Why Does Garlic Turn Blue and Is Blue Garlic Safe To Eat?
Shockingly Blue Garlic
The Blue Garlic Surprise
Perhaps you, as I, have been cooking with garlic for years, expecting garlic to remain a kind of off-white, uninteresting color throughout the cooking process. Then one day, the garlic turns a bright blue-green, even an aquamarine or turquoise color, transforming a familiar dish into an odd concoction of color accents that undermine the familiar tones we expect. The visual impact of this changed dish can be likened to the colors of trees in autumn, with their red, gold, green, and dun colors, suddenly being splashed with fluorescent hues of blue and green reminiscent of the op art of the 60s. Autumn colors aren’t supposed to display this jarring contrast, nor is food. It’s unsettling.
If one day your garlic turns a shocking shade of blue, making your homemade pickles, pork roast, or pot of cabbage and kielbasa look strange and even poisonous, be assured that no matter how strange it looks, it hurts only your eyes, not your body.
My Blue Garlic Experience
This past Thanksgiving I volunteered to bring our family's traditional Polish kielbasa and cabbage dish to the holiday dinner. Ours is a simple recipe consisting of traditional Eastern European ingredients including onion, garlic, cabbage, sausage, black pepper, and apple. Our version of this dish is mild-tasting and slightly sweet, and we all love the recipe just as it is. But this year I decided to charge up the flavor a bit by adding sauerkraut to the cabbage, something I had never done before.
By early evening on Wednesday, my kitchen smelled heavenly from the onions, cabbage, apple, and kraut slowly simmering on the stovetop, from the freshly pressed whole head of garlic waiting to go into the pot, and from the thinly sliced kielbasa resting on the cutting board. It was a peaceful moment, leaving me with the feeling that all is well with the world.
An hour before the pot was to finish, I added the pressed garlic and sliced kielbasa and folded them in. Immediately, I began to see a few bright blue-green bits of color in the pot. As I stirred the pot, more began to appear. Soon, the pot contents were lavishly sprinkled with shocking, almost neon-like, blue-green, confetti-looking bits. I started picking them out and putting them in a small dish, but soon gave up. It seemed the more I removed, the more appeared.
Aged Copper Sulfate
It took a few minutes for me to realize that the garish blue-green material was pressed garlic that had gone through a color transformation. Suddenly, a long-forgotten memory began to surface about making copper sulfate crystals in my high school chemistry class. The color sprinkled around the cabbage and kraut in the pot looked somewhat like the color of those crystals, only a bit more green, in fact, much the color of the corrosion that can appear at the junction of a car battery and its terminal.
Never in my cooking life had garlic turned blue-green, but never had I cooked my family’s original kielbasa and cabbage dish with sauerkraut, either. I suspected the color change had something to do with the acid in the kraut and whatever chemicals are in the garlic.
Garlic Turning Blue Is Sometimes Called "Greening"
This term is a misnomer because multipyrrole production in garlic, the process that turns garlic shades of blue and green, has nothing to do with restoring freshness, aligning with principles of the Green Movement, or exposing garlic to light.
If you would like more in depth information on the chemistry behind garlic turning blue, read the excellent article written by The New York Times columnist Harold McGee, When Science Sniffs around the Kitchen. Scroll down to about the last third of the page.
How Does Garlic Turn Blue?
Studies prompted by the food industry as a result of increasingly occurring batches of accidentally colored garlic have begun to unlock the mystery of why garlic turns blue.These studies have found a number of complicated chemical processes responsible for garlic turning shades of blue, green, and even pink under certain conditions.
The colors occur when enzymes and amino acids present in garlic react with the sulfur compounds responsible for garlic’s pungent smell. The reaction causes different multipyrrole molecules to form. Different types of multipyrrole molecules are responsible for the different pigments. The multipyrrole molecule most familiar to us is chlorophyll, produced by plants in the presence of light; however, chlorophyll is not produced by the cooking or pickling processes that turn garlic blue.
