tutorial :: peeling garlic in a cocktail shaker

Shake your money maker.

I love garlic, and I eat quantities that would strike fear into the hearts of vampires. When you routinely use 6 or 7 cloves in a recipe, that adds up to a lot of garlic peeling. Although I adore cooking, for some reason, peeling garlic is one of those culinary chores I dread. For me, it's akin to folding fitted sheets. I am not sure why; I mean, it's not that difficult or time-consuming: you just smash and peel. But listen. Suffice it to say that I just hate it.

So much that, recently, those pre-peeled plastic containers of voluptuous peeled garlic cloves have been calling to me like sexy sirens each time I walk by the produce refrigerator in Whole Foods. And yes, maybe I did cave and buy them once or twice.

"Sure, they cost more," I rationalized. "But who has time to peel all that garlic?"

Actually, I have the time. And so do you. It's all over the Internets now, but I can't remember where I first saw the idea of peeling garlic in a stainless steel bowl on social media. Maybe it was Facebook? Or Twitter. I tried the bowl method and only had a 50% success rate. I realized that the bowl needed a sturdy lid to get the job done. Hmmm. I rarely use my cocktail shaker, preferring wine to hard liquor. Eureka! It was finally time to put it to good use.

Yes, Virginia. You can peel garlic without a knife using a stainless steel cocktail shaker. It really works. Now, peeling garlic has become one of my favorite kitchen tasks. [By contrast, the cats hate the noise it makes.] In fact, it's so easy you can actually put the kiddos to work. There's nothing funnil=ur2&o=1" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" />, right?

Here's how you do it.

Assemble your unpeeled garlic cloves. Toss them in a stainless steel cocktail shaker

Shake your groove thing. [No, it's not an earthquake.] This is the actual time it took me to "peel" the 7 garlic cloves. It may take you more or less time and effort. Just keep shaking.

 Here's what the garlic looks like after shaking....

The skin just falls off.

Ta-da! Time to make Pasta Aglio e Olio.