'Never Okay' — This Food Faux Pas Is A One-Way Ticket Onto Bobby Flay's Blacklist

Diehard allium-heads know that cooking with garlic is an art form. We dare any romantic home cook to carve up a bulb of fresh garlic without feeling at least a dash poetic. To that end, one of the most common garlic mistakes ruining your dishes might be the choice to opt for the pre-minced stuff over a fresh clove from the produce section — that is, according to Bobby Flay. In a YouTube short posted by Food Network, the chef shares his culinary hot-takes about everything from oiling pasta water to washing raw chicken pre-cook. When asked, "Is pre-minced garlic ever okay?" Flay succinctly responds that the ingredient is, in fact, "never okay."

Pre-minced garlic comes in jars packed in oil, to be spooned into dishes as needed. This might seem particularly appealing when staring down the barrel of larger-batch recipes (finely mincing two cups' worth of fresh garlic demands a sizable chunk of time, to be sure). At first glance, Flay's take may seem like the excessively choosy preference of the culinary élite. But, while it may offer a convenient time-saving option for home cooks in a hurry, pre-minced garlic truly isn't as good as the fresh stuff – and, at a chemical level, it's barely even garlic. Mincing breaks open the garlic's cells, thereby releasing its natural chemical enzymes, which are responsible for creating garlic's unique flavor compounds. The moment that garlic is sliced, it begins to change at a fundamental structural level.

Without those freshly-released enzymes (namely, pungent alliinase), the ingredient becomes significantly less flavorful. To illustrate what we mean, consider the difference in the aroma of fresh-cut garlic bulbs versus opening a jar of pre-minced garlic. The former is dimensional and inviting, while the latter is somewhat acrid, sour, and decidedly less appealing. Additionally, sweet-sharp alliinase can build up to an unpleasant level of sour-bitter intensity if left to sit for a long period of time. Also, if you opt for pre-minced, we hope you like additives like citric and phosphoric acids.  It isn't just pure garlic in that jar.

Flay's fellow celebrity chef, Anthony Bourdain, famously espoused a similarly passionate take on the ingredient. As he wrote in his seminal "Kitchen Confidential," "Garlic is divine. Avoid at all costs that vile spew you see rotting in oil in screwtop jars. Too lazy to peel fresh? You don't deserve to eat garlic."

Instead of relenting to the sub-par jar, grab a whole bulb, and mince that fresh garlic yourself using a large, sharp knife. We also advise against using a garlic press kitchen gadget, which will impact the release of those flavorful oils. We've even rounded up 18 delicious recipes that make garlic the star to help home cooks get the most mileage out of their prep work.