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See why.Garlic Peelers
When you need to peel garlic, you can whack the clove with the side of a knife blade, or you can use a garlic peeler. Which does a better job?
Our favorite garlic peeler has been redesigned slightly and renamed. We tested the new version, the Zak! Designs Silicone Garlic Peeler, and found it to be every bit as effective as the original; we recommend it highly.
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What You Need To Know
When you need to peel garlic, you can whack the clove with the side of a knife blade (which works beautifully, but you get a crushed clove) or you can use a garlic peeler. You roll these devices—simple silicone or rubber tubes, or sheets that you shape into a tube—with the garlic inside, a process that gently tugs the papery skin off the cloves and leaves them intact. Thus, garlic peelers are perfect for recipes calling for whole or sliced cloves. We tried three models priced from $6.50 to $8.79, peeling both single and multiple cloves, and evaluated them on their peeling performance, ease of use, and cleanup. While all were easy to wash in the dishwasher or by hand, the real differences lay in how comfortable they were—or were not—to press down on and roll, and how quickly and effectively they removed the peels. Our winner lived up to its name. It was the thickest and most well cushioned, making rolling easy and painless. Its grippy silicone surface thoroughly and speedily removed the skins from cloves of all sizes without bruising them. It’s our new favorite way to peel garlic.
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Peeling: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
This silicone sleeve did a great job of peeling garlic cloves of different sizes and shapes, taking about five seconds to strip each one. It’s easy to use and clean–it can be washed by hand or run through the dishwasher.
Recommended with reservations
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Peeling: 2 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
A flat 5-inch square of textured rubber that resembles a jar opener, this model does peel garlic, but it tends to unroll while you work. The thin rubber hurt our hands as we pressed on lumpy cloves, and the textured surface became spotted with juice, revealing that we’d bruised the garlic. When we peeled five cloves at once, we had to re-roll some multiple times. Finally, we had to pull off stray peels by hand—which wasn’t necessary with our winner.
Not Recommended
- Cleanup: 3 stars out of 3.
- Peeling: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 1 stars out of 3.
This thin, clear silicone tube bulges outward in the center, a design that is supposed to keep cloves contained. All it really did was make it hard to locate the best spot to press, and the thin material made our hands hurt as we rolled. Garlic became slightly bruised, and we had to repeatedly put cloves back in to finish peeling them. It held five cloves but took rounds of rolling to peel them. Washing the tube was easy, but the vented plastic storage box seemed pointless.
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The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing.
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