Quote:
Originally Posted by
SField 
With squash plants that is true, have not found that with bulbs. You see giant garlic and shallots in pro kitchens all the time.
Really? Huh. I always thought the smaller, the more intense the flavors. If not with shallots, I think it is certainly the case with garlic. I've always thought that smaller cloves had more flavor. I know that the finer you cut garlic, the more pungent the flavor, due to the damaging of cell walls allowing the chemical alinase to come in contact with aliine to create allicin. The more cell walls you breach, i.e., the smaller your cuts, the more allicin is created which makes for a stronger garlic flavor.