Matthew's Journal

http://www.cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/h-234.html suggests that the weight of garlic cloves varies wildly with the variety used; there are between 30 and 200 cloves to the pound. But since you probably don't have Asian Tempest garlic, and probably do have Mild French garlic, 5g per clove sounds sort of near-enough approximately right-ish

I'd use an amount which was appropriate for dish, based on my experience of cooking with garlic. (This is likely to be "4–6 cloves depending on size" for anything which is of normal size and not explicitly a garlic dish.)

Well, I'd use about 3 cloves, because I overgarlic everything. I would imagine the recipe means one clove.

If I really cared enough I might try weighing a clove or two of garlic, and having done so I'd note down the answer on my copy of the recipe so that I could just count cloves next time. Hopefully I'd also remember where I'd written it down the next time I encountered a recipe so silly as to measure garlic in grams, so that I'd only ever have to do the weighing once.

More likely, though, I'd just keep throwing in garlic until I thought it seemed likely to be garlicky enough, and then revise the recipe next time if it tasted as if I'd got it wrong. Garlic tolerances vary widely, and I trust my own judgment more than that of the recipe author when it comes to deciding how much of the stuff will taste good to me.

I once encountered a recipe for mushroom risotto (when I was googling up multiple such recipes in an effort to combine the good points of all of them into my own recipe) which dictated one clove of garlic between four people – and moreover suggested briefly frying the garlic clove whole and then taking it out. I challenge anyone without an actual allergy to reliably tell the difference, in a properly controlled double-blind taste test, between that and no garlic at all! Naturally I discarded that aspect of that recipe with great force and my own mushroom risotto recipe involves actually putting some garlic in.

But I tend to operate under the cooking principle of "it is impossible to go wrong with too much garlic, which is delicious"

2-3 cloves is probably about 5g, but I might round up a bit to nearer 1/4 bulb if it's something that can live with more garlic :-)

I'd use my scales if I thought it had to be reasonably accurate, except for the fact the batteries have just run out.

I probably wouldn't be too bothered about following any recipe so closely. Although I don't currently use fresh garlic, there are some ingredients where you add as much as you think you want. 2-3 cloves was usually the minimum amount we put in most things we cooked at home.

I'd look at the quantities of other ingredients and use enough garlic to make it as garlicky as I wanted. In practice this would probably be more than 5g because recipes never have enough garlic.

Mmmmm, garlic.

I'll never understand why recipes have to have anally exact measurements for flavourings and seasoning. It's all a case of "to taste". Every time you make a dish, some things are different which determine that you might need a little less of this but a little more of that. That's why you need to keep tasting your food while cooking.

If I actually used, for example, a teaspoon of salt, I wouldn't know how much I just put in but if I used my fingers, I would.

I'd also go and beat the writer of the recipe with a string of garlic bulbs until they promise to either use sensible measures or change the next edition of the book to specify everything in electron volts.

I'd use the amount that I thought would taste nice, and/or ask several_bees.

I'd use my judgement (which tends to double the quantity of garlic in most recipes unless).

Actually these days to save time I use the frozen, ready crushed, cubes of garlic (Saindbury's do them); I think they've got the weight marked on the card so you can work out how many you'd want.

I'd find a better recipe.