Detailed Explanation of the Key Processing Techniques for Salted Garlic Cloves

Processing garlic into salted garlic cloves requires simple equipment and offers significant economic benefits, making it quite popular in the international market.

1. Process flow

Material selection → clove separation → soaking → peeling → rinsing → grading → blanching → cooling → rinsing → pickling → sorting → broth preparation → barreling → finished product.

2. Operating methods

1. Seed selection. Garlic should be mature, dry, clean, with intact outer skin, free from insect damage and mold, and cloves that are too small or single-clove garlic should be removed.

2. Clove separation and soaking. Separate cloves by hand, remove the garlic stalk and outer skin, keep the inner skin, soak in clean water for 12 hours, changing the water at appropriate times.

3. Peeling. Remove the garlic base, inner skin and the transparent garlic membrane attached to the garlic head, without damaging the garlic flesh. Then rinse clean.

4. Grading. According to clove size, grade 1 is 230-300 cloves per kg, grade 2 is 300-450 cloves per kg, grade 3 is 450-600 cloves per kg.

5. Blanching and cooling. The blanching solution formula is: 100 kg clean water, 50 g citric acid, 15-100 g alum. The liquid temperature is 95°C. If the blanching time is too long or too short, it will affect the product's green color, gloss and crispness. It should be blanched until small bubbles stop emerging from the garlic base. Once the cloves are blanched, immediately remove them from the pot and pour them into clean water to cool and rinse (they must be cooled thoroughly).

6. Pickling. Remove the rinsed garlic cloves and drain them. First pickle them in 7 Baume salt water for 24 hours, then add salt water to adjust the concentration to 11 Baume and pickle for 24 hours. Add more salt to adjust the brine concentration to 15 Baume and pickle for 48 hours. Finally, add salt to adjust the concentration to 22 Baume and pickle for no less than 15 days. During this period, when the brine concentration decreases, salt should be added promptly to maintain a stable concentration.

7. Sorting. After the garlic cloves are removed from the vat, discard discolored cloves and those with insect spots or scars, and thoroughly remove any remaining garlic bases, inner skin and garlic membrane.

8. Broth preparation and barreling (bagging). First prepare brine at a concentration of 28 Baume, boil it, filter and cool it, then add 0.35% citric acid, 0.05% sodium hexametaphosphate and 0.03% alum, so that the pH of the broth is 2.5-3. When barreling (bagging), first pack the garlic cloves into barrels (bags) by grade and in fixed quantities, then pour in the broth and seal, and it is the finished garlic clove product.

9. Finished product standards. White or milky white, with a glossy appearance, transparent brine, a small amount of garlic flesh fragments that do not cause cloudiness is allowed; the garlic cloves are crisp and tender, with a "chewy" texture; no off-flavor; intact grains.