I have an intense, if somewhat stinky, love affair with garlic. Fresh, roasted, braised, steamed…I will take it any way I can get it.
Even if it somewhat, uh, impedes romantic overtures.
I saw that you could make black garlic at home in a rice cooker, so I decided to give it a shot. With one small change – instead of using a rice cooker, I used my multi cooker – aka the electric pressure cooker that does everything – which allowed me to control the release vent, which I hoped would help with the angry garlic smell.
And trust me, it was so angry, it was like the hulk of all garlic.
The thing about black garlic really, is that it’s garlic that’s ever so slowly cooked, so that its sugars caramelise completely and gives you a sweeter finish than even roasted garlic. Commercially, it’s cooked at 60C for 30 days, but you can up the temperature, and shorten the time, which is where the rice cooker method comes in. The “Keep Warm” setting on rice cookers are sits at about 70C, meaning that you can create your black garlic at home in a scarce 9 days! Just chuck your whole heads of garlic into the rice cooker, shut the lid, and put it on keep warm. The rice cooker will do the rest.
So what happens when I use the multi-cooker?
What I learned:
- When you close the valve on the multi cooker, it pressurises the chamber, making the temperature rise. This means that it didn’t actually take 9 days for the garlic cloves to get to where they need to be.
- Rice cookers and electric multi cookers heat from the bottom and the sides, meaning that you need to rotate the garlic heads every few days, or the bottom ones get completely burnt and overdone.
- Sometimes, the cooker will try to turn itself off. Don’t let it!! Keep and eye on it and make sure that it’s on for the entire 9 days, or your experiment might go bust.
- Invest in scented candles, or make your peace with the smell of garlic. And warn everyone else in the house with you.
Otherwise, it was easy as pie, and tasty AF. I’ve got a long list of things I’d like to make with all my 1.6kg worth of black garlic, and I can’t wait to share it with you!! Stay tuned for the recipes to come, I promise!
Do you love black garlic? What’s your favourite thing to do with it? Let me know in the comments down below?
Thank you for this recipe Tammi. Have you tried in an oven? Do you think it would work or would it dry the cloves too much?
Hey Flore! Thanks for dropping by!
No, I haven’t tried it in an oven, though I’m not sure that your oven would have the heat go down low enough. Also, I can’t imagine having my oven out of action for 9 days in order to make the garlic!
Hi Tammi, I was just going to try make black garlic for the first time this morning. Placed the garlic in a rice cooker and then realised I couldn’t bypass the Cook function to the Keep Warm function (any suggestions on this would be greatly appreciated).
I was delighted to find your blog. Can you please share a bit more – how many days did you do it in the pressure cooker? Did you do just one layer of garlic or more? Thanks.
Thank you for yput easy peasy DIY. Black garlic I manage a health and holistic page on facebook and got asked a million and ine questions on where to find black garlic. And I came across your page.. Saved me a ton of answering back close to 400 members individually with a store location lmao. Thank you.
Thank you for your easy peasy DIY. Black garlic I manage a health and holistic page on facebook and got asked a million and one questions on where to find black garlic. And I came across your page.. Saved me a ton of answering back close to 400 members individually with a store location lmao. Thank you.
Black garlic is THE tastiest thing Ive ever tasted. Im addicted
this is a great post š so would you recommend pressure cooker or rice cooker to make black garlic?
also, do you recommend opening the valve in the pressure cooker in the first few days to let some steam out?
were you able to have it running for 9 days without having to keep on monitoring to make sure the pressure cooker doesnt turn off?
Thanks for the tip! Hoping the instapot I have will work for this. How do you store yours and for how long do you think it’s good? I’ve only ever had Trader Joe’s which is just in a zip top bag.
I just made my first absolutely fabulous batch of black garlic. I actually invested in a black garlic maker because I live in Darwin, Australia and it isn’t available here. I’m hoping to eventually sell it to boutique food shops and in local food markets. My question for you is, what do you do with your garlic after it is done? Do you dry it out a little before you put it in the refrigerator? My results are so amazing so I want to make sure I get the next step right. I haven’t found very much information on what to do after the bulbs are done. Thanks for your awesome blog tips!!
Gunda
Is it only a matter of keeping it warm 60c degree (140 degrees Fahrenheit) Can I do this in a warning draw?
What is the actual recipe?
Hi, really curious to hear your method with the instant pot! Could you please share??
I just finished a batch in my instant pot! I made a delicious batch of black garlic salsa, and dried some a bit more and made black garlic powder, which I love to add to many things. We made salmon with black garlic sauce and it was delicious! Iām obsessed!