Garlic for a Pepper Mill

The idea here is to, extrude garlic, dehydrate it and use a pepper mill to grind it as needed.

It sounds simple enough, doesn't it?

Well I thought so, until I got into the project.

Lots of garlic

Even more garlic

A knife and cutting board

Lots of patience

A Mini Alligator chopper

A dehydrator

Teflon dehydrator sheets

A large steel bowl (this will make sense later)

A spatula

A pepper mill with coarseness adjustment

More supplies for when things don't quite work out as planned:

Scraps of wood

Drill press

Chop saw

Jigsaw table or scroll saw

4 C-clamps

Wood glue

Forstner drill bit set

Countersink drill bit set

#6 x ¾ wood screws

Screw driver

These are the garlic that were harvested to late. The paper coverings are open exposing the cloves to dirt. I don't sell these, I use them for powder, and in this case, extrusions for the pepper mill. I break them apart and clean the dirt off the cloves. After a month or so the papers on the cloves are easier to remove. That's when the wife and I sit down to an epic garlic peeling session .

This is the tool that inspired me to try this process.

Simply flip it open, place a clove on the blade and close. Its kind of like a miniature fry press.

The last thing to do is remove the bits that collect between the teeth of the plunger.

Teflon sheets are helpful for this stage. Smear the pieces as evenly as you can. They are pretty sticky.

Set the dehydrator at 125° f for 24hrs

This should be the end but......

So while washing the extruder on day two, I found an issue. If you were doing a few garlic at home once and a while, you may not encounter this issue. I on the other hand am processing hundreds. When you get on a roll aggressiveness may cause you to push too hard. This can cause the plastic structure to flex. Not good!!

Many many hours of sorting through my dehydrated pieces gave me time to think of a solution. I searched on line for a better extruder but found nothing. They do make one with a body of stainless steel but its to expensive for my pocket book. With no guarantee that it wouldn't do the same thing. I don't know for sure but the plungers look like plastic on it as well.

This is now a Multi-Discipline Instructable. I must get into woodworking mode.

My shop has many pieces of scrap wood so I should be able to whip something up.

I don't think each clove has to be pressed through the blades with little plungers. Only the final clove needs that. Even then, it can be pulled out, rather than pressed.

I'm going to use my drill press to push the garlic through the blades of the extruder. Squeezing that tool was making my hands sore any way. I need a plunger that will fit in the drill press chuck though. A drill bit sandwiched between two pieces of wood should do the trick.

A work surface suspended over the bowl will be required. Luckily I have a sturdy bowl and a sturdy board.

A few simple measurements, a few holes and a jig saw table does the trick.

A few more scraps of wood and a few holes and were ready to go.

I gave the plunger a bit of pressure on the blade and realized, I needed a bit more support under the plastic frame. I just happened to have scraps for that as well. Now were ready to go.

I used this for a while and things got messy. Another piece is needed.

Now with a smaller block added, the plunger presses all the way to the blade, eliminating the gooey mess of the previous setup.

I carefully used the green press to finish removing the last bit of garlic from the blades. Now its back to the dehydrator. I've set the top tray up with the cut off ends. I'm going to grind them into powder and see what its like. But that's not part of this Instructable.

The grinder has a coarseness adjustment so you can make powder or chips. My wife loves to put coarse grind on her popcorn with a little olive oil and pink Himalayan salt. The extruded pieces mixed with sour cream and refrigerated 24hrs make a great base for a dip as well.

I hope you enjoyed my entry into the Multi-Discipline contest