The Healthiest Lacto Fermented Garlic Recipe

Fermenting garlic is easy with the healthiest lacto fermented garlic recipe. You only need five ingredients and 4 weeks of fermentation to get all the benefits of fermented garlic. Use this fermented garlic in any recipe that calls for garlic.

Is it Safe to Ferment Garlic?

The fermentation method used in this recipe is perfectly safe! If you follow all of the recipe amounts and directions, your fermented garlic will be perfectly safe and healthy to eat.

Before publishing any recipes here, I check the pH and microbial composition to ensure it’s a great and healthy recipe. The final pH of fermented garlic should always be below 4.5

How Do You Ferment Garlic?

My favorite way to ferment garlic is to roast it first, then ferment it with fresh cabbage leaves, apple cider vinegar, water, and a 2.5% total salt concentration. Since the garlic is roasted before fermenting, we must include another source of wild microorganisms to facilitate fermentation. That’s where cabbage leaves come in.

The addition of acid to this recipe is essential. I used apple cider vinegar here, but you can also use rice or white vinegar. Another option is to use already fermented sauerkraut brine.

Adding acid, in the beginning, is essential to stabilize the pH. When fermenting a large amount of garlic, the garlic can have antibacterial effects against the bacteria that produce lactic acid. This inhibits a drop to the necessary pH for preservation. Garlic is also high in fructans and can favor an alcohol fermentation pathway over a lactic acid fermentation pathway.

The Benefits of Fermented Garlic

Fermented garlic is great for you! As with any other ferment, you can eat too much, so don’t overdo it.

In ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Babylon, and China, garlic was a treatment for heart disease, joint pain, kidney stones, respiratory problems, rashes, diarrhea, constipation, headache, parasites, minor wounds, ulcers, and tumors. People have used garlic as a food and medicine since around 3000 B.C.

The beneficial compounds in garlic have effects on the human body. The potential benefits include reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and better immune function. Allicin (diallyl-thiosulfinate), the most bioactive compound found in garlic, is known for its antimicrobial (mainly antifungal) activity.

In our course at The Cultured Guru School of Fermentation, I teach students that including fresh garlic in vegetable fermentation recipes is a great way to prevent yeast and fungal growth in ferments.

Does roasting the garlic destroy all the beneficial allicin?

No, roasting the garlic will not destroy all the beneficial compounds in garlic. First, allicin only forms in garlic when the clove is crushed, chopped, or damaged… Because two compounds (alliinase and alliin) in the garlic must be released from the cell walls and combined to form allicin. Heating garlic immediately after crushing or slicing will destroy the heat-sensitive enzyme alliinase, and allicin cannot form without this enzyme. 

When you chop or mash garlic or crush it to peel, as in this recipe, keep it away from heat for 10 minutes. If you wait a few minutes before heating, the maximum amount of allicin can form, and a beneficial amount is still present even after the garlic is cooked.

Is it Safe to Make Fermented Garlic in Honey?

I do not think it is inherently safe. It all depends on the ingredients used! So it can be safe, but sometimes it isn’t.

A study came out that said consuming garlic and honey together can have synergistic health benefits. But I’m unsure who first decided to “ferment” the two together. I’m a fan of time-tested fermentation, not new trends, so I prefer to ferment garlic and honey as an oxymel, which is a recipe over 2,000 years old.

Oxymel has been around since the ancient Greeks, but it is not made with only garlic and honey. It contains half honey and half vinegar and can be made with many different herbal mixtures. The vinegar is an essential ingredient to keep it safe. If you want to make honey garlic, I recommend making it as an oxymel.

Honey Fermented Garlic

Garlic is a low-acid plant food, and honey varies from low to high acidity (between 3.5 and 5.5, depending on the botanical source of the honey). Honey has low water activity due to its high sugar content, and low water activity generally makes things safer.

However, when you combine garlic and honey, the final water activity is variable. Garlic can also increase the pH as it ferments. So, safety depends on the ratio of garlic to honey, what kind of honey is used, and other fermentation factors.

Contrary to popular belief, the combination of only garlic and honey leads only to yeast fermentation, as conditions are not right for lacto-fermentation and safe pH development via lactic acid production.

This is especially true since large amounts of garlic can have antimicrobial effects against lactic acid bacteria. For honey garlic fermentation to be safe, a starter culture should be added, similar to making oxymel.

I recommend adding raw apple cider vinegar or kombucha primary fermentation to honey-based ferments. This makes it an oxymel, and guarantees yeast and acetic acid bacteria mixed fermentation, similar to vinegar fermentation.

