What Is Black Garlic and How Is It Made?

Black garlic cloves in a wooden bowl next to a fresh white garlic bulb

Black garlic is regular garlic that's been aged low and slow for weeks, until the cloves turn jet black, soft, and a little sticky. Along the way, the sharp, pungent edge of fresh garlic mellows into something sweet, savory, and rich in umami (the deep, mouth-filling savoriness you get from soy sauce or mushrooms).

If you've only ever cooked with fresh garlic, black garlic can catch you off guard, in the best way. It's the star of our Black Garlic BBQ Sauce, and it's the sauce we find ourselves explaining most often, because people see the word "garlic" and expect it to be sharp and pungent. Once you know what to expect, though, it's one of the easiest ways we know to add depth to ribs, steak, tempeh, or a weeknight stir-fry.

What this article covers

  • How Black Garlic Is Made

  • What Does Black Garlic Taste Like?

  • Cooking With Black Garlic

  • How Triple Crown Got Its Name

  • Where to Start With Black Garlic

How Black Garlic Is Made

Black garlic is made a lot like good barbecue, low and slow. Whole bulbs of regular garlic rest in a warm, humid space (usually around 140 to 170°F) for several weeks. Over that time, the natural sugars and proteins in the cloves slowly brown, the same kind of browning you see when you sear a steak or toast bread. You'll often hear it called fermented garlic, and that's what our founder, Andy, calls it too. By the end, the cloves are jet black, soft enough to spread, and sweet in a way fresh garlic never is.

Black garlic has long been a favorite in Asian cooking, and that's where a lot of people first come across it. Andy puts it simply: it's an Asian ingredient, and it tastes nothing like the fresh garlic most of us grew up with.

What Does Black Garlic Taste Like?

Andy explains it with onions. Picture biting into a raw onion, then compare it with one you've sautéed slowly until it's soft and golden. The raw one is sharp and loud, while the sautéed one is sweet, mellow, and savory. Black garlic goes through the same kind of change, so you get rich garlic flavor without the sting.

Most people describe the flavor as somewhere between balsamic vinegar, molasses, and roasted garlic, with a gentle tang at the end. Because it's savory and a little sweet, you can pair it with smoke, grilled meat, and plant-based proteins like tofu and tempeh without overpowering any of them.

The gentle flavor is exactly what surprises people when they taste it at our sampling tables. They see "garlic" on the label, expect a punch, and get something rich and mellow instead. Once folks try our Black Garlic BBQ Sauce, they tend to come back for another bottle, and that's always our favorite part.

T-bone steak on a hot grill, ready for a black garlic BBQ sauce glaze

Cooking With Black Garlic

The simplest way to get cooking with black garlic is a bottle of our Black Garlic BBQ Sauce, since you won't have to track down whole cloves. We make it with fermented black garlic and organic ingredients, and like every sauce we make, it's gluten-free and vegan, which our label-reading friends always appreciate. Anywhere you'd reach for your usual BBQ sauce, you can reach for this one instead, whether you're cooking ribs, steak, tofu, tempeh, or a pan of veggies.

Black Garlic BBQ Sauce on Ribs and Steak

Ribs are where a lot of folks fall for this sauce. Brush it over a rack of pork ribs, and you'll get a savory, garlicky glaze that tastes nothing like the sweet, classic sauce you might be used to. Do your brushing during the last 20 to 30 minutes of the cook, because most BBQ sauces can scorch if they go on too early. Then set out a little extra on the side, since somebody's always going to ask for more.

Steak lovers, you're in luck too. A Minnesota grass-fed beef company buys our Black Garlic sauce in bulk for its ready-to-serve meals, so it's been tested by people who take their beef seriously. Brush a little on as a finishing glaze, or pour some into a small bowl for dipping slices of steak, and you'll taste the char and the black garlic together.

And if you're setting up for a cook or dreaming about a new grill or smoker, the folks at DDR BBQ Supply have a great selection of grills, smokers, and BBQ equipment. Their team has more than 35 years of smoking experience, and they compete in BBQ competitions too, so they know their way around a cook.

