When appropriately used, garlic powder can work wonders in foods. It saves you from cleaning and cutting garlic cloves and the stress of not burning them while sauteing, and it does not leave behind a smell in the kitchen and on your hands. All of the above is enough to convince you that garlic powder should always be included in your kitchen.
However, we have one more way to use it to take your recipes to the next level.
Chances are, until now, you have yet to make the most of garlic powder's flavour. To achieve this, you must hydrate the powder in equal amounts of water before using it. Did you know this? Probably not.
In particular, when you hydrate the garlic powder, its flavour is brought out to the maximum, resulting in tastier dishes.
The "scientific" explanation is that garlic contains the amino acid alliin and the enzyme alliinase. These two react with each other when there is a rupture of the garlic tissues (for example, when you chop or mash a clove) and produce the natural active substance of garlic, allicin, which, among other things, gives it its delicious taste.
When garlic is made into a powder, the high enough temperature to dry it can remove its liquids. Still, it is not high enough to destroy the alliinase, which remains in the garlic powder, albeit inactive.
So if you add water to dehydrated garlic powder, the dormant alliinase "wakes up" and starts producing allicin, giving the powder the intense and complex flavour of garlic.
On the other hand, when you add garlic powder as a seasoning directly from the jar to the pot at a high temperature, the alliinase is destroyed. This is probably why garlic powder is milder and relatively more neutral in taste than cloves.
Therefore, the next time you want to use garlic powder in one of your recipes, make sure you first hydrate it in an equal amount of water. The taste result will delight you.
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