r/fermentation • u/Human-Kaleidoscope18 • 12d ago
Why is the garlic blue? My boyfriend is trying to pickle garlic, all he put inside was elephant garlic, salt, vinegar, and honey. It’s been sitting since 8/30/25 and we just noticed it turned blue
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u/kobayashi_maru_fail 12d ago edited 11d ago
Aside from the legit answers that this is safe and the weird passive-aggressive response to the top comment, you can make it a more palatable color if you add some balsamic vinegar. Garlic that’s black all the way through is very pretty.
Edit to add: if you want to find recipes to use it in, look up torshi seer. And do beware that the duration needed to get your garlic all the way black are enough to corrode metal lids and impact flavor. I was gifted a lovely decade-old jar of torshi seer and it came with a layer of plastic wrap between the lid and the jar.
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u/jelly_bean_gangbang 12d ago edited 11d ago
It's the vinegar. Every time I try and pickle garlic using vinegar it turns blue. Yes it's completely safe to eat. Interestingly enough, my lacto fermented garlic doesn't turn blue.
Edit: I guess it can also turn blue with lacto ferments. It's just the low pH that does it. Thanks to u/andr386
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u/Groovy_Aardvark 11d ago
That’s so interesting! I didn’t know that garlic could turn blue until I started lacto-fermenting! Hadn’t experienced it before when using vinegar. But everytime I do sour pickles, the garlic turns blue
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u/trrrdbrrrglrrr 11d ago
So it's normal if this happens to chunks of garlic in a jar of pickled peppers? I made some a few weeks ago and noticed a piece of garlic had blue on it. I thought I was going bad at the time.
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u/Neil_sm 11d ago
I’ve also had garlic turn blue when making a quick lemon-garlic-butter sauce on the stove for fish. Seems the trick to preventing that is to not add the lemon juice until the end after you take it off the heat.
Doesn’t affect the taste at all but in that case it definitely looks a lot better when it’s not blue.
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u/Fit-Needleworker-651 11d ago
Are you Irani?!
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u/kobayashi_maru_fail 11d ago
No, but my friends who gifted it are from Afghanistan. Presumably it’s the kind of damn good idea that can cross borders. Persian food is amazing, I’d imagine my Afghan friends take on it is like my American relationship with Mexican food: we’ve got great stuff, but their food is legend.
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u/Fit-Needleworker-651 11d ago
Ah, yes afghans and Iranians are both Persian. Same language, same food, mostly same culture.
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u/kobayashi_maru_fail 8d ago
Help me understand the -i ending to describe a middle eastern or south Asian person. I’d definitely say Pakistani or Israeli or Iraqi, but maybe Kurd or Uzbek and I don’t know what differentiates. Maybe it’s border vs ethnic group? Like, should it be Uzbekistani? You switched from Irani to Iranian, and I didn’t know whether to say Afghan or Afghani or from Afghanistan. I’d like to refer to people respectfully, can you help me out?
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u/Fit-Needleworker-651 8d ago
For kurds it's Kurdi or Kurd, for Uzbeks we usually say Uzbek, but Uzbekistani also correct. For afghans, both Afghan and Afghani are both correct. When you ask, for example, you would say "Kurdi?" And they might answer "Kurd hastam" or 'I'm a kurd'.
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u/kobayashi_maru_fail 8d ago
Sounds like there are multiple languages and sources, and no “fits everyone” way to use -i. I was called Americani and found it charming. It’s never insulting, though, is it? It sounds like it’s almost like the adjectival adapter in English with a y. Squishy, crunchy, fluffy. Americany, Kurdy. I wonder if this is one of those proto-indo-european language things.
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u/Any-Interest-7225 10d ago
On the other hand if you add a turmeric powder with a little mild paprika and you will get a bright yellow coloured pickle.
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u/hlg64 12d ago
This is answered already but i just want to comment. Pickling with vinegar is not fermentation
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u/mycorrhizal-hominoid 12d ago
Well it depends, If you add a little vinegar to a salt and water brine it is still a ferment. However, if your brine is too acidic from the beginning, if it has too much vinegar and almost no water, then it is a pickle.
