5 Easy Ways to Preserve Garlic: Freeze, Dry, Pickle & More

Come learn how to preserve garlic. When properly dried and cured, fresh garlic should last for many months in cool dry storage. But what happens when it starts to go bad? Or, if you harvest homegrown garlic too early, so it can’t be cured and stored long term? Don’t let it go to waste!

This post will highlight several easy ways to preserve garlic from the garden: how to dry garlic into powder, freeze it, pickle it, make fermented honey garlic, and more. Variety is the spice of life, after all!

I’ll also cover the hidden dangers of preserving garlic in olive oil, why garlic sometimes turns blue, and the best way to store garlic to make it last.

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RELATED: Ready to grow your own? Come learn how to plant and grow garlic in our easy step-by-step guide, or visit this article for tips on when and how to harvest, cure and store garlic to make it last!

How to Store Garlic

• For maximum shelf life, it’s best to store garlic at room temperature in a cool, dry, dark location such as a pantry, root cellar, basement, or spare closet. The optimum storage temperature for garlic is 50-60°F.
  
• Avoid refrigerating garlic, as colder temperatures stimulates the garlic to break dormancy and start sprouting. Garlic sprouts rapidly between 40-50°F.
  
• Store garlic in an open container to promote good airflow and dry conditions, such as a mesh bag, woven basket, wire racks, or open cardboard box (but not in a deep pile).
  
• The time garlic lasts in storage depends on the type, variety, and storage conditions. After harvesting and curing garlic, hardneck varieties should last about 3 to 4 months in storage, while softneck varieties can last 6 to 9 months.
  
• Routinely check on your stored bulbs and give them a squeeze. Use or preserve any that are starting to go soft or sprout. Yes, it’s okay to eat garlic that has sprouted – or plant it!

1) Dried Garlic Powder

Making homemade garlic powder is one of my favorite ways to preserve garlic. It’s easy to do, versatile to use, and the flavor is incredibly fresh compared to any other garlic powder you’ll ever try. We love to sprinkle garlic powder on top of sautéed or roasted veggies, in dips, soups, sauces, pasta, bread dough and more.

You can dry garlic in a food dehydrator or in the oven, then grind it into fine powder using a good blender or food processor. Once dehydrated and ground, garlic powder will last well over a year in dry storage! Plus it condenses a lot of garlic into one small jar, which is a huge space saver. You can also mix 1 part dried garlic powder with 3 parts sea salt to make DIY garlic salt.

See full instructions on how to make garlic powder here.

2) Freezing Garlic

Freezing garlic is one of the most quick and easy ways to preserve it. You can freeze garlic cloves whole, raw, roasted, minced, in olive oil… any way you like it!

• To freeze whole garlic cloves raw, simply peel and pack them into freezer-safe containers such as ziplock bags, reusable silicone food storage bags, or these durable BPA-free freezer containers. To use frozen garlic, you can grate the frozen cloves or allow them to slightly defrost at room temperature before chopping or otherwise preparing them. Frozen garlic cloves are good for up to a year in the freezer.
  
  
• You can also mince garlic to freeze plain or in olive oil. To create the perfect ready-to-use portions, I love to finely chop garlic (or use a handy garlic press), pack it into silicone ice cube trays, pour olive oil in to fill each each cube, and then freeze. Once frozen, pop the garlic oil cubes out of the tray to store together in a sealed freezer bag or container. Then they’re ready to toss into a pan of stir fry, sauce, or soup at any time.
  

3) Fermented Garlic Honey

Here is another fantastic way to preserve garlic, and create your own delicious cold and flu medicine while you’re at it!

Fermented garlic honey is a simple natural health remedy that is used to support the immune system, cardiovascular system, and digestive health. It can also help soothe cold and flu symptoms including coughs or sore throats.

Garlic honey is incredibly easy to make: simply pour honey over raw garlic cloves and let it sit to ferment awhile. Once made, it lasts for many years in the pantry. You can eat it by the spoonful, add it to homemade salad dressing, dips or marinades, drizzle it over roasted vegetables, cheese and crackers, and more!

See full instructions in our easy fermented garlic honey recipe along with more ways to use it.

4) Pickled Garlic

Pickling garlic in a vinegar brine is a great way to preserve fresh garlic. Because garlic is a naturally low-acid food, there are no safe tested recipes for canning garlic alone (without vinegar).

You can make quick pickled garlic that will last a few months in the refrigerator, or follow a pickled garlic recipe that is safe for water bath canning to make it shelf-stable for over year. We especially love pickled garlic with apple cider vinegar, dill, mustard seeds and red chili flakes.

Mellowed by the vinegar and spices, pickled garlic has a more tangy, sweet, and mildly spicy flavor than sharp raw garlic. It is the perfect addition to homemade dips, spreads, salad dressings, or charcuterie boards. Serve it with olives, cheese, crackers, sandwiches and more. Pickled garlic (or the brine) can also be used in cocktails like Bloody Marys or dirty martinis, or in other recipes that calls for fresh garlic, such as in vegetable stir fry, pasta salad, soup or stew. Or, snack on it straight out of the jar!

5) Lacto-Fermented Garlic

One final way you can preserve garlic is to ferment it. Fermented garlic is similar to pickling it, but without the vinegar – and with added nutrients and probiotics! We’re huge fans of fermented foods around here, and fermented garlic is no exception.

Made by submerging raw garlic cloves in a dilute salt water brine, natural beneficial bacteria ferments the garlic and produces lactic acid that lowers the pH, effectively preserving it. When fermented, the garlic develops increasingly tangy, mild, and complex flavors compared to raw. The lacto-fermentation process also introduces millions of gut-healthy probiotics, and makes all the impressive vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and other nutrients found in garlic even easier to digest.

Here is one popular fermented garlic recipe, or check out this other option too.

Can you preserve garlic in olive oil?

Did you also grow up seeing pretty bottles of olive oil with garlic cloves floating in them? As nostalgic or tasty as it may seem, please don’t be tempted to preserve your own garlic in olive oil at home! It isn’t safe. Or if you do, proceed at your own risk.

Submerging garlic in oil creates an anaerobic environment (without air) and one with a neutral pH. This creates the perfect recipe for botulism to grow – and you can’t see, smell, or taste botulism!

Deadly botulism toxins are caused by bacteria called Clostridium botulinum, which is often found in soil. Since garlic bulbs grow below the soil surface, garlic is at an even higher risk for botulism than many other vegetables. Commercial producers of garlic oil have strict requirements to add acidifying agents and other preservatives to prevent the growth of botulism.

Blue Garlic

And that concludes this lesson on preserving garlic. I hope this post gave you plenty of new and tasty things to try. Which method do you want to try first? Did I miss any other ideas? Please let us know in the comments below. Thank you so much for tuning in today.

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