Experimenting with garlic, does cooking kill the flavour? I have been experimenting by adding extra cloves of garlic into my pasta sauce every time I cook it. I make a quick pasta sauce by caramelizing onions in a pan, adding very finely chopped fresh garlic (its practically a paste), and whatever other vegetables is my pick for the night. Then I add chopped tomatoes/passata and reduce.
It seems to me no matter how much garlic I add, I do not get a harsh flavour. I just get a nice, deep, complex yet subtle flavour that I wouldn't instantly attribute to garlic.
I am currently at the stage where I am adding more than half a bulb of garlic to a one person sauce.
Is there any point in adding this much garlic? Is the garlic responsible for this &quot;nice, deep, complex flavour&quot;? Would the same effect be achieved with less garlic which is more coarsely chopped?
I understand that the longer garlic cooks, the weaker the &quot;garlic&quot; flavour gets, but is this flavour disappearing or is it developing into a new flavour?
Garlic mellows pretty rapidly with heat. Dropping it 2 minutes before you've completed sautéeing your onions is enough to knock the raw edge off it - in fact that's the common deciding factor as to when to add your liquids, &quot;Fry until the raw smell is gone&quot;.
After that, the longer it simmers the more 'relaxed' it gets.
If you want more punch, try adding some more fresh right at the end.
You'd be surprised, too, how much punch you can get adding dried garlic powder right at the end too. I use it in tarka dal to really give some 'front' to the flavour &amp; aroma as it is served.