Brined Garlic, Black Garlic

This evening, I set out to make garlic toast only to discover that almost an entire head of my precious local-organic-CSA garlic was moldy. How that greyish-blackish-bluish mold managed to get a foothold in a plant renowned the world over for its anti-biotic properties is beyond me, but every now and then it happens.

So, quick on my feet as any slow-foods enthusiast ought to be, I consulted my fermentation bible, Wild Fermentation, and came across brined garlic. I had been toying with the fantasy of brining all of my garlic but was hesitant to change anything about its natural state. However, I didn't want to lose another clove.

I pulled a quart mason jar, about 1/4 full of leftover kimchi brine with a bit of veggie sediment in the bottom, out of the fridge. I then peeled the remaining three heads of garlic that were non-moldy (around 12-15 giant cloves). I simply dropped the cloves directly into this fuchsia liquid and stuck it back in the fridge, hoping for the best.



I am curious, though, about the concept of black garlic. I was once saw in a grocery store a Korean variety of fermented garlic called "black garlic". It seemed like a bit of a commercial gimmick due to the packaging, but this mold experience got me thinking about where it may have originated. I put the concept into google and got, of course, a bit of a commercial gimmick at first: http://blackgarlic.com/ The more general Wikipedia yielded somewhat more useful results. But what I really wanted to know was this: Can I make this at home? So far, all I've been able to come up with is that, in Korea, they have a special pot in which they slow-cook the stuff. Would love to hear if anybody else has any ideas.