Ditch Your Clumsy Garlic Press And Use This Handy Tool Instead
Garlic is a vegetable that has become one of the most important flavor enhancers in cooking. It works in everything from an aioli to a pasta sauce, or to season almost any kind of meat or veggie.
A microplane is essentially a smaller version of cheese grater. It's a handheld, flat device with tiny holes that create a much finer grate. That's why it's perfect for garlic, making it easier to integrate the allium into recipes. Fresh garlic is much better than the jarred stuff, so it's worth the extra effort of grating it yourself. However, a garlic press crushes the garlic, and while most of the clove separates into small pieces due to the holes in the press, you often end up with at least part of the clove still intact — meaning you have to then chop it yourself. With a microplane, you can evenly grate the entire clove without issue.
Other reasons to keep a microplane in your kitchen
The microplane, one of Andrew Zimmern's must-have kitchen tools, has other benefits besides evenly grating garlic. It can be used to grate other foods, so it has plenty of culinary applications. It's also easier to clean than a garlic press. With this less convenient tool, the crushed garlic gets shoved into the corners of the press, making them hard to remove. But since a microplane has a flat surface rather than the box-like structure of, say, Orblue's garlic press, it doesn't have any corners. Just tap the microplane on the edge of a pan or bowl, and any leftover garlic should fall right out. For extra ease, buy a dishwasher-safe microplane like the classic zester from the Microplane brand.
Price-wise, a microplane and garlic press are similar, so opting for the flat grater instead won't come at an added cost. Each one takes up about the same amount of space in your kitchen drawer, too. A garlic press is slightly thicker and shorter than the flat, slim microplane, so if anything, you might end up having a little extra storage space if you purchase the latter.