“Three nickels will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat.” ~ Old New York saying.
Have you ever been curious as to why garlic smells like this? Well, wonder no more. Read on about this hearty and versatile member of the lilac family and find out how he came to be on everyone’s breath everywhere you’d think to look.
If the movements of the body denote their own language and an image is worth a thousand words, how many smells make up a sentence? It depends on the sentence, you could say. Well, that’s true. “Jack and Jill went up the hill” is not the same thing to our nostrils as: “The garlic in Grandma’s carbonara made its way into the dining room, making all our mouths water.” “Smells by any other name are still smells”, as one of my neighbors said who was never without her gas mask. Certainly within the animal kingdom, odors comprise their own form of communication. My argument is that so does garlic; because no matter what country one calls home and no matter what language is their first language, the cuisine of almost every culture recognizes and uses garlic in one way or another. In that sense, it’s a second language to everyone who crosses its wonderful, smelly path.
A man named Arthur Baer once said that there is no such thing as a little garlic. Whether this is due to his magical cooking power or because there can never be enough protection against the vampires hanging out in the house is a matter of opinion. The superstition of garlic as a deterrent against evil and vampires is deeply rooted in Balkan folklore. The vampire legend is based in part on a real homicidal maniac; Vlad Tepes Dracula, whose name means devil in Romanian. In the 15th century, he ruled Walaachia, now part of Romania, as Vlad II and was affectionately known to his closest friends and enemies as Vlad the Impaler. (He didn’t have many of either when he ended his reign due to his bloodthirsty predilections.) Bram Stoker and later Hollywood idealized the vampire, transforming him into a tragic, erotic and solitary figure, who sought out lovely maidens to free him from his curse and join him in an eternal game of chess within the chambers of his dark and drafty world. Transylvanian air castle.
The word vampire comes from the Slavic word obyri or obiri, which evolved into the Bulgarian word vampir. Some say that the Greek word, nosphorosos, meaning plague bearer, which evolved from the Old Slavic word nosferatu, is synonymous with vampire. In our culture words are often interchanged. Many of the earliest myths grouped vampires, witches, and werewolves. It was thought that a vampire could turn into a wolf. This was when the bat form was not available and Bela Lugosi was working on another movie. The vampire would enter the house of the unwary and drink the blood of his children. To protect themselves, common people sprinkled salt or seeds around their doors and hung cloves of garlic in their windows. The vampire was thought to be a compulsive counter and would have to know exactly how many grains of salt or seeds there were before they could enter the house. (This can also be seen as the beginning of OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, which will be the subject of another article, coming to your local theaters soon.)
Warding off vampires throughout the misty forests of Transylvania probably isn’t one of your biggest garlic concerns today. (But then again, who knows?) Garlic has its own history and its own language. Although it is not known for certain when it was discovered, it was probably first dispersed by nomads on the central Asian steppes several thousand years ago. Already in the VIII century BC. C., garlic grew in the garden of Babylon. Chinese scholars spoke of him from as early as 3000 B.C. C. and there is also a reference in the Shih Ching (the book of songs), a collection of ballads said to have been written by Confucius himself. Garlic was so precious in ceremonies and rituals that lambs offered for sacrifice in China were seasoned with it to make them more pleasing to the gods.
Garlic was part of the Sumerian diet in the Middle East more than 5,000 years ago. By AD 1000, it was cultivated throughout the known world and was universally recognized as a valuable plant. It was introduced to France by Godefroy de Bouillon, not the inventor of the bouillon cube, but the leader of the First Crusade, who when he returned to France in 1099, was declared King of Jerusalem. Many cultures elevated garlic beyond a dietary staple and suggested it had medicinal and spiritual purposes. In ancient Greece, Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, used it to treat infections, wounds, and intestinal disorders. Roman legionnaires attributed their courage and stamina to garlic and took it with them when they conquered the world, thus spreading its use and cultivation like bad rumors far and wide.
The ancient Egyptians worshiped garlic as a god, and its name was often invoked in oaths. (It is not known if the oath-sworn first rinsed their mouths out of respect for the nostrils of the gods.) During the era of the great pharaohs of Egypt, according to ancient papyri, garlic served as food, medicine, and offering. It was found in the tomb of Tutankhamen and within the Saqqara funerary complex, as well as in inscriptions on the Giza pyramid. Garlic was so valuable that £15 could buy a healthy slave. It is also written that the workers who built the pyramids were given garlic (as well as onions and radishes) every day to help increase their vitality. It was so important to their diets that it led to work stoppages when workers were deprived of their allotted ration. According to Charmidas, cheating Egyptian husbands relied on garlic’s unique “scented” properties to hide evidence of infidelity. They would chew a tooth or two on the way home from visiting their lovers so that her entire body would be impregnated with the scent, ensuring that a jealous wife would not be able to detect another woman’s perfume.
