How I Make Black Garlic at Home

      According to Aomori Prefecture Black Garlic Association, black garlic has antibacterial effect, cancer inhibition, cholesterol suppression, preventing blood clots, hypoglycemic effect, and so on. As I mentioned in my previous entry, I purchased Japanese Aomori Black Garlic at Trader Joe's for my first time in 2013. However, I have not been able to find ones at the store these years, so I always wanted to make ones at home. I know that some Japanese people make black garlic at home, and it's actually very easy. However, all people who have made black garlic mention that it's impossible to make black garlic inside home because the garlic releases very strong smell during fermentation. The strong smell might bother your neighbors. Because I am living in a small apartment, I tried to find the way not to linger the stench our home, and eventually I was able to make black garlic without bothering my neighbors(I think!). Anyway, I'm finally going to share with you how to make black garlic. :)

What You'll Need
A Rice Cooker (I used my Zojirushi 5.5 cup rice cooker.)
Heads of Garlic (I used 21 heads of garlic purchased from Costco.)
Paper Towel

I uploaded this video, How to Make Black Garlic, on my YouTube channel. :)

1. Place paper towel in the bottom of rice cooker bowl. Then put all heads of garlic in it. Place paper towel on top. Then, cover the lid. (Paper towel helps prevent garlic from being burned, and it absorbs excess water to get the best result.) 

2. Place rice cooker outside, and set a fan toward the rice cooker steam vent. During fermentation, the garlic release strong garlic smell especially for the first 5 days. The fan works great to blow away the stench.

3. Press the Keep Warm button. Leave it for 14 days.

Day 6

Day 7

Day 8

Day 9

Day 10

      On the 10th day, I decided to check if it had turned black. The garlic was almost black. It's very dark brown. It's still very soft and a little juicy. The taste was just like black garlic though. I decided to keep garlic warm in the rice cooker for four more days. 

Day 10

Day 11

Day 12

Day 13

Day 14

4. On the 14th day, take out all garlic from the rice cooker.

Day 14

 5. Dry them in shade outside for 6 hours. Then, dry them inside for several days.

6. Enjoy!
    It's super black! It actually tasted much better than ones I ate on the 10th day.

How to Store Black Garlic
     You can keep black garlic at room temperature for 30 days.

     If you store them in air-tight containers in a fridge, you can keep them fresh for up to 6 months.  Make sure to place paper towel in it to keep black garlic fresh longer. It absorbs excess moisture from the garlic. :)

You can store them in  a refrigerator.

      This is my entries related to black garlic.
http://itisapieceofcake2011.blogspot.com/search/label/black%20garlic


     These are my entries you might like.
■Trader Joe's Japanese Aomori Black Garlic

■Japanese Aomori Black Garlic

■How to Make Black Garlic at Home

■How I Make Black Garlic at Home


     These are my YouTube Channels.
Cooking with RINGO

RINGO's Coffee Channel

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