Garlic Powder

Garlic powder is just garlic with the water gone. Drying and grinding change it: the fresh bite of a crushed clove fades, and what is left is milder, rounder, more of a warm background hum than a sharp slap. That is the trick — a spice that behaves differently from the vegetable it came from.

Choose it by smell first. Bury your nose in the jar — it should smell warm and savoury, with no dusty or cardboard note behind it. Colour can vary between brands and batches, so do not judge quality by that alone; trust your nose over your eyes.

Some people say garlic powder is a lazy shortcut, weaker than fresh cloves. No! Gram for gram it is far more concentrated — dried, it carries far more carbohydrate and protein per hundred grams than raw garlic simply because the water is gone. That misconception leads cooks to dump in spoonful after spoonful "to be safe," and the dish ends up tasting harsh and powdery instead of fragrant. Treat it with respect: a small pinch goes a long way. Add it toward the end of cooking rather than into hot fat at the start, where it scorches fast and turns bitter.