Eighteen months unopened. Three weeks chilled once opened.
On the palate
Molasses, balsamic, dried fig. No raw garlic bite at all.
Where this dish comes from
Black garlic is often described as an ancient Korean food; the honest history is more recent and more interesting. Long, low, humid ageing of garlic was industrialised in Japan in the early 2000s, though the practice of mellowing alliums by slow heat has parallels across East Asia going back centuries.
Chemically, nothing ferments. It is the Maillard reaction and enzymatic browning running for two months at body temperature, which is why the result tastes of balsamic, tamarind and molasses rather than garlic.
Black garlic entered Western fine dining through chefs including Grant Achatz at Alinea and Heston Blumenthal at The Fat Duck, and became a pantry staple after Noma's fermentation lab published its methods. José Andrés has done more than anyone to popularise it in the American home kitchen.
How we make it
Sixty days, no shortcuts. The commercial three-week version is sweet but thin; the last three weeks are where the tamarind depth appears.
The oil confit afterwards is our own addition. It stops the cloves drying out into leather and gives you a second product — a black garlic oil worth as much as the garlic.
Long low-heat ageing, then oil confit
60 days ageing · 3 hours confit
01Whole heads held at 60°C and high humidity for sixty days without any smoke or additive.
02Cloves peeled by hand once the flesh turns to a soft, black paste.
03Confited three hours in olive oil at 70°C with thyme.
04Jarred whole under their oil.
Crushed into butter for steak, whisked into vinaigrette, or eaten plain on bread.
THE INGREDIENT LEDGER
Every defining ingredient, named: who grew or caught it, where, when it was taken, what it has meant to the people who kept it, and what it does for you.
Garlic bulbs
Lifted July 2025, cured three weeks
Farm / fishery
A grower who has planted the same clove stock for thirty years
Region
Gilroy, California
History
Black garlic is a Korean and Japanese tradition — bulbs held warm for weeks until sugars and amino acids turn them to molasses and myrrh.
Why it is good for you
The slow Maillard transformation multiplies antioxidant activity and produces S-allyl-cysteine, gentler on the stomach than raw garlic.
Nutrition, roughly
Per clove: 8 kcal · manganese, B6, antioxidants.
Extra virgin olive oil & thyme
Oil pressed November 2025
Farm / fishery
Single-estate oil; garden thyme
Region
Jaén, Andalusia · Sonoma
History
Confit — cooking and then keeping something under fat — is the Gascon answer to a world without cold.
Why it is good for you
Olive polyphenols plus fat-soluble delivery of the garlic's compounds.
Nutrition, roughly
Per tablespoon oil: 119 kcal · 14 g fat.
Nutrition figures are typical values for the ingredient itself and are given as a guide, not as a dietary claim. Harvest dates refer to the batch printed on your lid.