How to Know When Garlic is Done Fermenting

The best and safest way to tell if your fermented garlic is done is to test the pH with pH strips. Just dip a strip into the fermentation liquid and ensure it is at a pH of 4.5 or below.

Every time I’ve made fermented garlic this way, the pH ends up right around 4. However, it does take quite some time for the pH of fermented garlic to drop. Sometimes, the pH stalls around five due to the nature of garlic. That is why it’s very important to use a safe, exact salt concentration in this recipe and to add an acid (ACV) at the start of fermentation.

Equipment You Need to Make Lacto Fermented Garlic

Here are all the supplies and equipment you will need to make this recipe:

• 32 ounce Wide Mouth Mason Jar
• Fermentation Weight
• Standard Metal Mason Jar Lid (this can rust in the presence of salt)
• OR Rust Free Plastic Lid
• or you can use a Weck Jar (without the gasket; only use the clips to secure the lid)
• Sea Salt
• Scale
• Mixing Bowl 
• pH strips

Fermented Garlic Recipe Conditions

• 4 weeks of fermentation
• Room temperature (60-78° F)
• Approximate 2.5% total salt concentration
• Final pH below 4
• Store in refrigerator after fermentation for up to 2 years.

More Fermentation Recipes to Try

• The Best Lacto-Fermented Green Beans with Ginger and Scallions
• Simple Wild Fermented Shallots Recipe
• Learn How to Ferment Green Tomatoes
• Roasted Garlic Sauerkraut with Black Pepper

The Healthiest Lacto Fermented Garlic Recipe

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Fermenting garlic is easy with the healthiest lacto fermented garlic recipe. You only need five ingredients and 4 weeks of fermentation to get all the benefits of fermented garlic. Use this fermented garlic in any recipe that calls for garlic.

• Author: Kaitlynn Fenley
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Fermentation Time: 4 weeks
• Total Time: 672 hours 30 minutes
• Yield: 30 servings
• Category: Fermented Vegetables
• Method: Fermentation
• Diet: Vegan

Ingredients

• 400 grams garlic, peeled
• 50 grams fresh cabbage leaves
• 400 grams water
• 200 grams vinegar
• 24 grams sea salt

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Instructions

1. Lightly crush each garlic clove with the flat side of a chopping knife to make it easier to peel. Peel each clove and set it aside. Let the garlic cloves rest for 10 minutes (this will ensure allicin benefits and flavor even after cooking).
2. Preheat your oven to 450° F. Add the peeled garlic to a parchment paper-lined pan. *DO NOT USE ANY OIL*
3. Dry Roast the garlic in the oven for 10 minutes, gently toss the garlic with a spatula, then roast for another 10 minutes.
4. Fill a large bowl with ice and water.
5. Immediately remove the garlic from the oven and scoop it all into the ice water bath. The cloves should still be firm but lightly toasted on the outside. Some cloves might be softer than others, but that’s fine.
6. Dissolve 24 grams of sea salt in the water to create a brine.
7. In a clean mason jar add the 50 grams of fresh cabbage leaves.
8. Drain the garlic from the ice water bath. Add the 400 grams of garlic into the jar with the cabbage leaves.
9. Add all of the saltwater brine to the jar.
10. Place a fermentation weight in the jar to keep all of the garlic submerged. Place the mason jar lid on the jar and secure it in place.
11. IMPORTANT: After 48 hours, you will notice bubbles and carbonation in the jar. (the tighter sealed your lid is, the more bubbles you will see) Remove the lid and the weight. Pour out about half of the brine and top off the jar with 5% acidity vinegar. Add at least 200 grams of vinegar (5% acidity). Place the lid on the jar and invert gently to mix. Replace the weight and the lid. 
12. Ferment for 4 weeks at room temperature. Set the jar in a glass dish to prevent messes. For the first few days, loosen the lid every 24 hours to burp the jar and let the gas out. 
13. After 4 weeks of fermentation, remove the fermentation weight and check to ensure the pH is right around 4 (it should always be below 4.5).
14. Then move to refrigerated storage.

Notes

• The salt concentration in this recipe is extremely important since the pH of fermented garlic can take quite a while to decrease; do not use less than the listed amount of salt. 
• This recipe is sized to fit a 1-quart mason jar.
• Do not skip step 11!! Adding vinegar adjusts the pH to safe levels and is an essential ingredient. The vinegar should be 5% acidity. I suggest using store-bought vinegar since homemade vinegar can have variable acidity.

References

• Garlic: Health benefits and actions
• Allicin and Other Functional Active Components in Garlic: Health Benefits and Bioavailability

Kaitlynn Fenley Author, Educator, Food Microbiologist

Kaitlynn is a food microbiologist and fermentation expert teaching people how to ferment foods and drinks at home.

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