Do you feed family garlic based dishes without considering the after smell the next day?

[Wutipg]

Is this something other people consider at all? Say you have tweens or teens who are at an age where peers may notice things like garlic breath. Do you consider this at all and say not feed garlic bread night before school or if they are going to a party or something. Or do most people not give it a second thought? Just curious as it’s something I tend to avoid garlic if working next day but maybe I over worry

I realised there was no point bothering what I ate when I worked in financial services. Everything was about presentation so I didn't eat any form of garlic at all for at least 5 years. Seriously, I checked ingredient lists and all sorts. Towards the end of that time i reconnected with an old fwb who regularly commented "oh you had garlic tonight then..." except I hadn't, for years. I assume something about his sense of smell and my scent made garlic in his head but it had nothing to do with cuisine. At that point I figured I should stop eating bland food and eat what I enjoyed because it made shit all difference anyway

The only things I wouldn't put garlic in from your list would be home made burgers, fish cakes and fish pie! The other things would absolutely definitely have it in. I can't believe you think it's optional in spaghetti Bolognese and lasagne, it's a main component of the taste!

I don't always put garlic on baked salmon but it's quite a regular addition.

@BertieBotts- exactly the same here.

Garlic is delicious and healthy.🧄🧄
If it also keeps others away from me that's an extra bonus.

I made Mac n cheese with wild garlic in in yesterday - was delish.

Honestly can't believe how oblivious people are to the fact they smell of garlic the following day. Brushing teeth doesn't do it. It still smells and it comes out of your pores. I think people who eat garlic all the time must just stop smelling it on themselves

@AnnaSW1

Honestly can't believe how oblivious people are to the fact they smell of garlic the following day. Brushing teeth doesn't do it. It still smells and it comes out of your pores. I think people who eat garlic all the time must just stop smelling it on themselves

I am not oblivious. I just don't care. Nothing in the world will persuade me to give up " ethnic" food and eat a roast dinner to make myself acceptable to lovers of bland food.

You may well be right @AnnaSW1 but I’ve never given it any thought because I love garlic and won’t stop eating it regardless. My enjoyment of food and the health benefits are more important to me than someone else being able to smell something on me. People I work with and regularly socialise with seem to cope ok so hopefully my personality makes up for the dreadful smell (Or possibly my colleagues and friends also eat garlic on a daily basis).

This wasn't an issue until my tween said that their classmates have said they smell of garlic. So now they are paranoid.
So don't know whether to lay off it during the week. Teeth and tongue are brushed twice a day

Never give it a second thought. I work in very close confines with the public, spending quite long periods of time pretty close to them. Unwashed "fusty" clothes or strong perfumes are the worst smell IMO, and alcohol, cigarettes and weed the most obvious!

I wonder if everyone in France and Italy smells? I've never noticed, but then I grew up in a garlic eating household as well. I mean - people eat tuna all the time and the smell of that makes me want to vomit, but I'd never dream of suggesting they shouldn't because I don't like the smell.

I only notice garlic on other people if I haven't had any myself for a couple of days. Or if they've just eaten a crazily garlicky meal, used to notice that on the tube going home in the evening!! But I'm sensitive to smells.

@BewareTheBeardedDragon

I wonder if everyone in France and Italy smells? I've never noticed, but then I grew up in a garlic eating household as well. I mean - people eat tuna all the time and the smell of that makes me want to vomit, but I'd never dream of suggesting they shouldn't because I don't like the smell.

Not going there on that, as it has been historically the preserve of racists to complain of a smell from the cooking activities or food consumption of the French/Italians/Africans/Indians/whatever ethnic group they dislike most. As a result, it's a very loaded concept that decent human beings should avoid bringing up lest the scumbags start crawling out of the woodwork to tell you all about the smell emanating from the house down the street or the bloke on the bus.

*

On a chemical level, Phenolics bind with the sulfur compounds and reduce the smell. Phenolics are compounds present in fruit, vegetables, other aromatics and are particularly high in chilli, ginger, mint, coriander, parsley, basil and spices. Which could provide a form of solution;

Eat plain garlic bread or something else that is low/absent in phenolic compounds/vegetables, like plain pasta with butter and garlic = garlic odour is obvious the next day, as there hasn't been anything consumed that contains phenolic compounds.

Eat garlic in a dish that contains other aromatics, vegetables including potatoes, fruits and spices = less obvious garlic odour, as the phenolics have chemically neutralised the sulfur compounds.

Best of all, eat a diet high in vegetables, fruits & fresh herbs including uncooked/raw items (as that also increases other enzymes) and have a wide range of spices and aromatics every day = consistently lower levels of odour enabling the eating of garlic regularly without any lingering effects.

Very interesting post @NeverDropYourMooncup!

I am not oblivious. I just don't care. Nothing in the world will persuade me to give up " ethnic" food and eat a roast dinner to make myself acceptable to lovers of bland food

You and me both, @JanisMoplin!