If your answer is yes, please share your experience in the comments section.
Have you been surprised by garlic turning blue?
See results without votingVariables Involved in Garlic Turning Blue Here are some of the factors that have an influence on garlic changing color:
- Age of the garlic - Some sources say that newly harvested, unaged garlic (meaning garlic with a high water content), is more prone to turning color; other sources say the opposite.
- Added presence of acid - It seems clear that the presence of acids such as lemon juice or vinegar can cause a color change, although not always.
- Temperature - Garlic that is pre-heated may or may not react with acid to change color.
- Color of garlic bulbs - Some garlic is pure white, some has tinges of purple or red; the colored garlic may be more prone to turning blue-green.
- There is at least one place in the world where garlic is deliberately turned into a jade-green color. For centuries the Chinese have produced Laba garlic, a jade-green pickled garlic which is an important food accompaniment to celebrating the harvest festival of Laba. If the Chinese can perfect this color change in garlic, why do we have only “accidents”?
If your garlic turned blue by surprise, you may have already researched this accident and found discussions about sulfur compounds in garlic reacting with copper present in water supplies, utensils, or copper-rich foods. There may be validity to this explanation, in which case the blue color indicates the presence of copper sulfate, not the presence of multipyrrole pigments.
Chemistry in the Kitchen
Mr. McGee opens up a world of understanding that illuminates the love of foods and the food chemistry aspects behind that love.
 | Amazon Price: $19.35 List Price: $40.00 |
Blue Garlic Facts for the Home Kitchen
Until more research is completed, here’s some helpful information to have when your garlic turns blue in your kitchen:
- Absent any sign of spoilage such as foul smell or mold, your blue garlic is safe to eat.
- There are so many variables causing accidental garlic color change that it may be impossible for you to duplicate this surprising event in your home kitchen.
- No one as yet has discovered how to turn blue garlic back to white, although continuing to heat the turquoise garlic may dull it down to a pinkish-brown.
- When serving your dish that contains aquamarine bits of color, say nothing. Most folks, if they notice this color at all, will never ask, knowing that whatever you bring to the table is good to eat because you brought it. If someone does happen to ask why there are bright blue-green flecks of color in the dish, take them aside and tell them your secret and that you expect them to keep it: “The dish needed some color.”
Share Your Blue Garlic Experiences
Now you know that if your garlic turns blue accidentally in the absence of any sign of spoilage, don’t worry. Enjoy your meal. Then share your experiences here in the comments section so we can all commiserate with each other.
Comments
Good to know if our food suddenly takes on neon colors due to the garlic turning different colors than expected. It has never happened...so far! Voted up and interesting. Thanks for this information.
I tell you, MsLizzy, this was a total shock to me. When I saw this color appear on the eve of my family's celebration, I was beside myself. First, I got mad and decided the kraut was bad...I was in a panic. But then I turned to the net (good for many things) and got my questions answered, more or less. The entire chemistry of the color change is still not completely understood, and there's some confusing information coming even from edu sites.
So glad you found this funny. I did too. :)
Peggy, hopefully now you won't be as freaked out as I was if it happens to you. Now you just have to concoct your own "secret" to share if and when it does. LOL
I'd never heard of garlic turning turquoise, or any other color for that matter! It had to be the addition of the sauerkraut.
The word "sauer" of course means "sour" and to make perfectly good cabbage "sour" is a complicated (but natural) chemical process in itself, one I try to forget when I eat kraut! Good for you for having the presence of mind to research the cause of the discoloration and decide the dish was safe to eat. I would've thrown the whole concoction out and never cooked it again. Well done, Sherri! ;D
TY, Joanna...I was for a moment or two on Wednesday night tempted to throw the whole thing out. But my mother was expecting this dish for the holiday meal, so at the very least I had to find a reason for what happened. I had no idea what doors that would open.
