In observance of National Garlic Day Tuesday, I tested a few garlic gadgets intended to deliver the herb in different forms: pressed, chopped and sliced.
Item: Garlic Slice by chef’n
Does it work? Barely.
Pros: Small, appealing design. Dishwasher safe.
Cons: In a video on the chef’n site, about seven beautiful slices dropped out of the slicer. In each of several tries, I got only two slices from two cloves of garlic. The rest of the slices caught under the gadget. Also, extra-large cloves don’t fit properly, cleaning is difficult and the garlic smell lingers in the device.
Cost: $11.99 at chefn.com
Worth it? No.
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Item: Crisp Garlic Press by Tailor Made Products
Does it work? Yes. It’s an easy-to-use, 2-in-1 tool. In addition to pressing garlic, the device has a crusher, above right, to help skin cloves.
Pros: Produces uniform pieces, and using one tool for both pressing and skinning saves on space and time spent cleaning tools. Also, the design is good for people with weak hands since the force to crush the cloves is generated from the whole arm, unlike other garlic presses that must be squeezed.
Cons: Pressing the garlic — and then having to push out the tiny pieces with an attachment — gets a little messy. In addition, garlic stuck to the metal area, so I also had to scrape the surface to collect all the bits. The clove crusher is pretty good, but if the clove is extra large, it might take several whacks to get the job done. And while the main tool is easy to clean, it took work to remove pieces from the attachment.
Cost: $17.99 at crispcooking.com and about $13 at amazon.com
Worth it? A little pricey, but yes.
Who needs it: People with no knife skills (like me); kids who want to cook but aren’t allowed to use knives; and cooks who like the color purple.
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Item: Garlic Chopper by Joie
Does it work? Yes.
Pros: Cute and easy to use. Minimum effort to chop several cloves at once. Easy to take apart and wash. Also can be used to chop nuts, herbs, veggies and fruits, and it’s small enough to take along for last-minute additions to desserts, such as sprinkling chocolate chunks or peanuts.
Cons: Pieces aren’t consistent in size; the cover easily falls off, causing bits of garlic to fly everywhere; and the blades require care to wash — not a job for kids. Also, the garlic smell lingers.
Cost: $4.99 at Ross, $7.99 at joieshop.com and $10.17 at amazon.com
Worth it? At $4.99, yes, but for alternative items, not garlic