How to peel garlic in 30 seconds by shaking it in a jar or two bowls

Peeling the small, tightly wrapped cloves of garlic is one of the more tedious jobs before cooking. On 29 July 2026 the lifestyle desk of Jagonews24 described a simple household fix: put the cloves in a lidded container, or between two steel bowls, and shake hard for 20 to 30 seconds, and the skins come loose with no knife or special tool. The report named America's Test Kitchen, the US cooking-test organisation, among its sources, and the organisation's own guides describe the same method.

Garlic (Allium sativum) belongs to the genus Allium, alongside onions, shallots and leeks. A bulb is typically made up of 10 to 20 cloves, each enclosed in its own thin sheath. Picking that skin off by hand strains the fingernails and often breaks the clove, while using a knife takes longer and risks a cut.

Garlic's pungent smell and flavour come from its sulphur compounds. Cutting or crushing a clove produces allicin and related compounds, and the smell clings to the hands for a long time, one more reason a quick, hands-off method is welcome in the kitchen.

According to Jagonews24, all that is needed is a steel or plastic container with a lid. The steps:

• Break the bulb into separate cloves and discard the loose outer papery skin.
• Put the cloves in the container and close the lid tightly.
• Hold the container in both hands and shake it hard, without stopping, for about 20 to 30 seconds; the cloves knock against each other and the skins loosen.
• Pour out the cloves and check them; put any that still have skins back in and shake again.

America's Test Kitchen gives the same instructions: place the garlic in a two-cup, wide-mouth jar, screw on the lid and shake for 30 seconds, then return any cloves that still have skins to the jar and repeat. In a March 2022 article it reported peeling 15 cloves in 15 seconds this way by shaking constantly and vigorously.

Two steel bowls of the same size work just as well. Put the cloves in one bowl, turn the other upside down over it rim to rim, pinch the rims together firmly and shake for 20 to 30 seconds; the skins loosen in the same way. America's Test Kitchen notes that many professional chefs peel a whole head of garlic at once between two matching metal bowls.

The trick peels many cloves at once, spares the fingernails and needs no knife, so there is less risk of a cut. It saves the most time in dishes that call for a lot of garlic.

Guidance published by Oregon State University Extension in November 2024 says whole garlic keeps best in a cool, well-ventilated place, ideally at 32 to 38 degrees Fahrenheit and below 70 percent humidity. Peeled cloves are best used soon after peeling.

Peeled cloves kept in oil need particular care. The same guidance explains that garlic is a low-acid vegetable and, stored wrongly in oil, can let Clostridium botulinum bacteria grow and produce potentially fatal toxins. Raw garlic in oil must never be kept at room temperature, and in the refrigerator for no more than four days. For longer storage, chopped or pureed garlic can be frozen, tightly wrapped so its smell does not spread to other foods.

Photo: Salim_Khandoker / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Sources: Jagonews24, America's Test Kitchen, Oregon State University Extension, Wikipedia