In this case, vinegar (kraut) is definitely the key, I'm sure, I think. :)
Wow - I had no idea that garlic could do that! That's pretty cool and also freaky at the same time! I'm glad to hear it was safe to eat.
I feel cheated! I add garlic to almost everything I cook and never have I watched it turn blue...or any other colour! :D
Only you could have taken the trouble to research the phenomenon, ST...I remember reading one of your earlier hubs on onions and wishing you would write one on garlic one day...and you don't disappoint!
Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving...how did your family react to the blue bits by the way?
I was hoping for more drama with the dish, like you were so shocked you were afraid to eat it, or you brought it to your family's and they were all gasping how you totally rearranged the traditional dish...LOL
Seriously, I want to thank you for bringing this to light. I never experienced it before, but I assure you I would have gone to bed without dinner if that happened to me while cooking!
Excellent and so interesting! I have had the garlic begin to sprout but never turn blue, green yes but never blue. Great info I love how you said not to mention anything to the guests, I just can picture their faces when seeing the colors.
This is a neat thing to know (and interesting and useful Hub). (I've never heard of it before, and I've never had garlic turn color.) (Hmmm. I don't suppose something similar applies to the green that shows up on cheese and/or bread.... I didn't think so.)
Interesting phenomenom. We use garlic all the time and never had it turn blue. I love saur kraut and I would have never thought to put the two together.
@Kris
Definitely freaky! It's a real shocker when you're not expecting it. :)
@FP
Thank you so much for your awesome compliments. :) Yes, I remember your wishing for a garlic hub like the onion hub. That was a long time ago! There's so much more to be said about garlic, but this hub was driven by an immediate need to share this incredible surprise. Only one person in my family, a long-time, excellent cook (like you), told me she noticed the blue, but she told me only because I asked her if she did. She's part of that last bullet point up there under Blue Garlic Facts for the Home Kitchen. But you know, most guests had had a few drinks before dinner, so who knows what they saw or thought they saw? lol
@Cardisa
The good news is that if it happens to you in the future, you can sleep easily knowing that garlic changing to blue while cooking is safe to eat. As for the drama that wasn't there, that's such an interesting comment. First, there was NO WAY I was going to dump two pounds of sausage, two pounds of kraut, a huge head of cabbage, a giant sweet onion, an entire head of fresh garlic, and a whole mess of apples in the trash if I could help it. That's what led me to find out what the heck happened. Second, I don't do drama well, and that's why I don't write fiction. :)
This is a first, I've never heard of that happening.
This was a total surprise to me too. I've never come across it personally, nor ever heard of the baffling blue garlic. Glad it was still good to eat, and apparently, you served it to your family. Although I wonder with so much contrary information you found about blue garlic, I wonder if it is, in fact, safe to eat. Maybe in a weeks time your family will turn into Smurfs!
@jenubouka
Thanks for the good words! As for the faces of the guests at dinner, I had a few drinks, too...so I wasn't paying attention. :)
@Lisa HW
You are right...the blue that shows up in cheese and bread has nothing to do with this process and is a sign of spoilage (mold), unless you are making the cheese and controlling the mold that goes into it, as in blue cheese.
@Lynn S. Murphy
You are so right about not thinking to put sauerkraut and garlic together, something I never would think to do either, but what I did was to modify a family recipe (which included garlic) by adding kraut. Surprise!
@UW
Welcome to the club!
@Chris
Smurfs. The almost perfect color! Is that how they were made, in a garlic reaction? lol I'll be watching family members over the next week looking for changes. Whether the garlic turning blue is a reaction between sulfur and copper, or one among the organic chemicals in the garlic, there seems to be no doubt that in the absence of signs of spoilage blue garlic is safe to eat. There is a third theory on the table having to do with anthocyanins, soluble glycoside pigments that produce blue to red coloring in flowers and plants. These compounds account for the purple in pansies, the deep red in new rose leaf growth, and the purple in some varieties of garlic, but I haven't found the connective tissue holding anthocyanins responsible for sudden changes in garlic color during cooking or pickling.
