The Little Book of Garlic

Surely no herb inspires more love – or loathing – than garlic. With its pungent flavour and indisputable medicinal properties, the ‘stinking rose’ has a long and illustrious history as both culinary ingredient and popular heal-all. Incredibly versatile in the kitchen, garlic makes an indispensable contribution to a huge number of national cuisines; Indian, Chinese and French to name but a few. Long shunned by English cooks, garlic’s popularity in recent decades has risen to such heights that it is now considered an essential store cupboard item. Its mouth-watering flavours range from the richly mellow of roast garlic to the sharp zing of raw, adding pizzazz and style to the most mundane of dishes. But it’s not
just in the kitchen that garlic shines.
   Aside from its noted vampire-repelling properties, garlic has long been valued for its ability to alleviate and cure many different ailments, from high blood

pressure, to the common cold, to bee stings. It is antibiotic, antiseptic and acts as an antioxidant – no wonder the old folk rhyme:

          Eat onions in March and garlic in May, 

          Then the rest of the year, your doctor can play.