Pickled garlic substitutes

Roast a whole head wrapped in foil at 400F for 40 minutes, squeeze out the cloves, and toss them with a little white wine or rice vinegar.

Best for

spreading on bread, salad dressings, pasta, sauces, cheese boards, braises

The best flavour match, because roasting solves the same problem pickling solves: it converts garlic's aggressive raw pungency into something sweet and mellow you can eat by the clove. Two clear differences. Texture goes from a firm crisp bite to a soft jammy paste, so it will not work as a garnish or on a skewer. And the flavour is caramelised and nutty rather than tangy, which the vinegar only partly corrects. Excellent in anything cooked or spread.

Bring the brine to a boil, drop in the peeled cloves for one minute, then pack cloves and brine into a jar and refrigerate. Edible in three days, properly mellow in two weeks.

Best for

banchan, cheese boards, Bloody Marys, salads, antipasto, eating plain

The real thing and almost effortless, especially if you buy a bag of pre-peeled cloves. Three days makes them edible and pleasant; two weeks makes them genuinely mellow and translucent all the way through. Young cloves will still carry a faint raw heat at the centre in the first week, so give it time if you can. Do not skip the sugar, since it is what keeps the pickle from tasting purely sour.

Cover peeled cloves with olive oil in a small pan and cook at the barest simmer, around 200F, for 35 to 45 minutes until soft and pale gold. Cool, refrigerate, and use within four days.

Best for

pasta, spreading on bread, sauces, roasted vegetables, dressings, mashed potatoes

Deliciously sweet, silky and deeply garlicky with none of the raw bite, and it is superb in cooking. What it entirely lacks is acidity, which is a large part of what pickled garlic contributes to a dish or a plate, so add a squeeze of lemon or a splash of vinegar wherever you use it. Important safety note: garlic in oil is a botulism risk if held at room temperature, so refrigerate it immediately and use it within four days, or freeze it.

Small pickled pearl onions from a jar, drained, used wherever a whole pickled clove would have gone.

Best for

Bloody Marys, martinis, cheese boards, charcuterie, skewers, relish trays

The best swap when pickled garlic is playing a garnish or a snack role rather than seasoning food, because it delivers the identical sweet-sour crunch in the same bite-sized package. It is onion rather than garlic, so the aroma is sharper, greener and less sulphurous, and it will not carry any garlic flavour into a dish at all. On a Bloody Mary skewer or a cheese board, nobody will feel shortchanged.

Peeled shallots, halved if large, pickled the same way as garlic, or bought ready-pickled. Drain before using.

Best for

salads, cheese boards, grain bowls, sandwiches, banchan, grilled meats

The closest allium match and slightly easier to like than pickled garlic, since shallot is naturally sweeter and gentler. It keeps a comparable firm-but-yielding bite in brine and looks similar on a plate. The flavour is less pungent and more delicately oniony, so anywhere the recipe wanted a deliberate hit of mellow garlic, the result is subtler. Use a little more than the recipe suggests.

Whole heads aged at low heat and humidity for weeks until the cloves turn soft, sticky and black. Peel and use whole or mashed.

Best for

sauces, dressings, spreading, pasta, marinades, cheese boards

Another route to garlic without the burn, and a spectacular one to taste: sweet, sticky and molasses-like with balsamic and tamarind notes. But it is a poor structural substitute. It is completely soft, so no crunch, it is very dark, so it will discolour a pale dish, and it has no acidity whatsoever. Use it where you want the mellow garlic flavour in a sauce and add vinegar or lemon separately for the tang.

If raw garlic is genuinely all you have, mince a very small amount and cook it, or soak thin slices in vinegar for twenty minutes before using them cold.

Best for

cooked dishes only, dressings after soaking, sauces

Stated plainly: raw garlic is not a substitute for pickled garlic, and swapping one for one will ruin the dish. Pickled garlic is mild, sweet and tangy and can be eaten whole by the clove; raw garlic is hot, acrid and sulphurous and a whole clove is inedible. If you have no choice, use an eighth of the quantity, and know that twenty minutes in vinegar or acid does soften the harshness noticeably, which is exactly why pickling works in the first place.