Except this time, my one-track brain could only fixate on the condiment I've been making religiously this year: garlic confit ...

Chopped Garlic: Finely chop the peeled cloves, place them in an ice cube tray, cover them with olive oil and freeze. Once frozen, move the frozen cubes to a freezer-safe bag or container.

Maybe if I talked to someone who peeled a lot of garlic, they might know more. I called Dante Serafini, the co-founder of the Stinking Rose, the San Francisco restaurant devoted to garlic.

Us too. There are a few supermarket shortcuts that make garlic more convenient, but they come at a cost. Pre-peeled garlic still needs to be chopped. Jarred minced garlic has a strange aftertaste.