Written by Robbie Ferguson, on December 16, 2007

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I've started seeing them in grocery stores; but truthfully, why pay more for something you can do yourself for way cheaper?

I've heard some people say things like "Why bother freezing Garlic when it's so readily available?" or "What's the point?"... but the point is this: anything done in bulk 1) saves you money and 2) creates convenience for you when you're in a hurry.  Personally, I love these little Garlic Cubes because they are as good as fresh Garlic, but are as convenient as throwing an ice cube into your sauces or dishes.

The Frozen Garlic Cube tip from Robbie Ferguson 

NOTE Do not add salt or oil to this recipe.  Salt will prevent the cubes from freezing adequately, and oil mixed with garlic can cause deadly bacterium (botulism).

Necessary Ingredients: Fresh garlic, water

Also Need: Ice cube tray(s), Ziploc freezer bags

One of the nice things when working in a proper kitchen is having a prep cook.  Someone to do all the prep for you.  You turn around, and there's diced tomatoes just waiting for you to toss in the mix.

But let's be honest, I don't have a prep cook.  Neither do you.   So we have to do our own prep.  So the real choice becomes this: do we save all our prep for the "night of"?  Or do we pre-prep some of our fresh ingredients to ease the workload when whipping up that perfect dinner for the family?

There's so many fresh ingredients that we can freeze without noticeable affecting the flavor, and garlic is one of them (if done correctly).

I love fresh garlic in my food.  Fresh garlic.  Not the powdered, freeze dried, or salted stuff.  So when I'm creating that flavourful spaghetti sauce, or frying up some ground beef for a sauce, it's absolutely superb to pull out one of my Fresh Garlic Cubes from the freezer and toss it straight in the mix.

How to make

Sooo simple.  Just that many of us haven't thought about it.

Peel as many cloves of garlic as you want, and cut off the hard stem area, leaving you with a nice, edible clove.

Drop each in your food processor until it's full, or you're out of garlic.

Add 1/2 tsp water per clove of garlic, and turn on your food processor, grinding and chopping the mix to a nice, chunky puree.

Now, carefully place 1 tsp of the blended mix into each cube of an icecube tray, filling as many ice cube trays as are necessary.

Let those freeze overnight.  The water is going to freeze up nice and solid, giving you prefect garlic cubes.

Do not leave them in the cube trays; you're not finished!  If you leave them in the trays, your whole freezer will smell like garlic within a week, tainting your frozen foods and damaging the "freshness" of your garlic cubes.

Once the cubes are frozen solid, simply dump the trays of Robbie's Fresh Garlic Cubes into Ziploc freezer bags and pop them back in the freezer.  Let your cube trays soak in hot, soapy water, and wash in the dishwasher to eliminate the smell and taste of garlic.  I actually keep a handful of ice cube trays specifically for making garlic cubes, so I don't have to worry about giving company a "garlicy" coke by accident.

Now that you've got a nice bag of Robbie's Fresh Garlic Cubes in the icebox, just drop them into your cooking as you need them.  Each cube is approximately one clove.  So for a sauce, it's as easy as dropping one or two cubes into the hot sauce.  The cube will melt and mix perfectly into the mix, and your guests won't know you didn't stand there chopping fresh garlic for 30 minutes.

Published in : Recipes, Tips and Tricks