Pork ribs on the grill being basted with BBQ sauce near the end of the cook

Black Garlic in Plant-Based Dishes

Plant-based cooks, this one's for you. Andy spends a lot of time at events like VegFest, talking with vegan cooks who want a sauce that works with whatever they're making. If your meatless dishes ever taste a little flat, black garlic is one of the easiest fixes we know. Our Black Bean BBQ Tempeh is a great place to start, and it serves three to four people:

  • Cut 8 ounces of black bean tempeh into small, bite-size cubes.

  • Warm a skillet (cast iron if you have one), then add 3 tablespoons of Black Garlic BBQ Sauce with 3 tablespoons of diced onion, a large clove of minced garlic, and ½ teaspoon of minced fresh ginger. Cover and cook until the onion softens.

  • Stir in the tempeh, cover, and cook for 5 minutes, adding a splash of water if the pan looks dry so nothing sticks.

  • Add the rest of the sauce (another ½ cup), cover, and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring now and then.

We love piling it into tortilla wraps with plenty of shredded lettuce, spooning it over rice or a baked sweet potato, or stacking it on a bun for a hearty sandwich. And since the recipe uses fresh garlic and black garlic together, you'll taste the difference side by side, with a bright pop from the fresh clove and a rich, savory base from the black garlic.

Bottle of Triple Crown Organic Black Garlic BBQ Sauce, labeled vegan and USDA Organic

Black Garlic in Asian-Inspired Dishes

If you love a good stir-fry, noodle dish, or rice bowl, try stirring in a spoonful of the sauce near the end of cooking. Black garlic has its roots in Asian cooking, so the flavors fit together naturally, and if you add it late, it won't scorch in the hot pan. One of our favorite ideas from our Instagram is brushing it onto plant-based ribs for an Asian-style twist, and it's a fun one to try at your next cookout.

How Triple Crown Got Its Name

Our sauce started as one man's hobby. Back in 1994, Richard Schaaf entered his homemade BBQ sauce at the Minnesota State Fair and took home a Blue Ribbon. Then he did it again, and again. After three Blue Ribbons, the name Triple Crown stuck, and so did the sauce's reputation around his office, where he was always bringing in a batch for his coworkers.

Andy, a longtime fan who'd spent his whole career with organic food companies, took over the recipe in 2012. He upgraded every ingredient, made the sauce organic, gluten-free, and vegan, and over the years added four more sauces to the lineup, including our Black Garlic. Today we're a family-owned business in Minneapolis, and you'll find our sauces at Whole Foods Market stores across the upper Midwest, in natural food co-ops, and even in about 60 stores around Tokyo.

We're especially proud of how our original sauce has done at the American Royal in Kansas City, the biggest barbecue sauce contest in the country. It's finished in the top three in three different years, and as far as we know, no other organic BBQ sauce can say that.

Where to Start With Black Garlic

If you've never cooked with black garlic, start with a dish you already know by heart. Make your usual ribs or steak and swap in our Black Garlic BBQ Sauce, or give the tempeh recipe a try on a weeknight. Because you know exactly how the dish normally tastes, you'll notice right away what the black garlic adds, and we have a feeling you'll be reaching for it again.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use black garlic in place of fresh garlic in a recipe?

Not as a straight swap, because they taste so different. Black garlic is mellow and sweet, while fresh garlic is sharp and pungent, so trading one for the other changes the whole dish. If a recipe needs fresh garlic's punch, keep it in and add our Black Garlic BBQ Sauce for savory depth, just like the tempeh recipe does.

How do I scale the black bean tempeh recipe for a bigger group?

Just double everything. Use 16 ounces of tempeh, 1 cup plus 6 tablespoons of Black Garlic BBQ Sauce, 6 tablespoons of diced onion, two cloves of garlic, and 1 teaspoon of ginger, and you'll feed six to eight people. Grab your widest skillet, too, so the tempeh has room to brown instead of steaming.

Can one bottle work for both meat-eaters and vegans at the same cook?

Yes! Since the sauce is vegan and gluten-free, it works on ribs and tempeh alike. Just pour what you need into two separate bowls and use a different brush for each, so the plant-based portions stay free of meat juices.

Is black garlic the same as roasted garlic?

No, although they're cousins. Roasted garlic spends about an hour in the oven and turns golden, soft, and sweet. Black garlic ages for weeks, so it goes much darker and picks up a tangy, almost balsamic flavor that roasted garlic doesn't have.

GoldenWeb Support