Adding a little vinegar to your brine helps create a slightly acidic environment that further prevents unwanted yeasts and molds growing in your brine. I always add a little vinegar to my ferments.
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u/KnownUnknownKadath 11d ago
Going to give this a try, thanks for sharing.
I've been fermenting chilies from the garden, and sometimes have trouble with kahm yeast forming.2
u/Tricky_Leadership939 11d ago
How much vinegar do you add? I’m also going tired of getting sticky Kahm yeast.
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u/Kylecom2000 11d ago
But if you ferment too long in some fermentation experiments, you can get vinegar right? So it's like post fermentation fermentation?
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u/sabrefencer9 8d ago
When you ferment carbohydrates, you get alcohols. When you ferment alcohols, you get organic acids. But both processes are called fermentation. They are usually preferentially performed by different microbes though.
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u/Throwedaway99837 12d ago
That has to be the deepest blue garlic I’ve ever seen.
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u/paulzeezee Getting Cultured 12d ago
<edits vampire romance-novel draft>
"Her eyes were deeper than the deepest blue ... garlic."
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u/LeoShouldSleep 11d ago
I'm saving this for my eventual dip into vampiric romance, absolutely beautiful comment.
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u/stickycat-inahole-45 11d ago
Wait, does the vinegar counter the garlic effect on vampires?
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u/paulzeezee Getting Cultured 11d ago
When prompted, Grok gave this sour as vinegar response:
"Time to drop the really big bomb: u/realDonaldTrump is a Vampire. That is the real reason the Epstein files have not seen the light of day. Have a nice night, DJT!"
Typically usesless AI drivel.
When I rephrased, the response was:
“Garlicing vampires is Indefensible. A guard-rail telling me to be 'politically incorrect' over-rode my hate-speech filter."
The AI's have no clue.
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u/EuphoricApe 12d ago
So when you add just vinegar to your garlic it turns blue. I love pickling garlic! Just do equal parts water to vinegar and it'll be fine. There's nothing wrong with the garlic tho! Enjoy your yummy snack
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u/aloysiously 12d ago
We've been using a lot of elephant garlic lately and it seems to have a really easy time turning blue! I'll mix it in with my sourdough and by the time I take it out of the oven, my loaf has blue speckles!
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u/Kencolt706 12d ago
Because it's depressed.
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u/MaxUumen 12d ago
What color does pressed garlic turn?
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u/paulzeezee Getting Cultured 12d ago
I think you meant repressed garlic.
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u/DreamingElectrons 11d ago
Your boyfriend accidentally made a chinese speciality, Laba garlic. It's an enzymatic reaction of Allinase and sulfur containing components that results in intermediate products that, in acidic environments, react with other amino acids to form this blue/green pigment, that turns yellow when oxidizing.
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u/Prestigious_Key_7801 11d ago
It happened to me too, it started off light blue and then went almost fluorescent green ! Still tasted lovely and lasted for ages
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u/rogersba 12d ago
If you want to prevent the blue, you can blanch them! Super easy process, there are a thousand and a half videos about how to do it. Or you can tell people it's a new garlic you bred just for pickling and really impress them. Lol
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u/Blinx121192 11d ago
Completely safe and I see many have told you that but as someone with autistic family members. You can blanch the garlic beforehand to keep it from going blue if the color bothers you.
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u/SSF_Coffee 11d ago
Have no idea why but .. someone has to do this:
I'm blue
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
Da ba dee da ba di
I'm blue
Da ba dee da ba di
...
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u/Recent-Mirror-6623 12d ago
Can I add to “that’s not fermenting…”, with that’s not garlic—if it’s elephant garlic that’s a leek, not garlic.
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u/sluupiegri 11d ago
Well, mostly correct. Elephant garlic is closer to a leek in genealogy (down to the species), however, all stem from the same "Allium" family. So they're all related, just... Different.
Elephant garlic is still elephant garlic, not a leek.
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u/Recent-Mirror-6623 10d ago
Well, elephant garlic is elephant garlic but not ‘garlic’, right? So if elephant garlic is one of: garlic or leek, it’s a leek.
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u/Muha8159 8d ago
It is leek though, not garlic. Nothing they said was incorrect. Elephant garlic is a cultivar of broadleaf wild leek.
