the rocky connrrr picture show
Good, I forgot to specify but you’ve already completed step #0: acquire and use a big honkin chef’s knife!
What changes about the flavour from method to method?
I don’t think I can describe it quite right but essentially the more you break up garlic the more an enzyme is released which creates more flavor (and more sticky liquid (“garlic blood” if you will)). Sometimes you want more, sometimes less, it’s just a matter of keeping flavors in balance. If you make hummus with raw garlic, finely mincing or crushing the garlic may release more of that liquid than you want in your hummus.
Basically the Goodfellas thing of slicing it finely with a razor blade would be one way to “maximize” the amount of garlic flavor you’re getting out of the clove, but is impractical if you don’t want to spend twenty minutes shaving one clove of garlic. It would have been more practical and significantly less cool if Paulie had used a microplane.
Leaving the peel on is good/useful for when the garlic is interacting with some kind of liquid, which takes on its flavor.
When I make red sauce for pasta I use about four cloves of garlic.
