How to Make Minced Garlic for the Freezer
This post has tips to show you How to Make Minced Garlic for the Freezer and then you can stop paying high prices for minced garlic in a jar! Don’t you agree that minced garlic in a jar is so handy, but those little jars of garlic can be pricey if you use a lot of garlic!
Pin How to Make Minced Garlic for the Freezer!
I know some of you are total garlic purists who’d never use anything but freshly peeled and minced garlic, and those people won’t need this tip. I do use fresh garlic for any dish where I want that sharp garlic flavor, and love my little garlic chopper when I need to chop a lot quickly.
But for lots of recipes, especially when the garlic is going to be simmered in a sauce, soup, or stew, I like the convenience of pre-peeled garlic cloves, or (gasp) even minced garlic in a jar. What I don’t like is paying too much money for little jars of minced garlic that only last a week or two, so I started making my own pre-minced garlic for the freezer. This post will show you How to Make Minced Garlic for the Freezer.
I’m a fan of these Christopher Ranch Garlic Cloves, and buy them at Costco. (This product used to come in a jar.) I can’t use this big bag of garlic cloves before they start to go bad in the fridge, so I came up with the idea of mincing the garlic and freezing it. (Christopher Ranch has no idea I a’m recommending their garlic and they haven’t paid me to promote it here!)
Steps for Making and Freezing Minced Garlic:
- I minced the garlic in my Cuisinart Food Processor (affiliate link) fitted with the steel blade. I wanted chunky minced garlic, so I pulsed the machine on and off until I had the texture I wanted. You could let it go longer for garlic puree.
- I chopped up about half the bag of garlic cloves, which just filled this mini-muffin tin (affiliate link) and I froze the garlic in this muffin tin overnight. Each little ball of garlic is 2-3 tablespoons of minced garlic.
- You can also also use an ice-cube tray to freeze the garlic, although a plastic ice cube tray will absorb the garlic smell.
- When the garlic was frozen hard I sealed all the little cubes of frozen garlic into a bag, using my FoodSaver Vacuum Sealing Machine. (affiliate link) Then the whole package went back into the freezer. (Label it so you know when you put it in there!)
- When I need to use some minced garlic, I cut open the bag and take out two cubes at a time, which I store in a little jar in the fridge. Reseal the bag with the rest of the garlic and put it back into the freezer.
- The frozen-and-thawed minced garlic will keep in the fridge for a little over a week, and I like the idea that it doesn’t have any preservatives, which the expensive jars of minced garlic often contain.
More Freezing Tips:
My Favorite Tips for Freezing Garden Tomatoes, Fresh Herbs, and Vegetables
Freezing Fresh Lemon Juice and Lime Juice: How and Why I Do It
How to Freeze Fresh Basil (all phases)
How to Freeze Fresh Herbs: Rosemary and Thyme
More About Freezing Fresh Herbs: Thai Basil, Sage, Tarragon, and Mint
How to Make and Freeze Tomato Sauce
Making Pistou Sauce for the Freezer (in honor of Julia Child)
See Cooking Tips for more posts like this one.
Blogger Disclosures:
All the kitchen gadgets or products mentioned in this post are things I purchased myself or received as a gift from a friend, and none of these companies know that I am mentioning their product on my blog.
34 Comments on “How to Make Minced Garlic for the Freezer”
Another great way to store garlic, thank a lot 😀 So how long will the frozen minced garlic package last the freezer?
I wouldn't keep it more than a few months.
Hi Kalyn,
Possible to change the "printer friendly" option so that the photos are removed and we can just print the text?
Many thanks!
Andrea
Most of my recipe posts do have a "printer-friendly recipe" that contains text only. I don't have one for this post because I consider this just a method, not really a recipe. But you could highlight text and move it into a document and then print if you don't think you'll remember how to do it.
Sorry Amy, don't know what would make it last longer in the fridge. I don't think olive oil would help much, but I don't really know.
I think this is a great idea. Nothing worse then being in the middle of a recipe and realizing you ran out of garlic. I am wondering, you said that once you thaw it out and put it in the fridge. That it only last a week. Has anyone said how to lengthen that time? Just wondering would adding olive oil help? Just wondering..~Thanks Amy
Great idea to use mini muffin trays. When you take out two balls of frozen garlic, you can them in a jar with oil, they will keep in the refrigerator longer. I use mostly olive oil, but add avocado oil to make sure the oil does not freeze in the fridge (olive oil alone will freeze). Thanks for the tips Kalyn.
Genius!!!
what a great tip! this can be done with pesto as well, and soup stock, and basically a lot of stuff!
Possibly even less expensive is to buy heads of garlic and peel them yourself. YouTube the video of peeling a head of garlic in less than one minute. Anyone can do this and it's fun!
Fresh garlic without any mysterious additives!
Mother Rimmy, I love, love, love my FoodSaver too. Glad you like the idea.
My husband loves his Food Saver. What a terrific idea you have here. I hate chopping garlic!
Mommy, I can't publish comments with links to products, even when they are just trying to be helpful (like yours.) If I allow those kinds of comments my blog gets over-run with spam commenters "advertising" things in the comments.
Gwen, I do agree that the chopped garlic will only keep for a week or so when it's thawed (or if it's stored without freezing), which is sure why the add preservatives to the little jars of chopped garlic. I don't really know about how the health benefits are diminished, but I have no doubt that freshly chopped garlic is better. However, I eat so much garlic I'm definitely not worried, lol!