Afternoon SMF,
So I have been smoking garlic for about 5 months with amazing results. Generally I smoke for around 4 days or 100 hours turning the garlic a beautiful golden brown (looks as if its been cooked). Recently though they have ALL started sprouting, and its a problem.
The equipment I use is a home made Venturi Smoker, and a stainless steel smoking oven (obviously not turned on). The seasons have also changed and we are going into Summer (South Africa). Regardless of the season though I am able to keep my temps right down as I freeze the copper pipes my smoke runs through to create an ice cold smoke (liquid smoke is a bi-product). The garlic is removed every night and allowed to "off gas" and breathe a little allowing the moist skin to dry off (Venturi smokers cause a lot of moisture). Im smoking around 20 kg of Garlic at a time.
I have tried a couple different approaches when prepping the Garlic for smoking...
1. Remove all protective skin (100% garlic sprout)
1. Remove all but 2 layers (50% Sprout)
Now its obvious that the skin has some impact on the sprouting, however even a 50% success rate is unacceptable as garlic is very expensive I also cannot sell sprouted garlic.
Any advice is welcome. I would love to discuss this with all you braniacs and hear any opinions.
Many thanks,
SFS
So I have been smoking garlic for about 5 months with amazing results. Generally I smoke for around 4 days or 100 hours turning the garlic a beautiful golden brown (looks as if its been cooked). Recently though they have ALL started sprouting, and its a problem.
The equipment I use is a home made Venturi Smoker, and a stainless steel smoking oven (obviously not turned on). The seasons have also changed and we are going into Summer (South Africa). Regardless of the season though I am able to keep my temps right down as I freeze the copper pipes my smoke runs through to create an ice cold smoke (liquid smoke is a bi-product). The garlic is removed every night and allowed to "off gas" and breathe a little allowing the moist skin to dry off (Venturi smokers cause a lot of moisture). Im smoking around 20 kg of Garlic at a time.
I have tried a couple different approaches when prepping the Garlic for smoking...
1. Remove all protective skin (100% garlic sprout)
1. Remove all but 2 layers (50% Sprout)
Now its obvious that the skin has some impact on the sprouting, however even a 50% success rate is unacceptable as garlic is very expensive I also cannot sell sprouted garlic.
Any advice is welcome. I would love to discuss this with all you braniacs and hear any opinions.
Many thanks,
SFS
