In the kitchen
There are several recipes in which garlic takes centre stage rather than a supporting flavouring role -­ perhaps most famously French chicken roast with 40 cloves of garlic. Garlic soup has a surprisingly soft sweet-savoury flavour yet uses around half a head per person.

Aïoli, the rich, garlic-laden mayonnaise-like sauce from the South of France, is eaten with a wide range of accompaniments including boiled potatoes, artichokes, carrots, chicken and salt cod. In Greece, skordalia, a sauce of potatoes, olive oil and garlic, is served with fish and vegetables. Also worth noting are the pungent garlic pickles of India and the Middle East.

Varieties
What most people think of as fresh garlic is actually a dried bulb. There are hundreds of varieties varying in degree of pungency, skin colour (pink, white, purple), and clove size. Fresh, 'spring' or 'wet' garlic is lifted from ground before the bulb matures and looks like a curvaceous leek.­ The green portion rising above the ground is also edible. Look for it in speciality greengrocers and farm shops in June. Elephant garlic is very large but milder than regular garlic.

Preparation
Remember that the more garlic is crushed or chopped, the stronger it will taste.

Many people find garlic presses or crushers convenient, however some claim they alter the flavour of garlic; they are also difficult to clean.

For recipes that require whole garlic cloves, you can either cut away the dry nub of the clove and peel off the skin, or (if you need many cloves) blanch the garlic in hot water, after which the skin comes off easily.

If you are serving the garlic raw, cut the clove in half and remove any central green germ as they have a powerful taste and can cause digestive problems. If green shoots are sprouting from the whole head, throw it out.