I find coffee breath is worse with cheap instant coffee than with freshly ground.

Apparently when I was about 7 I got obsessed with Garlic Sausage as a sandwich filling eating it for every meal - after about a month my sweat did get a tinge of garlic to it. So I guess if you eat large amounts, every day it can probably start to work its way into your excretions.

@AnnaSW1

Honestly can't believe how oblivious people are to the fact they smell of garlic the following day. Brushing teeth doesn't do it. It still smells and it comes out of your pores. I think people who eat garlic all the time must just stop smelling it on themselves

Im not oblivious, I dont care

Is this something you become "immune" to?

I grew up in a time when garlic was rarely used here, certainly not in the kind of cooking my mum did and I do remember garlic breath being a problem for the few people who used it.

My own first experience was in my first job when they ordered pizza for a working lunch, including garlic bread, which I'd never had before. I well remember feeling like the smell was oozing out of every pore the next day, but I don't notice anything, on myself or others these days.

Cigarette on the breath or clothes now that is rank. Estée youth dew too. 🤣

[quote TheNameOfTheRoses]@Greyhare I don’t think so.

The reason why I don’t think people can smell it is because

• if this was the case, you could smell it in every single person in Italy, south of France etc etc.. and you don’t
• no one has ever made a comment on it. Not to me and not to any of my dcs. If it was that obvious, I’m pretty sure that they would have been told, with them Being teenagers etc….
• many people use garlic in their cooking traditionally. Unless you are also saying that every single asian person, for example, you’ve met smells etc… then it doesn’t hold.[/quote]

Italians are shocked (and more than a little horrified) at the quantity of garlic Brits use in things. One clove, quartered, shown the oil then lifted out once it's slightly infused is the norm. And never in the same dish as onion.

That entirely depends on teh dish, sometimes its just a hint of garlic needed and other dishes certainly do have garlic and onion in, so thats nonsense

We have garlic in almost everything. I am guessing so do a lot of other people as no one has commented and I never smell it on other people.

Italians are shocked (and more than a little horrified) at the quantity of garlic Brits use in things. One clove, quartered, shown the oil then lifted out once it's slightly infused is the norm

Well, there's been class based prejudice against the food poor people eat forever. Garlic is one of those things that gives low quality ingredients good flavour and also has medicinal qualities - Culpepper gives many uses for it;

Government and virtues. Mars owns this herb. This was anciently accounted the poor man’s treacle, it being a remedy for all diseases and hurts (except those which itself breed.) It provokes urine, and women’s courses, helps the biting of mad dogs and other venomous creatures, kills worms in children, cuts and voids tough phlegm, purges the head, helps the lethargy, is a good preservative against, and a remedy for any plague, sore, or foul ulcers; takes away spots and blemishes in the skin, eases pains in the ears, ripens and breaks imposthumes, or other swellings. And for all those diseases the onions are as effectual. But the Garlick hath some more peculier virtues besides the former, viz. it hath a special quality to discuss inconveniences coming by corrupt agues or mineral vapours; or by drinking corrupt and stinking waters; as also by taking wolf-bane, henbane, hemlock, or other poisonous and dangerous herbs. It is also held good in hydropick diseases, the jaundice, falling sickness, cramps, convulsions, the piles or hæmorrhoids, or other cold diseases. Many authors quote many diseases this is good for; but conceal its vices. Its heat is very vehement, and all vehement hot things send up but ill-favoured vapours to the brain. In coleric men it will add fuel to the fire; in men oppressed by melancholy, it will attenuate the humour, and send up strong fancies, and as many strange visions to the head; therefore let it be taken inwardly with great moderation; outwardly you may make more bold with it

If you take it far enough back, this heavy use in the British palate probably originates from our original source of the taste being from Wild/Bear Garlic and Jack by the Hedge/Garlic Mustard, which are native to Britain (and means we've probably been eating things with a garlic flavour for thousands of years in truth). Fresh Bear Garlic will knock your socks off compared to 2-3 cloves of bulb garlic. However, it's also totally seasonal, whilst bulb garlic will keep all year round.

I have an intolerance to garlic so cannot eat it without being violently ill.

People definitely smell of garlic.

And that's OK, people smell like lots of things, but to a non garlic eater it's very noticeable.

The worst smell for me is wine breath. Followed closely by people who smoke and then chew gum thinking its minty but its this weird claggy mix of tobacco and mint.

I'm super weird about smells though, like a greyhound sometimes.

I always consider what I am doing the next day if I am having a garlicky meal.

I can smell garlic on my husband the next day if I haven't eaten it with him. Same for my in-laws and various other colleagues.

If you are eating it a lot, you're not likely to smell it on others, but as someone who doesn't eat it much, people often smell of garlic the next day. There are a lot worse smells though!