 | | Name: | garlic | | Plural names: | Garlic |
| Description: | | Garlic (Allium sativum) is a perennial plant in the family Alliaceae and genus Allium, closely related to the onion, shallot, and leek. It does not grow in the wild, and is thought to have arisen in cultivation, probably descended from the species Allium longicuspis, which grows wild in south-western Asia.
Garlic has been used throughout all of recorded history for both culinary and medicinal purposes.
The portion of the plant most often consumed is an underground storage structure called a head. A head of garlic is composed of a dozen or more discrete cloves, each of which is a botanical bulb, an underground structure comprised of thickened leaf bases. Each garlic clove is made up of just one leaf base, unlike onions, which are composed of numerous leaf layers. The above-ground portions of the garlic plant are also sometimes consumed, particulary while immature and tender.
Garlic has a powerful pungent or "hot" flavour when raw, which mellows considerably when it is cooked. Raw or cooked, garlic is noted for its strong characteristic odor, and for giving those who eat it a distinctive breath odor as well. Some cultures accept the odor of garlic more than others; Northern European cuisines, for example, use garlic only modestly and tend to cook it for long periods of time to diminish its strength.
A garlic clove is a segment of a head of garlic.
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