Forget the heat and familiar breath of fresh garlic. Imagine instead a soft, ebony-black sweet with the flavour of the Swiss fruit reduction known as raisinée.
At Fermentierra, we love processes in which nature does much of the work. Black garlic embodies that transformation. When people ask whether soya sauce, caramel or anything else is added, the answer is: nothing.
“It is a preserve that makes itself. The garlic cooks in its own skin and candies in its own sugars.”
A slow and gentle alchemy
Fresh white garlic – organic and local – is placed in a warming chamber at a low temperature and carefully controlled humidity. Then we wait for several weeks. Heat and moisture change its enzymes, sugars and amino acids. The crisp white clove becomes black, supple and paste-like, rather like a fruit sweet.
This is slow food at its purest. Without any added sugar, the garlic develops surprising sweetness from its own carbohydrates.
What does it taste like?
The eye sees charcoal; the mouth finds velvet. Its notes recall aged balsamic vinegar, prune and liquorice – and, in Switzerland, especially raisinée or vin cuit: deep, concentrated and lightly tart.
How do you eat it?
If you do want to use a chopping board, treat it as a precious condiment:
- On toast: Crush one clove on buttered toast.
- In sauces: Blend one clove into a vinaigrette in place of some of the balsamic vinegar.
- With cheese: Place a small piece on fresh goat’s cheese.