Fermentation Support Forum

I have some garlic that's been fermenting in my cupboard for about a month now. I just tasted a clove, and it has a bit of a minty/menthol taste, which was totally unexpected. Has anybody else experienced this before?

On the whole, I was a little disappointed that it didn't taste better since I LOVE garlic. I'll probably put the jar in the fridge soon. Does anyone know if this will improve the taste?

Thanks!

Whole garlic takes ages to ferment. I've never experienced the phenomenon that you're describing. Sounds a little disturbing.

Like anything else, there are many varieties of garlic out there that taste different and there is organic or sprayed varieties, along with older and fresher ones. Try another kind and also maybe cut up the garlic a bit for a quicker ferment. Good luck !

UPDATE: I am pleased to report that my garlic story has a happy ending.

As I had mentioned before, I recently fermented some garlic cloves for about a month, but they unfortunately had a weird minty/menthol taste. I was going to throw them outside in the trash, but it was rainy that night, so I threw them in the fridge instead. I planned on tossing them the next day; however, I got really busy and ended up totally forgetting about them.

Fast forward to this week. I rediscovered the cloves in the back of the fridge behind some Xmas leftovers and thought, "Holy crap, my garlic!" I was finally going to toss the cloves but decided to give them a sniff first. To my surprise, they didn't smell bad. Then I thought, "What the heck?" So I fished one out of the jar and took a small bite. It was delicious!! No minty/menthol taste at all!

It was cool because the texture was still kinda crunchy like raw garlic, but the taste was similar to cooked garlic. I love this stuff!!

I think I'm gonna let my next jar ferment for 2 months (instead of just one) before throwing it in the fridge. Hopefully I get the same delicious results!

Congratulations. I ought to throw some garlic into a jar myself.

Awesome!

I have a small crock dedicated to fermenting garlic. It holds about 2 lbs of garlic. I generally do a little over a month in the crock and then they get a lot of fridge time as I work through multiple jars of them.

Once I tasted my first batch I realized that I could never run out of these... ever.

I repost this from another place I hang.

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I started this ferment 13 days prior. The Easy Fermenter lid, jar and glass Easy weight were all well washed with very hot water. I’ve experienced garlic from China turning blue/green before, however this batch from Spain (with high Brix rating) has thus far become a bit orange. The brine level sank to about half an inch below the garlic top level while I wasn’t paying attention. For now I’ve added brine and set it in the fridge while I determine what to do with it, next. No moldy smell detected, but it’s very mediciney.

Original ingredients were the garlic, some Celtic Sea Salt for the brine and distilled water from new store bought jug.

Should I continue to ferment it and observe, keep in fridge and consume or freak out over the orange tint and start over?

This photo is after I removed the glass Easy Weight and added brine.
https://imgur.com/KMhAGJJ
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Oh! This reminds me that I got some garlics to ferment. I guess that's today's project.

I'm so glad I read this before I started my fermented garlic.

I now have a nice jar of blue/green garlic with a minty taste.

I've put it in the fridge to finish curing...

baerdric wrote:I'm so glad I read this before I started my fermented garlic.

I now have a nice jar of blue/green garlic with a minty taste.

I've put it in the fridge to finish curing...

Cool, I'm glad this thread helped.