Our curious and devoted readers have been puzzled by recipes that call for some number of cloves of garlic. Because they care about these matters, they have likely that cloves of garlic some in vastly different sizes. In the Bozosphere Test Kitchen, we’ve seen small cloves weighing 1 gram or less, and larger cloves up to 10 grams or more. For our readers in the U.S., there are 28 grams in an ounce.
What does one do when confronted by a recipe that calls for 3 cloves of garlic? You could put in as little as 3 grams of garlic or as much as 30 grams of garlic. That’s a huge difference and will dramatically alter the taste of your strawberry and garlic tart.
This problem is not just a garlic problem. It happens for all recipes whose ingredients are measured in number of object, not volume or weight. We have seen recipes that attempt to solve this problem by using the size of the ingredient. For example, 3 medium sized onions. But one person’s medium onion is another’s large onion. And we all know that different onions have different strengths.
We are proud to announce that the Bozosphere Test Kitchen has been named the home of the International Garlic Standard. We have “the standard sized garlic clove” in a special case which allows it to be consistently sized for over 150 years. It’s akin to the standard metre bar held in Paris. For those interested in an approximate value, the standard garlic clove is about one teaspoon of chopped garlic. Of course, people chop more or less finely, so this is just a rough guide. You also have to have an approved standard sized teaspoon, but that’s another issue.
On a similar note, our readers have been asking the Toast Standard. Exactly what do those numbers on the side of the toaster mean? Furthermore, are the numbers consistent from brand to brand, or even model to model of the same brand?
The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers has been working on this problem. You can read more about it here.
Notes From the Bozosphere 