Diving Into The Ingredients That Make Us: Garlic – wayfarersoliloquy

“I shall cut off her head and fill her mouth with garlic, and I shall drive a stake through her body.” Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the timeless bedtime storybook my mom used to read me as a child. How could anything as loving and pure as an undead corpse be repulsed by garlic? For this week’s article on the ingredients that make us, I’m going into the myths and facts of this beautiful bulb.

The Origin of a Global Ingredient

Given the season, I had to choose between garlic or pumpkin. I went with the former. Garlic’s found in almost every cuisine, in almost every form from roasted, raw, or made into ice-cream.

Although it’s used extensively world-wide, common garlic, Allium sativum, was originally native to central and south Asia. The plant’s history dates so far back that the first records of its use come from countries outside its native habitat. 

The pungent bulb most likely earned a place in early medicine and soon traveled far and wide. Ancient societies traded it and because of its durability, they could cultivate it in a variety of climates. 

From Pharaohs to Commoners 

The first records of garlic in ancient texts come from China, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. Chinese medicine has relied on garlic since well over 2000 BC. When ancient Egypt’s celebrity of antiquity, King Tutankhamen’s tomb was excavated in 1922, whole cloves of garlic, preserved in time, laid in front of it. 

Biblical references are full of garlic’s goodness, especially its role in the diets of Jewish slaves in Egypt. In ancient Greece, garlic was a superfood and similar to ancient Egypt, eaten by every class, especially workers and soldiers. It wasn’t long until ancient Rome got into eating garlic. Soon, thanks to popular texts like Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, the plant’s healthy and energizing reputation earned it a place amongst the Roman legions. Thus, it spread further into Europe and beyond. 

A Source of Myths

Part of garlic’s longevity is thanks to the sulfur compound allicin. This powerful substance not only preserves the garlic, but it’s largely responsible for its robust flavor. When allicin and other sulfur-containing molecules in the plant interact with certain enzymes, it changes color into a shade of blue or green. These same compounds are responsible for the plant’s healing properties. 

Like the rest of the world, medieval Europeans dealt with harsh blood diseases—like the skin-corroding porphyria—by treating them with garlic. Porphyria produces symptoms like shrinking gums and exposed teeth and the breakdown of skin pigmentation. Many experts believe that this was the origin of the vampire myths in Europe. Garlic, being an effective natural antibiotic, was the obvious treatment against this disease. 

The World’s Flavor

What does Sichuan cuisine, Indian and South East Asian curries, Middle Eastern stews, and European roasts have in common? They all use a lot of garlic. The world’s cuisine evolves around it. From its spicy aromatics to its potential cancer and cold fighting properties, garlic really is an important global food and natural remedy to vampirism.