Garlic is amazing stuff-- I knew it was good for building the immune system and keeping away vampires if you wore it as a necklace-- but who knew it turned blue in the presence of sauerkraut? What wonderous alchemy is this? and what a wonderful hub you made of it-- I am going to try that family recipe of yours, ST-- but without the sauerkraut-- it sounds delicious.
Robie, alchemy! So why didn't this garlic turn to Au instead? I could use an infusion into my bank account.
Try the recipe with the kraut...it is amazingly delicious. And I also want to know if your garlic turns blue. TY for a super comment, as always. :)
Our family loves kielbasa and sauerkraut, though I've never had the experience of blue garlic! That would definitely be quite a surprise, and I'm glad to have a heads-up about it! Mmmm...I'll have to look up your recipe - it sounds like you've made a few tasty additions to the dish!
Wow, this is very fascinating. When I first saw your title, I tried to picture it but didn't think it could possibly be this blue! It looks almost like candy!
@Stephanie, it makes me happy to learn of another kielbasa-loving family! I'm glad you now have the skinny on the possibility of garlic turning blue. :)
@Om Paramapoonya, it really is an amazing color, but when the backdrop to the color is kielbasa and cabbage, believe me, any association with candy goes away immediately. :)
Blue food just does not seem natural. (That just ain't right!) Even blue berries are not blue. I cook the Thanksgiving meal these days and during those last fifteen minutes the hubster knows better than to talk to me or even look at me. Sherri, blue garlic would have sent me into a panic. Naturally, you kept your head and carried on. Bravo! And I loved your explanation along with the fabulous pictures.
lol, Peg. I know that feeling toward the end...don't get in my way!!! Fortunately, I was cooking this dish on the night before, so at least I had time to investigate. If it had happened the day of, at my mother's where there's no internet, I'm not so sure I wouldn't have dumped the whole thing out. And you are so right that blue food just doesn't seem natural. But the odd thing is that this blue garlic really is natural. Thanks so much for leaving your cool comment. :)
Thank you for giving so much information about garlick
You are so welcome, H,h...always so nice to see you. :)
This is extremely fascinating! I would have never guessed that garlic would turn blue! Great informational hub!
Neither did I. And thanks so much for the good words, TransferAmerica. :)
I have never come across this before! Very interesting, thanks for teaching me something new. Voted up!
Amazing, and I have never heard of this before, let alone have it happen. Many thanks for this interesting info. And I shall try your tip of using some sauerkraut with the cabbage recipe. Glad you shared your experience.
TY, InTune and frogyfish!
Sally's Trove, you are some kind of brave to have served the dish. I have garlic turn blue when I was scrambling it with eggs. I assumed it was just bad. Thanks for the interesting hub
Tirelesstraveler, I agree with you about serving it...I didn't feel one bit brave eating it, because once I figured out what was going on I knew it was safe, but putting it out in front of others was another matter indeed!
Somewhere in my search for information I read an account of someone's garlic turning blue just by being sauteed in butter. As there are so many factors involved, it's hard to say exactly what was going on with your scrambled eggs, or their butter.
Does blue garlic get served with red or black caviar?
A very interesting article. Nice image of a family get together with a unique twist.
Brings back fond memories of my own.
Thanks!!!
I have never experienced this myself. However, if it happens, I'll keep this in mind and hopefully, don't freak out.
Very interesting. I learned so much from this.
Thanks!
METPRP, TY so much for reading and commenting. Our families always have unique twists. :)
Good that you won't freak out, SanneL! This garlic turning blue doesn't seem to happen often, but when it does, it's a big surprise. Now you know what to do...make like it's the most natural thing, which it is. :)
Wow Sally, I have gained a lot from reading this hub. Thanks for sharing. Voting up. Blessings:)
One thing for sure, you added some colour to the flavour.
