the library

Black garlic

Savory & ferment· ferment vinegar

What it tastes like

On the nose: kokumi, butter, almond. Among its measured molecules: Alliin, S-Allylsulfenic acid, 2-acetylfuran, 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, furfuryl alcohol.

Every one of its 15 compounds carries a paper the library can cite.

• acetic acidaromaacidreads as pungent (PubChem)Measured in 37 of 341 ingredients.cite

  1.729% relative content in the unfermented black-garlic broth, and 1.610-1.905% across all four columns — the most stable compound in the table, essentially unchanged by the probiotic fermentations the paper applies — Ma et al. 2021, Frontiers in Nutrition (Table 2, row 'Acetic acid', column S1)
• furfuryl alcoholaromaalcoholreads as bitter (PubChem)Measured in 16 of 341 ingredients.cite

  1.333% relative content in the unfermented black-garlic broth, the highest of its four columns — Ma et al. 2021, Frontiers in Nutrition (Table 2, row '2-Furanmethanol', column S1)
• furfuralaromafuranreads as almond (PubChem)Measured in 34 of 341 ingredients.cite

  2.060% relative content — the largest genuine volatile in the unfermented black-garlic broth once the cyclohexanone internal standard is set aside; a Maillard/caramelisation product of the aging — Ma et al. 2021, Frontiers in Nutrition (Table 2, row 'Furfural', column S1)
• 2-acetylfuranaromafuranMeasured in 7 of 341 ingredients.cite

  0.853% relative content in the unfermented black-garlic broth; with furfural, 5-methyl furfural and 2-acetyl pyrrole it forms the furan/pyrrole set the paper groups together, all four of which are products of the thermal aging rather than of the garlic — Ma et al. 2021, Frontiers in Nutrition (Table 2, row '2-Acetylfuran', column S1)
• Methionine sulfoxideacidMeasured in 1 of 341 ingredients.cite

  10.04 ± 0.03 µmol in 20 g of black garlic, 2.0% of the organosulfur total — Moreno-Ortega et al. 2023, Antioxidants (Table 1, S-alk(en)yl-L-cysteine derivatives block, row 'Methionine sulfoxide')
• (2R)-2-amino-3-methanesulfinylpropanoic acidacidMeasured in 1 of 341 ingredients.cite

  4.86 ± 0.03 µmol in 20 g of black garlic, 1.0% of the organosulfur total — Moreno-Ortega et al. 2023, Antioxidants (Table 1, S-alk(en)yl-L-cysteine derivatives block, row 'S-Methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide (Methiin)')
• 5-hydroxymethylfurfuralaromaalcoholreads as butter, caramel, musty (PubChem)Measured in 11 of 341 ingredients.cite

  N.D. at day 0, day 5 and day 10 of aging; 0.12 ± 0.05 mg/g dry weight at day 20; 1.81 ± 0.16 at day 30; 3.04 ± 0.57 at day 40; 3.43 ± 0.83 at day 45 — a Maillard product created entirely by the aging and absent from fresh garlic — Chang et al. 2023, Foods (Table 3 (The 5-HMF content of hot-water extracts obtained from fresh garlic and black garlic with different aging durations))
• AlliinaromaacidMeasured in 1 of 341 ingredients.cite

  112.2 ± 0.6 µmol in 20 g of black garlic — 22% of the organosulfur total and the second largest organosulfur compound, so alliin survives the aging in quantity rather than being wholly converted — Moreno-Ortega et al. 2023, Antioxidants (Table 1, S-alk(en)yl-L-cysteine derivatives block, row 'S-Allyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide (Alliin)')
• S-Allyl-L-cysteinesulfur compoundMeasured in 1 of 341 ingredients.cite

  667.51 ± 10.30 mg/kg dry weight in Thai black garlic aged 12 days at 70 °C and 80% RH, against ND in both Thai fresh garlic and fresh garlic powder at a 3.8 mg/kg limit of detection — the compound is created by the aging, not carried over from the raw bulb — Manoonphol et al. 2023, Foods (Table 4 (Comparative SAC content, total polyphenols, total flavonoids, antioxidant activities of Thai strain garlic...), row 'SAC contents')
• S-Allylmercapto-L-cysteineMeasured in 1 of 341 ingredients.cite

  8.16 ± 0.02 µmol in 20 g of black garlic, 1.6% of the organosulfur total — Moreno-Ortega et al. 2023, Antioxidants (Table 1, S-alk(en)yl-L-cysteine derivatives block, row 'S-Allylmercapto-L-cysteine (SAMC)')
• γ-Glutamyl-S-allyl-L-cysteinetastenitrogen compoundreads as kokumi, savoryMeasured in 1 of 341 ingredients.cite

  87.9 ± 0.4 µmol in 20 g of black garlic, 17.2% of the organosulfur total — the largest of the γ-glutamyl peptides, the class that carries kokumi mouthfeel rather than aroma — Moreno-Ortega et al. 2023, Antioxidants (Table 1, γ-Glutamyl-S-alk(en)yl-L-cysteine derivatives block, row 'γ-Glutamyl-S-allyl-L-cysteine (GSAC)')
• S-Allylsulfenic acidaromaacidMeasured in 1 of 341 ingredients.cite

  18.70 ± 0.05 µmol in 20 g of black garlic, 3.7% of the organosulfur total — Moreno-Ortega et al. 2023, Antioxidants (Table 1, S-alk(en)yl-L-cysteine derivatives block, row 'S-Allylsulfenic acid')