The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

Minced garlic: Minced garlic is the most common
form you’ll find in this book and most recipes. A
garlic press will do the job reasonably well and may
be a good investment if you often work with a ton of
garlic. And you can use it with unpeeled garlic:
simply throw the garlic clove, peel and all, into the
hopper of the press and squeeze down, and out
comes garlic paste with the skin trapped nicely
behind. The only problem is that this tool is
essentially a unitasker†: you can’t really use it for
anything else. So I skip the press and grate garlic on
my Microplane zester—it works just as rapidly, is
easier to clean, gives you a nice clean cut, and saves
on drawer space.