Slicing Garlic... How do you do it?

take the clove and smash it lightly with the flat side of the knife.  The skin should easily come off.  Trim the hard end and then slice.  If I'm gonna mince it fine I smash it pretty hard and then chop.  after chopping I add a little salt to the pile and then I puree it with the flat side of the knife.  The salt acts as a grit to grind it up.  This is the quickest method.  I dont use gadgets too much.

Why not just use a razor, goodfellas style? I mean that honestly. It takes some practice, but razors work just fine for food prep.  FWIW, I used razors for cutting packing materials, and when cutting food, am a whole lot faster than what is shown in goodfellas.

I used snap off blades for quite some time, until I bought a good Japanese paring knife, which is about 2X sharper than standard. Will slice garlic and onions w/o almost any scent or tears. R. Murphy, Co. of Boston also makes some fine leather working knives that go thru most foods like butter. A lot cheaper, but the blades are reactive, and must be kept clean, or will corrode till the edge must be re-made.

Oh, and I use a Benrinner brand mandoline for veggies as small as brussel sprouts. But I've learned the hard way to not get my finger tips any closer than that to the blade, so I wouldn't try a garlic clove.

XLBalco said:

  i like mine sliced goodfellas style.

Lol-  Watched that movie quite a bit in college in the early 90's.  When the fellas and I would get together for a sunday sports lock down and beverage olympics, we (mostly I) would make a mafia style meal.  As college kids, we prided ourselves in saying that "we ate better than the mafia in jail".  

Decided I needed to start pizza early. Some garlic slices. Total time, about 20 sec. Handicap, 2.5 bottles of 3 Floyd's Zombie Dust.

Same as above, get the skin off then slice very thin with a sharp knife.  I've tried the razor but the knife fits my hand better.  I slice garlic every time I cook steaks.  I'm still without a SV machine so I hot tub steaks in a vac or ziplock bag with sliced garlic on both sides of each steak along with a healthy amount of wooster.  The garlic and wooster permeate very well during the 30-45 minutes of hot tubbing and all thats left is a good searing.

Sliced, chopped or diced and crushed - depends on what I'm making.  If I don't care, I go the easy route and crush it with the side of a knife, remove the skin and use a garlic press.

I've heard truffle slicers work.  http://www.amazon.com/Hutzler-3718-Garlic-Slicer-Shredder/dp/B005BPZDQU/ref=sr_1_6?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1357248162&sr=1-6&keywords=truffle+slicer

Never tried it, but maybe worth a shot at $15: http://www.pamperedchef.com/ordering/prod_details.tpc?prodId=26433

This is what I use!

He said slice, not mince or crush.

Cut small slice off thick end and smash slightly with chef's knife.  Remove skin. Now it depends on what kind of garlic cut you want.  Slices?  Do slices with knife.  Finely minced?  Smash flat with side of chef's knife, using fist.  You can now add a pinch of salt as an abrasive.   Rock back and forth with knife to chop finely and then finish with side of knife scraped back and forth.  Takes almost no time at all for small quantities.  (Follow Necessaryindulg's pictures.)   If I need to do a large quantity, I bring in my garlic press.

SWMBO picked up one of these at a PC party as a door prize or something. At first I thought it was kinda dumb, but it does work. It's like a pencil sharpener, makes paper thin slices of garlic, two cloves at a time. It also works for ginger depending on how fibrous the root is. 

jbates67 said:

One of my favorite scenes from the movie was when they were slicing the garlic in prison using a razor blade. One of my all time favorite movies as well. That said, no gadget for slicing besides a good sharp knife, if I want it minced, I have a simple squeeze press that works great.

+1

I either do this, or just a really sharp knife.

I use this: