In Too Afraid to Ask, we’re answering food-related questions which will or might not offer you goosebumps. Immediately: My garlic turned blue—is it nonetheless fit for human consumption?
Our kitchens are stuffed with mysteries: Is burnt meals really dangerous for us? How gross wouldn’t it be to eat considered one of my sprouted potatoes? What precisely do these crisper drawers in your fridge do? However there’s one kitchen query that ties some dwelling cooks’ brains into knots: Why did my garlic change into blue in the course of cooking?
When you’ve discovered that your garlic has modified coloration mid-recipe, the excellent news is that it gained’t make your meal any much less scrumptious. Because it seems, it’s a considerably frequent incidence—simply take a look at the limitless, shocked-sounding Reddit posts on the topic. Like many kitchen mysteries, the reply lies in science.
Why does garlic flip blue?
When garlic takes on a blue hue, it’s the results of a chemical response. As taste scientist and creator of Flavorama Arielle Johnson explains, all of it begins with an enzyme in garlic known as alliinase—the identical enzyme that’s accountable for the ingredient’s spicy taste. “Alliinase can react with sulfur-containing molecules,” she says, comparable to “free amino acids, which create vivid blue and inexperienced pigments.” In keeping with Johnson, garlic is extra prone to flip blue when it’s been saved at chilly temperatures.
Garlic can flip blue in primarily any recipe the place it comes into contact with an acidic ingredient (e.g. in a vinegary ferment or a lemony roast hen). However to not fear, says Johnson—blue garlic remains to be fit for human consumption. In Chinese language laba, which is a pickled garlic, that vibrant hue is prized.
Simply guarantee that the blue-ish inexperienced you’re seeing is certainly the results of the garlic’s contact with acid, and never one thing like mildew, which may have a considerably related coloration. The way in which to inform the distinction? Mildew will typically seem on solely a small a part of the clove, and it’ll create a tough texture. If complete garlic cloves sitting unused in your counter are blue or inexperienced, that’s seemingly mildew, whereas garlic that turns blue within the midst of a recipe is a special story.
What can I do to keep away from blue garlic?
Garlic that’s blue as a consequence of cooking is completely fit for human consumption, but when it’s merely not your jam, there are just a few methods to cut back your odds of encountering it. The primary is clear: Don’t mix garlic with any sort of acid (duh), although we’re obligated to say that’s a tragic life to stay. Older garlic is extra prone to flip blue—garlic for laba, as an illustration, is commonly aged for months earlier than pickling to extend coloration. So cooking with youthful garlic can decrease your possibilities of the hue altering. Garlic can last as long as six months in your counter, however utilizing garlic in direction of the top of that interval means it’s extra prone to flip blue.
Do different meals flip blue like garlic?
Then again, if you happen to’re hoping for extra blue meals in your weight loss plan, garlic isn’t your solely possibility. Substances like blue corn, blueberries, and butterfly pea powder have a pure blue coloration. Sunflower seeds or sunflower butter flip blue when mixed with baking soda or powder (which adjustments its acidity), and crimson cabbage is understood to go blue when it’s launched right into a barely alkaline atmosphere (like when it’s stewed by itself with different greens). In these situations, similar to garlic, a blue hue doesn’t imply these meals are inedible—simply that you simply’ll have a bit extra coloration added to your plate.
