The garlic cloves in olive bars in U.S. grocery stores often have little or no bite. How is this achieved?

Question

The garlic that I roast in the oven at home typically still has a bit of a garlic bite in the finish. (This seems more or less independent of the cooking approach that I use. A typical method for me is to cut off of the top of the head, apply extra virgin olive oil, and roast for 40 min at 400F. The bite is also present regardless of the type of garlic that I use.)

However, the garlic cloves that I buy from olive bars at various grocery stores (Whole Foods, Wegmans, Hannaford, etc.) have a mellow, semi-roasted flavor with no significant garlic bite. How do grocery stores achieve this? Are they blanching the garlic, marinating it in vinegar, or performing some other step before roasting? Is there some other trick? Any insights would be appreciated.

Answer 1

I don't know how olive bars do it specifically, but when I confit garlic it comes out very mellow with no garlic bite. I cook peeled garlic in olive oil in the oven at 210°F (100°C) for an hour or two, and it comes out soft, golden brown, and sweet, with no strong garlic bite.

However, according to America's Test Kitchen, blanching (or even microwaving!) the garlic will remove its strong bite. Apparently, the key is making sure the garlic reaches 140°F (60°C) internally.