Detailed Explanation of Sweet Garlic Processing Techniques and Methods

Garlic should be processed immediately after harvest. Select garlic heads with neat, plump bulbs, white skin color, and fresh, tender flesh as raw materials. First cut off the roots and leaves, leaving a false stem 2 cm long, peel off the thick old garlic skin wrapped outside, namely the scales, wash clean and drain off water, using 5 kg of salt per 50 kg of fresh garlic. In the jar, each time a layer of garlic heads is placed, a layer of salt is sprinkled, until the jar is more than half full. Separately store an empty jar of the same size for changing jars. Changing jars can make the salting degree of the garlic heads in the upper and lower parts uniform and consistent. Change jars once each morning and evening. Continue until the brine can reach 3/4 of the height of all the garlic heads. At that time, dig a hole in the central part of the garlic heads so that the brine can flow into the hole. Each morning and evening, use a ladle to scoop the brine from the hole and pour it over the garlic heads on the surface. After 15 days, this is finished, and it is called salted garlic heads.

Take the salted garlic heads out of the jar, spread them on a mat to dry in the sun, and it is suitable to dry them until they reach 65%-70% of the original weight. During sun drying, turn them once each day. At night, bring them indoors or cover them properly to prevent rain. After drying, if any garlic skin is loose, peel it off, then prepare a sweet-and-sour liquid at the ratio of 70 kg of vinegar and 32 kg of brown sugar per 100 kg of sun-dried dry salted garlic heads. First heat the edible vinegar to 80°C, then add brown sugar and let it dissolve. A small amount of five-spice powder, sand ginger, star anise, etc. may also be added as appropriate. First put the sun-dried salted garlic heads into a jar, press them gently and tightly, fill to 3/4 of the jar, then fill the jar with the above-prepared sweet-and-sour aromatic liquid. Basically the amount of garlic heads and aromatic liquid is equal. Also place several bamboo strips horizontally at the neck of the jar to prevent the garlic heads from floating up. Then tie the jar mouth tightly with plastic film and coat the jar mouth with tricalcium silicate to seal it. It can roughly mature after two months. Of course, if the time is longer, the quality of the finished product will be somewhat better. Garlic sealed in this way can be preserved for a long time without spoiling. According to the experience of Zhenjiang, every 50 kg of fresh garlic raw material can be made into 45 kg of salted garlic and 36 kg of sweet-and-sour garlic heads.

Because the above sweet-and-sour garlic heads use brown sugar, the product appears reddish-brown. If white sugar and white vinegar are used instead of brown sugar, the product appears milky white or milky yellow, which is extremely attractive. Garlic contains inulin. During salt pickling and fermentation, the inulin it contains can be converted into fructose, so salted garlic also tastes sweet when eaten.