Garlic, known by its Latin name, Allium sativum, may very well be one of Mother Nature’s greatest gifts to man (and woman, of course). It is a powerful natural antibiotic. Reduces blood pressure in hypertension and is useful for lowering “bad cholesterol.” One advantage of using garlic for its antibiotic properties is that it does not destroy the body’s natural intestinal bacteria. It is excellent for use in colds and infections. Garlic oil is often used to treat earaches and ear infections, especially in babies and children. During World War I, garlic was used as a wound dressing and as an antiseptic. It has also been shown to be an effective treatment for fungal infections, such as athlete’s foot. The active ingredient in garlic, allicin, is destroyed when heated and is only released from the clove when crushed or bruised. Thus, for most treatments the garlic needs to be crushed or raw. (Stay away. This means you!)
Garlic also has other uses. Peeled cloves placed in a room are said to prevent disease. The entire light bulb is hung in new houses to dispel negativity and evil spirits. A nail placed under the pillow of sleeping children is said to protect them. Dreaming of eating garlic means that you will discover secrets. (Maybe now you’ll find out who the mother of your baby really is!) In the Bible, the Hebrews mention that garlic was used to increase and maintain virility. Early travelers through the Rocky Mountains inserted garlic into the nostrils of their horses and mules to prevent them from collapsing from lack of oxygen. Explorers in the mountains of South America chewed wild garlic to relieve altitude sickness. Native American tribes treated many ailments with wild garlic, though they were defenseless against the forces of Manifest Destiny and the eventual demise of their garlic birthright.
For culinary purposes, a general rule of thumb to remember regarding the potency of garlic is: the smaller you cut it, the stronger the flavor. One finely chopped or pressed raw clove releases more flavor than a dozen whole cooked cloves. Finely chopping and/or pressing a clove exposes more surfaces to the air, causing a chemical reaction that produces that strong aroma. When cloves are cooked or baked whole, the flavor mellows into a sweet, almost nutty flavor that is a surprisingly nice addition to desserts, such as ice cream or brownies. Whole, undrilled cloves have hardly any aroma, while raw garlic has the strongest flavor. When sautéing, be very careful not to burn it. If you do, the taste will turn intensely bitter and you’ll have to start over.
And now the topic that we have all been waiting with great (or at least a little bad) encouragement. Why does garlic smell like that? When cells are ruptured by cutting or pressing, they release an enzyme called alinaise that chemically changes inherent alin into allicin, a sulfur-containing molecule, resulting in that spicy mainstay found in kitchens around the world. If you are a garlic lover, it is advisable to surround yourself with other people who also enjoy it, or try chewing on parsley to get rid of garlic breath. (As far as I know, there is no cure for parsley breath!) It is said that to remove the odor from your hands after peeling or mincing garlic, simply wash your hands, then rub them together in a chrome faucet. (I don’t know. That’s what they say.)
There are many different types of garlic (Allium). Although only the cultivated variety is used for medicinal purposes, all other species have similar properties to a greater or lesser degree. Crow Garlic is widely distributed and quite common, but the bulbs are very small and the work of digging them up is great. It is frequently found in pastures and affects the taste of milk when eaten by cows. Ranson garlic grows in the forest and has a very pungent taste and smell. It also has small bulbs, making it impractical. However, it is quite a beautiful plant with broad leaves that resemble lily-of-the-valley and star-shaped flowers that are dazzling white. Field garlic is a rather rare plant. Both this and Crow Garlic are often used as potherbs or for flavoring. There are some Allium species grown in the garden whose flowers are even sweet-smelling, but they are exceptions and even these have the smell of garlic on their leaves and roots.
All things considered, I’d say the garlic was a good deal. I even like the smell and am considering marketing it as a perfume. (I had the same idea about manure for horse lovers. That didn’t work but…) In his own way, Bela Lugosi lives within the soul of every dish made with garlic; not like a vampire, but like a dinner guest who avoids daylight and mirrors and knows a good meal when he sees it. If you come across him among the misty ghosts of Hollywood celluloid, say hello, because I’m a fan. But just in case, he’ll try some of the Vampire Away Garlic Sauce provided by The Snack Food Association and listed at the bottom of this article. It’s chilling and insanely good with regular or ridged fries for all who dare eat it. Put in some extra teeth for good measure. After all, you never know who you might run into in the Hollywood of your mind.
Vampire-Away Garlic Sauce
1/2 cup skim milk
1 cup low-fat cottage cheese
2 small garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
2 tablespoons chopped chives
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon onion salt
Addresses:
Go to the nearest cemetery after midnight on a cold October night. Blend all ingredients in blender until smooth. Then wait and see what happens. If nothing else works, go home and enjoy your dip because it worked!