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The author didn't pick the wrong example here. Pre-minced garlic is good enough for most people. The oil is a neutral flavor, and the small amount of salt isn

The author didn't pick the wrong example here. Pre-minced garlic is good enough for most people. The oil is a neutral flavor, and the small amount of salt isn't going to affect the taste at the end. --Once it's been cooked, the difference is indistinguishable to all but a few super tasters. Most home cooks don't want to grind all their spices fresh, and even most professionals probably don't, for example try to grind their own cinnamon. The pre-ground stuff is good enough, especially if you pay attention to use-by dates (which are still going to be pretty conservative). It absolutely is food snobbery to suggest that if you use pre-minced garlic or pre-ground spices that you aren't a real cook, or that you should just leave the ingredients out if you can't use fresh versions for whatever reason (health, time, or even just laziness).

klodolph 4y ago
> Once it's been cooked, the difference is indistinguishable to all but a few super tasters. I don't think that's correct. My own experience is that pre-minced garlic tastes very different from garlic that you mince yourself. It takes a long time to get a sense of how different versions of ingredients differ, and what the impact is of using prepared foods. Dried basil is radically different from fresh basil, and both options are good. Frozen peas are as good as fresh peas in nearly every dish. Fresh pasta is usually no better than dried pasta. Frozen concentrated orange juice tastes radically different from fresh orange juice, but both options are good. Pre-minced garlic in a jar is just too different. I don't think I'm any kind of "super taster". Garlic is one of those foods can give you radically different flavors with different preparations. It's because as soon as you cut or crush the garlic, it starts a reaction between two chemicals called alliin and allinase, producing allicin. The allicin can then participate in further chemical reactions. In the jar, the chemical reactions have a long time to progress.

klodolph 4y ago

> Once it's been cooked, the difference is indistinguishable to all but a few super tasters. I don't think that's correct. My own experience is that pre-minced garlic tastes very different from garlic that you mince yourself. It takes a long time to get a sense of how different versions of ingredients differ, and what the impact is of using prepared foods. Dried basil is radically different from fresh basil, and both options are good. Frozen peas are as good as fresh peas in nearly every dish. Fresh pasta is usually no better than dried pasta. Frozen concentrated orange juice tastes radically different from fresh orange juice, but both options are good. Pre-minced garlic in a jar is just too different. I don't think I'm any kind of "super taster". Garlic is one of those foods can give you radically different flavors with different preparations. It's because as soon as you cut or crush the garlic, it starts a reaction between two chemicals called alliin and allinase, producing allicin. The allicin can then participate in further chemical reactions. In the jar, the chemical reactions have a long time to progress.