Black Garlic, New Gourmet Ingredient
Umami-rich, Deeply-flavored, Fermented - Odd and Wonderful
Mar 21, 2009 Jacqueline Church
Our lust for the next new thing can lead us on some funky trips. Purple potatoes, red corn, lemon cucumbers, square watermelons. Remember the trend spotters who told us about the new superfoods and the benefits of black foods? Chefs and enthusiastic foodies are always looking for the next new ingredient, exotic finishing salts, a newly available heirloom vegetable, or a heritage breed pig or chicken.
Black, it seems, is the new black. That is to say the new, persistently popular color seems to have appeal in food, much as it does in fashion.
Novel Today, Here Tomorrow
Whether or not the health claims are borne out, it's safe to assume that even once the novelty of this garlic wears off, and we're on to the next new hot item of the food world, black garlic will still be around. Why? Taste.
Black garlic is produced through a proprietary super hot fermentation process. No amount of cajoling resulted in further explanation. Suffice to say that we tried. What is clear is that there must be a fair amount of umami produced in the fermentation process. The fermented garlic is sticky, sweet and molasses-y.
Black foods have become popular for their health benefits and also for the drama they lend to the plate. A recent entry to this category, black garlic, lays claim to both intriguing taste and to health benefits, as well as drama. S Allylcysteine is the compound said to be produced in the fermentation process. The black garlic website claims "...it’s loaded with nearly twice as many antioxidants as raw garlic. It also contains S-Allycysteine [sic], which is fancy talk for a natural compound that has been proven to be a factor in cancer prevention."
Umami, the so-called fifth taste, is akin to "savory" in English. Several foods containing umami lend a particular quality that makes dishes irresistible. In her groundbreaking guide to Umami, The Fifth Taste, Anna Kasabian reviews the discovery of umami by the Japanese scientist Ikeda in the 1920’s. The book provides recipes from top chefs and taste exercises to help isolate umami and train your palate to identify it. Some umami-rich foods include Parmigiano-reggiano, mushrooms, and tomatoes in their cooked form.
Raw vegetables tend to have very little of this savory, some call it meaty essence. Fermented foods can be umami powerhouses. Enter black garlic.
Asian Import to get Behind
While this product has been around in some form in Korea and Japan (according to the importers) it is relatively new here in the U.S. A recent Iron Chef show highlighted its use and introduced the product to many new fans.
The product information is fairly scant. Purveyors claim a unique high-heat fermentation process is responsible for the deep molasses color and the jelly-like consistency of the black garlic. They also claim health benefits of S-Allylcysteine - produced in the fermentation process. They state that this has been eaten for its health benefits in Japan and Korea for years.
Whether these claims are substantiated or not this is some yummy stuff. We have our research team scanning all worldwide sources for verification of this data - i.e. Harold McGee and one Japanese mother.
The Taste:
This is an obviously caramelized product. Molasses-like in its deep rich color and it’s slightly sweet and sticky presentation. The first taste is garlicky yes, but more along the lines of slow roasted garlic, quite tame. In addition there are strong sweet-savory notes. This must be umami-rich. Again, a crack research team is investigating.
The Process:
All natural, nothing added, heat and one month. That’s about all the info you get from the purveyors.
Recipes include everything from bruschetta and pasta sauce to baked banana - yes - banana with black garlic.
To test it we first made cous cous with black garlic. The fine grained pasta was subtly perfumed by it, with the chunks retaining their shape.
The second recipe:
Penne Pasta with Tomato and Black Garlic Sauce.
(A variation on the recipe from the website.)
- Sweat some carrots, onions (about 1/3 to 1/2 C each) in 2-3 TBSP olive oil.
- Added chopped San Marzano tomatoes.
- Chopped 5 cloves of black garlic,
- Leftover chicken baked with herbes de Provence (optional)
- Add oregano, maybe 2 tsp.
- About 2 TBSP of tomato paste.
- Topped with grated Parmigiano-reggiano.
Generous fresh ground black pepper and a good shake or two of red pepper flakes.
This produced a richly-flavored sauce with plenty of umami and some beautiful color. Mushrooms and/or olives would have gone well, too. This recipe would have been fine without the chicken. If you’d like to add protein inexpensively, chickpeas would work well with these flavors.
- See the website Black Garlic to order.
black garlic
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