctures and capsules are concentrated, and they can interact with blood-thinning, blood-sugar and some HIV medicines. Check with your doctor or pharmacist before starting any garlic course, and mention it before surgery or dental work.

How do I stop my stored garlic sprouting?

Keep whole, well-dried heads in the dark, dry and airy — a basket in a cupboard rather than a plastic bag or the fridge. Damp and cold both push cloves into growth. A sprouted clove is still edible but tastes bitter, so pull the green shoot out before using it.

This information is provided for general interest and reflects the traditional use of plants. It is not a substitute for medical advice. If you are on medication, pregnant, or in any doubt, ask a healthcare professional.

Blandine Merlin