How to Take the Bite Out of Raw Garlic

Garlic is a culinary staple in cuisines across the world, but a pungent hit of raw garlic can throw an entire dish out of balance and make it too intense.

If the garlic you’re using is a little old, you can count on it also being very strong. To tone it down a bit, peel the garlic, and then drop it in boiling water for 3 to 5 minutes. The longer it boils, the milder it becomes. That little green shoot that you find sometimes inside older garlic is a new stem indicating that the garlic is old. Like an onion sprouting. It’s best to remove it, as it tends to be a little bitter.