The Healthiest Lacto Fermented Garlic Recipe

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 they are safe and healthy. The final pH of fermented garlic should always be below 4.5. If you ever have any concerns about the safety of a ferment in your home kitchen, you should test the pH!

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 I like to roast the garlic before fermenting, I 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, as well as fermented vegetable 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.

Does roasting the garlic destroy all the beneficial allicin?

Roasting is totally optional. roasting the garlic will not destroy all its beneficial compounds. First, allicin only forms in garlic when the clove is crushed, chopped, or damaged… 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.

The Benefits of Fermented Garlic

Fermented garlic is great for you! But, you can overeat as with any other ferment, 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 food and medicine since around 3000 B.C.

The beneficial compounds in garlic affect the human body. Potential benefits include reduced risk of cardiovascular diseases and 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.

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 recently emerged stating that consuming garlic and honey together can have synergistic health benefits. However, 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, 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 (click here for my recipe).

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.

Equipment You Need to Make Lacto Fermented Garlic

32 Oz Mason Jars

Kitchenaid Dual Platform Scale

Australian Sea Salt

Regular Mouth Rust Proof Mason Jar Lids

Plastic pH Test Strips (pH 0-14)

Wide Mouth Fermentation Weights

Fruits & Roots

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star

5 from 5 reviews

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.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

• Prep: 30 min 30 minutes
• Ferment: 4 weeks 4 weeks

Cook Mode Prevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

• 350 grams garlic, peeled
• 50 grams fresh cabbage leaves
• 300 grams water
• 150 grams vinegar or sauerkraut brine
• 25 grams sea salt

Instructions

1. See recipe notes before you begin! 
2. 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)
3. In a clean mason jar, add the fresh cabbage leaves.
4. Add the garlic, water, sea salt, and vinegar/brine to your mason jar.
5. Place a lid on the jar and shake it until the salt is dissolved.
6. Open up the jar, rinse off the lid, and place a fermentation weight in the jar to keep all of the garlic submerged. Place the clean mason jar lid on the jar and secure it in place.
7. 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. It’s also a good idea to check the lid for debris from the bubbles, and rinse it off if necessary.
8. After 4 weeks of fermentation, remove the fermentation weight. It’s ideal to check to ensure the pH is right around 4 (it should always be below 4.5). Then move to refrigerated storage.

Notes

• No, vinegar does not kill the fermentation microbes. Any raw vinegar or brine from finished fermented vegetables will work in this recipe
• Garlic is a more difficult ferment because of the plant’s natural microbiome. The addition of vinegar or sauerkraut brine acts as a starter culture and helps maintain a safe pH.
• This recipe is sized to fit a 32-ounce mason jar.
• To make this with roasted garlic: Preheat your oven to 450° F. Add the peeled garlic to a parchment paper-lined pan. *DO NOT USE ANY OIL*. Dry Roast the garlic in the oven for 10 minutes, gently toss the garlic with a spatula, then roast for another 10 minutes. Use after roasted weight in the recipe.
• I updated and simplified this recipe in November 2025. Email me if you need the old recipe. 

References

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

Kaitlynn Fenley Food Microbiologist and Fermentation Specialist

Kaitlynn is a Food Microbiologist and FSPCA-certified fermentation specialist. An alumna of the LSU College of Science, she combines her academic background in microbiology with her Cajun heritage to create safe and delicious recipes.

See Full Bio

fermentation food microbiology sourdough sauerkraut fermenting at home fermented foods fermented drinks food safety and preventive controls