Martha Stewart's Genius Garlic Tip For More Flavorful Casseroles
Compared to other dishes, it's relatively easy to build the flavor of a casserole. This is mainly due to the fact that casseroles are baked in a single baking pan, allowing flavors from different ingredients to meld together during the cooking process. Many casserole recipes also involve longer cooking times at lower temperatures, which allows ample time for flavors to develop and intensify. You can also achieve this by making it the day before baking. However, if you want your casserole to turn out even more flavorful, Martha Stewart suggests turning to garlic. Adding this ingredient may seem like a no-brainer, but it's the way she adds it that makes a difference.
As she shared on the Potatoes episode of "Martha Stewart's Cooking School," instead of mincing the garlic and mixing it with the other casserole ingredients, the culinary personality and lifestyle entrepreneur specifically rubs it all over the sides and the bottom of the dish. Normally when you add the fresh garlic directly into the casserole, it will introduce a garlic flavor, but Stewart's technique leverages garlic's natural flavor-enhancing properties, adding depth to the flavor of the casserole without overly intensifying the garlic taste.
How Martha Stewart's garlic tip works
When you add garlic to a dish, two things happen: It introduces that pungent flavor we normally associate with garlic, and it enhances the other flavors in the dish. The flavor enhancing effect occurs as a result of the chemical compounds in the garlic activating certain taste buds and olfactory receptors. These chemical compounds get released whenever garlic is smashed, minced, or sliced up in some way, so you technically don't actually need to put the entire clove of garlic in your casserole to reap the benefits of the chemical reaction. This is precisely what Martha Stewart does. By leaving out the garlic, she also leaves out the pungent garlicky flavor while still enhancing the flavors of her casserole.
With her technique, even though there aren't any full pieces of garlic, you'll actually still be able to smell it and taste traces of it in your casserole. This will give your dish a savory quality without the risk of overwhelming your palate with an intense garlic flavor.
What you should know before trying Martha Stewart's garlic tip
If you're planning to use Martha Stewart's garlic trick the next time you make a casserole, make sure to actually peel and smash your garlic before doing so. Rubbing a fully intact clove of garlic on your casserole dish won't have any effect on its flavor. This is because garlic's flavor enhancing chemical compounds only get released as a result of its cell walls being damaged. You can even just cut a single clove of garlic in half and rub the cut side against your dish — you don't need very much garlic for this.
You can realistically use Stewart's technique with any type of casserole. However, garlic pairs exceedingly well with black pepper, thyme, oregano, ginger, and parsley, so for best results, you'll ideally want to add casserole recipes to your dinner rotation that contain these spices. If you find that you enjoy the results of Stewart's tip, you can also do the same thing with a salad bowl for an equally tasty salad full of garlicky flavor.