Very interesting information here. Who knew? Rated up and worth sharing. It's great you looked it up and shared this information. I'll never be afraid if it ever happens to me.
@Daisy, so nice to see you! It makes me happy to know that I've written something wothwhile. Thank you so much for leaving all the good words. :)
@Duchess, wonderful to see you, too! It tickles me pink that I've been able to take one fear away. lol Now blue garlic is nothing you'll have to worry about. Thanks so much for the votes and the compliments. :)
This is new from me. I had never know about this before. Thanks for writing and share with us. Rated up!
Prasetio
You're welcome, prasetio. And thanks for the vote!
This superlative hub has taught me a very intrinsic lesson to learn, with your usage of chemistry to formulate a comparison to that of garlic I thought it was truly fabulouso.
I now understand why folks like yourself deserve to remain at the top, & literally untouchable to us newbies, and its primarily because of your writing style. Also your understanding of visual display of editorial content is beyond my scope of current skill level for sure.
I'm good with words but you have definitely showed me a pathway in writing I've yet to take, and I shall try to step up to the plate of making my hubs much more presentable in every way.
You used very little space, but made the points stand out, the imagery wasn't too much neither, and you even used your words just as people use images, now that is where I was blown away. I'm beyond impressed here your on that Elite status for sure & now I see why some fortunate hubbers have the 99,'s & 100 scores, this hubpages thing takes some serious dedication.
Thanks for sharing such a powerful hub a great presentation of unique creative writing. Voted up on every level I can. @ the one and only Sally's Trove
While making pickled garlic tonight it turned blue. And that led me here I'm releived its ok to eat. Thank you for the info.
@CloudExplorer, thank you so much for your positive comments. They affirm something I always strive to do in any article I write, which is to use layout, headlines, and images to give the reader a "map" or "quick tour" of the topic. When a reader knows where the article is going and why, he's more likely to have a good experience (and come back for more). I very much appreciate the time and effort you put into writing this comment.
@Val, I'm so glad you found this article. Thank you very much for taking the time to share your experience. :)
This is an excellent hub. you have done quite a bit of research. I have never seen garlic turn blue .It looks awesome.
Thanks for sharing and letting us know that if the food smells ok it's safe to eat.
Thank you for the good words, Rajan. Your words are especially affirming given your background in botany, chemistry, and breeding.
Just one point to clarify in your comment...food may smell OK but still be tainted (such as when botulism, salmonella, or E. coli is present). Also, garlic may be blue but also show signs of spoilage such as mold growth or foul smell, too. So, blue garlic in the absence of any signs of spoilage is OK to eat.
Readers, there's a link to Rajan's hub on the nutritional properties of garlic and how garlic may be used in healing at the top of this article. Check it out. It's excellent.
I came accross blue garlic only recently. China is supplying all the world with its strange garlic. Obviously this is the result of contemporary use of chemicals or other unnatural things. Normally grown garlic is remaining white in food. At least from my 50-years old experience....
NK, your comment is very interesting. China is indeed the world's largest producer of garlic. I suppose it could be that something in the way garlic is grown or processed in China makes it more susceptible to turning blue than garlic grown in other parts of the world. We'll have to follow the research on that one!
Hmm what an interesting piece of research you have done but i have not had the experience of the blue garlic.
Peace!!
If and when you do, rednickle, you know you have company!
it happened to me in just hot water. I was making a tea of chopped garlic and water and there it was. Blue. Yikes. I thought it was the water and that the garlic was sucking in all the minerals from the water. I love the internet. Thank you all for clearing this up
TY for sharing your experience, toni. I had read about someone simply adding minced garlic to hot butter, and the same thing happened.
NK's comment remains interesting.
