Preserves: Garlic Pickle

Having harvested my Garlic a few weeks ago, these have been drying out outside for a few weeks now with the Garlic. I've never had so much Garlic so I was a little unprepared to what I could do to store this. I know Garlic can last a long time, but as I left mine in the ground too long and I've managed to destroy the outer layer and exposed the cloves, I wanted to see if I could preserve these some how.

So the trusty Preserves book came out again and I found a Pickled Garlic recipe which is perfect for my small batch of Garlic. I have kept four of my best undamaged bulbs complete, as I'd like to use these for planting next year and also use some for cooking, plus they small delicious and look great.

                                          Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: July 2012

500g Garlic
200ml Cider Vinegar
50g Granulated Sugar
A good pinch of Saffron
12 Black Peppercorns
2-6 Bay Leaves
Half a teaspoon of Fennel Seeds
x2 Small Jars & Lids

Firstly I sterilised the jars, by washing them in the dishwasher. To prepare the Garlic, this was washed and then placed as bulbs, in a pot of boiling water for one minute to loosen the skins, they were then dried off and each clove was peeled and placed in one of the warm jars. The recipe says to use 3 jars, but as I didn't have the 500g Garlic, I was just slightly under; I only managed to fill two.

                                                        Photo: Laura Lunt  Date: July 2012

Once all the Garlic is in the jars, the fennel, black peppercorns and bay leaves were added to the jars as well, I still used the same amount of these as the recipe stated, but I only added 2 bay leaves to each jar. The cider vinegar, sugar and saffron were then added to a pan and brought to a boil over two minutes and then left to boil for two minutes and then added to the jars, were the lids where put on and the jars were left to cool down.

Once sealed they need to be used within a year.