Store-Bought Shortcuts: What's Worth It, What's Not
Find out which ingredients will help your meals, from prepeeled garlic to instant mashed potatoes.
By Lynn Andriani
Prepeeled Garlic
Not worth it. Often sold in pint-size containers, the cloves may taste fine the first time you use them (and they'll certainly come in handy if you're making a dish that requires, say, an entire head of garlic). Unfortunately, though, if you use only one or two cloves and then come back a week or so later to grab more, you'll find they've deteriorated into tasteless bulbs. Peeling one or two for dinner isn't difficult: Either whack them on a cutting board with a wooden spoon or the flat part of a chef's knife, use an E-Z-Rol peeler, or try this two-bowl technique, which supposedly yields an entire peeled head of garlic in less than 10 seconds.
Published 02/22/2012