How this is very interesting... I wanna see a blue-green garlic one of these days! :)
You just may have your chance, thesingernurse. According to the comments here, quite a few folks are being surprised by this color show. Thanks for reading and commenting. :)
I just had this happen! I was making a mexican chicken slow cooker dish and put the garlic in last and left it on top - went back about an hour later, lo and behold! blue garlic! ... I freaked out and scooped it all out - thank goodness I hadn't mixed it in or else I'd be going into full out panic mode before finding this info! I'm thinking it could have been the acid from the salsa/tomatoes and my keffir lime spice that the garlic was sitting directly upon in the dish.
Michelle, so glad you are sharing your experience here. It could be the lime spice or the tomatoes in your dish, both acids. The odd thing is that, for years and years, no one's garlic has turned blue until recently. I don't think this is cause for alarm, because the chemistry of garlic components reacting to other elements in their environment is sound, but I have to wonder, why now, why blue?
I'm glad you didn't have to totally freak out! And I'm betting your Mexican chicken dish was stellar.
Well this is a new one on me. As a total garlic nut, I've never had this happen before and if it did, I'd have a fit. Good to know that it's safe to eat. Voted up! How could anyone not vote up blue garlic!
LOL Dolores! If garlic turns blue for you one day, it will let everyone who comes to dinner know what a creative cook you are! The blue garlic thanks you for the up vote!
I grow my own garlic, completely organically and have for years. This year when I used the last of the July harvest in mid-January to make garlic paste it turned green. I've never had that happen in the last 10 years of growing garlic. I use no chemicals, no pesticides and cure my garlic well. I had no problem of this nature until the very last batch I did. None of the early garlic did it and I'll have to admit the older garlic was a bit spongy, not a lot but a bit. There were many cloves that showed bolting but I cut all of that out. We'll see what happens next year when I use all new beds.
Keno, your story is so interesting. There's been speculation in the comments to this article that garlic grown in China might be somehow different and more prone to turning color. But you've been home-growing your garlic for years. Puzzling. Please keep us informed of this next season's harvest. :)
WOW! I have never heard of blue/green garlic. I think I'm going to have to try making some now.
LOL Red Sturtz. If you get the recipe nailed down, please share!
I have an extensive garden with 12 exotic chilli's, tomatoes asparagus, okra, unions, garlic, cilantro, and dill perfect for salsa. But when I pickled 10 jars with the same ingredients all fresh! The garlic turned turned blue immediately. Witch led me to this web site thank you for the information. I will let you know how they come out
Well, I just had garlic turn blue on me and was surprised to say the least. It is Valentine's Day and I was preparing a recipe of pork tenderloin in the crockpot - and it said to put the minced garlic on top of the pork. I added veggie broth, soy sauce, white wine, that I had added sauted onions and mushrooms and then poured over the tenderloin. And put the garlic on top. The garlic that did not fall in the liquid (on top of the tenderloin) turned a lovely shade of blue like pictured above. I wonder if it was the contrast of temp between the sauce and the tenderloin or if the wine caused it to turn blue - but it seemed like only the garlic on top of the tenderloin turned blue and I added it after I poured the liquid over the pork. The recipe didn't call for the sauted mushrooms & onions but I didn't have onion soup mix and I decided to saute' them before putting them in because the recipe only said to cook it for 4 hours and I wanted to be sure the veggies were tender. It is a small pork tenderloin. At least I won't be afraid to eat it. Thanks to your comments!
Chris and MaryAnn, thanks so much for sharing your experiences. It's beginning to look like garlic turning blue is more common than most people thought.
Chris, I'll bet those 10 jars of salsa are going to taste wonderful while they have a bit of an exotic look to them. :)
Very interesting, at least it's good to know it's safe to use.
My garlic just turned blue! I always bake fish with lemon juice, olive oil and garlic, and tonight when cooking for my parents I got a dish full of little blue bits. Luckily they didn't mind too much. Thanks for the information!
LOL, Peety. It seems like blue garlic is on the rise. I need to do more research here. Blue garlic is coming out from under the woodwork! Thanks so much for commenting.
