Garlic is probably the world’s most popular seasoning, but most of us hate pealing it about as much as we love to eat it. Having to go through over a dozen clovers per garlic bulb is just not fun, but what if I told you there was such a thing as single-clover garlic?
If you live in China, Germany or Northern Europe, you’re probably wondering why you’re reading about a vegetable you regularly see at your local supermarket on a blog about oddities, but the fact is that most of the world is oblivious to the existence of this holy grail of garlic. I myself only recently found out about it after seeing a photo of what looked like an onion labeled as ‘solo garlic’ on Reddit. What I thought was a digitally altered photo turned out to be a real thing that has been around for decades and that is apparently very popular in some parts of the world.
So what is solo garlic? Well, it’s literally in the name, it’s a garlic bulb that consists of a single clover, instead of about a dozen or so. All you have to do is peel the outer skin and you are left with one giant clove that you can mince, grate, or just use whole. It’s the stuff dreams are made of!
A single clove the size of a garlic bulb sounds like an anomaly or the result of shady genetic manipulation, right? Well, no, solo garlic can be obtained from any variety of garlic, as long as certain environmental conditions are met. According to Mel Magazine, too-warm temperatures during the early stages of growth can prevent garlic from developing into multiple cloves, resulting in one giant clove.
Solo garlic is believed to have originated in Yunnan, a mountainous region of China where garlic farmers figured out that weather played a huge factor in the development of garlic cloves. To this day, China remains the largest producer of solo and regular garlic in the world.
How does solo garlic compare to regular garlic in terms of taste, you ask? Some claim that it’s milder, with a stronger flavor, but the main advantage of single clover garlic over the conventional varieties is the ease of peeling.
As mentioned above, solo garlic is common in China, as well as in European countries like Germany, Sweden or Denmark, but it is still largely unknown in the US and most of Europe, which is a shame, because this looks like the kind of garlic we should all be using to save time.
For more unusual foods you probably didn’t know existed, check out albino cucumbers, pink pineapple, and pepquinos.
