Why is my Garlic Blue?

If you’ve been in the kitchen this summer doing a little pickling of your own and happen to run across some blue garlic, there is no need to panic, it is not some new super species of garlic, and it won’t harm you if you eat it, it just may look a little funny.

You may have followed Gran’s Old Family Recipe to a tee and still come out with blue garlic; I want to reassure you that you are not a terrible cook. While trying to discover why this cooking mystery occurs I found hundreds of cooks just like you, trying out Gran’s Old Recipe and they too got some blue garlic.

So here is what I found from our friends in the kitchen, and what they told us about why the garlic turns blue and how to avoid it the next time. So the simple explanation to blue garlic is that there are pigments called Anthocyanins, which are water soluble and will turn a bluish-green colour in an acid solution (Such as Vinegar) This happens most often when the garlic is not mature enough, or has not been dried out completely.

When this happens there is nothing to worry about, it will not change the flavour of the garlic, and it won’t cause you any harm. As well, it is possible that if you cleaned the garlic with water that you might as well get that bluish-green colour, for garlic contains a sulphur compound that reacts with copper sulphate (A blue-green compound) which can be found in water.

So the easiest steps that were proposed start with selecting mature garlic, washing it carefully; or buying already prepared garlic. Lastly is to heat the garlic before adding it with the acid compound, this should release the pigment from the garlic stopping the bluish-green colour from occurring when you start pickling.
~ Pickle Blogger

Sound Off! Have you ever gotten some blue garlic? What other tricks did you use to get rid of it?

(Resources: whatscookingamerica.net – chineseop.com and aces.edu)