Wow! I've never heard of this happening before. So interesting to read.
Kind of crazy, isn't it, najordan89? Thanks for reading and commenting!
I cooked cabbage (without corned beef) with honey and mustard and it turned bright blue. I think it was the vinegar in the mustard that did it.
Strange color, but it was delicious.
Jim, are you saying the cabbage turned blue, or garlic that you cooked with the cabbage?
My garlic turned blue in a dish of fresh shrimp with artichokes (yes they were marinated artichokes). It was a surprise, but pretty...
LOL, Sally! That must have been a sight to see. I've never heard anyone say that unexpectedly blue garlic was pretty. Thanks for sharing. :)
I guess school science has been useful after all. I'm going to try making blue garlic the next time I cook with sauerkraut - might ask my Polish stepmum if she knows of any good recipes :-)
Bobski606, please do! I have yet to repeat this surprise. Polish is good...we like garlic and vinegar. :)
Hi :)
Thank you! You have solved a mystery for me.
I have some garlic in my kitchen which suddenly started to display bluey-green spots. I was completely bemused by this and was trying to find out what may have splashed onto the garlic ~ assuming that it must have been something bluey-green.
However, after reading this, I am guessing that it might have been vinegar!
Thank you for helping me out with this mystery! :)
I so love all of you sharing your experiences. Blue garlic is more prevalent than anyone, I think, expected.
Trish_M, what were you doing to splash vinegar on garlic in your kitchen? Whatever it was, it must have been fun. :)
Sprinkling the chips (fries) :)
Wow, I never even knew this was possible! I even kind of want it to happen now to freak out the missus! Thanks for sharing this Sally's Trove - I learn something new and amazing every day on Hubpages :)
If the missus isn't expecting it, a freak out is sure to happen! I haven't yet duplicated the garlic turning blue, but you could experiment with minced garlic and warm vinegar or minced garlic and lemon juice. Sounds like you have a great sense of humor...and I hope she does, too. :)
I just raw fermented garlic for the first time a month ago ... the directions warned me that it could turn the blue-green color, so I wasn't shocked when it did, but it is still a bit strange. Tastes great, though!
Linda, thanks for sharing your experience!
I cooked mediterranean chicken chicken today. I put chicken pieces in a large oven-proof dish, drizzled with olive oil; threw over onions, cherry tomatoes and sprinkled over crushed garlic and herbs. When I took it out of the oven half-way through cooking I was shocked to see the garlic had changed to a horrible green/blue colour. I didn't want my guests to see this and scraped it all away. I bought the garlic a week ago and it was more expensive and, I thought, better quality than I usually buy. The colour-change is a complete mystery and I am interest to see that other people have had the same thing happen to them. It's a complete mystery to me. It's not nice!
Wow, Vera, what an experience! It seems that no acid was involved, except the slight acid that might come from cherry tomatoes. Compared to vinegar or lemon, low-content tomato acid causing this color change is totally shocking. I'm beginning to think that there's a strain of garlic on the world market which is more likely to turn blue than earlier strains. More research needs to be done, and I'm keeping an eye on that research. Meanwhile, even though the color is shocking, it seems the garlic is still safe (barring other signs of spoilage). But that doesn't mean guests want to eat it! Thank you so much for sharing your experience.
Thanks soooo very much for this information on the garlic ..... I had this happen for the first time this year when I made refridgerator dill pickles ...... we went ahead and ate the pickles not really knowing .... I just assumed that they had taken on the coloring from the pickles or it was a chemical reaction ..... was kinda scary though!!!! Thanks again for your helpful information!!!!!
Linda, thanks so much for sharing your experience. I'm so glad this article was helpful. :)
DzyMsLizzy 6 months ago
Fascinating. I've never had this happen before, nor heard of any such thing. Goodness-new surprises every day!
Thanks for sharing this very interesting bit of kitchen adventure. Voted up and interesting...oh, and it's kind of funny, too. ;-)