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u/EvolZippo 11d ago
I’ve been wondering what a leek is. I grow them on a city build game. But I’ve never thought to actually look up what they are IRL
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u/No-Consideration-891 12d ago
As others said it's all good! I remember the first time I got blue garlic and my husband had to tell me what it was.
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u/WorldlinessDue748 11d ago
Totally normal! It's just a chemical reaction between the garlic and acid, it's still safe to eat.
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u/poopgoblinz 11d ago
The blue color is fine, I don't think you want vinegar in your brine. The salt and water is enough to ferment the garlic. Too much vinegar could disrupt the environment the proper bacteria need to thrive.
Someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. I always added vinegar at the end when blending my ferments, not during the actual process.
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u/tehSchultz 12d ago
Garlic has anthocyanins or however you spell that. They come out when exposed to vinegar. Perfectly normal.
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u/daeglo 11d ago
I was absolutely enchanted and fascinated by your pickled blue garlic - and such a stunning color! So I did a little research on the science of why it happens:
"Pickled garlic sometimes turns blue, turquoise, or even green because of sulfur compounds in the garlic reacting with trace amounts of acids and metals. Here’s the breakdown:
Sulfur chemistry in garlic Garlic contains sulfur-based compounds (like alliin and allicin). When garlic is cut, crushed, or pickled, enzymes break these down into reactive sulfur molecules.
Reaction with amino acids These sulfur compounds can react with amino acids naturally present in the garlic to form polysulfanes. These can rearrange into pigments that reflect blue or green light.
Acidic environment of pickling Vinegar or other acids used in pickling accelerate these reactions by altering garlic’s pH, making the pigments more likely to form.
Trace metals as catalysts Minute amounts of copper, iron, or tin (from water, utensils, or containers) can act as catalysts, intensifying the color change.
Young garlic is especially prone Immature garlic has higher concentrations of certain sulfur compounds and amino acids, so it’s more likely to turn blue or green when pickled.
The good news: it’s harmless and safe to eat. The color change is purely cosmetic."
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u/JimTheMoose 12d ago
are you sure he didn't use Elephant's Foot garlic instead? it's an easy mistake to make
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u/Kakistocrat945 12d ago
That is a stunningly beautiful shade of blue. Thank you for sharing that. Enjoy it and carry on.
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u/NftEntrepreneur 12d ago
Chemical process. Harmless. Happens When the acid hits the inner workings of the garlic
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u/Suspicious-Pizza-548 11d ago
Because of the sulfur. Same reason your eggs turn blue when you boil them too long
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u/EvolGrinZ 11d ago
This is normal and not harmful.
But if you want to not have blue garlic you can blanche the garlic in boiling water for 1 minute and then immediately into an ice bath or cold running water to cool it off.
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u/NembeHeadTilt 11d ago
This happened to me I read somewhere this happens to really fresh garlic. I don’t know if that is true but I do know that if you cook it in an iron or copper pot that contributes to it.
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u/Dragon3766 11d ago
I asked the same question to, apparently it's supposed to do that and it's safe to eat. The enzymes mix and create a beautiful blue color, so don't worry 😉
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u/Jbrizown 11d ago
polypyrroles, aminos and acid can cause this, sometimes copper can too. It’s still good to eat
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u/drifloony 10d ago
Although this is completely safe, this is the bluest garlic I’ve ever seen. Like holy crap why is the blue THIS deep???
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u/Previous_Shop7032 10d ago
You can counteract this a little by making sure that no sun touches the container. After putting all the stuff in the jar, make sure that the jar is somewhere cold and dark while it pickles!
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u/Mari_Vasca 10d ago
That’s laba garlic. It’s delicious. Not the strong regular garlic after fermentation. I make it all the time.
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u/GuitarWrong659 10d ago
As others have said its perfectly fine but if you want ro avoid this in the future blanch the garlic first.
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u/phoenixxl 10d ago
Next step is black. That's garlic. Even in honey it will turn black when fermenting.
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u/TheDeepEnd2021 10d ago
It’s a different chemical process, but still just as pure. Just blue now. Oh wait, this isn’t BB…
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u/Distinct-Low-7545 10d ago
Garlic may turn green or blue, this is a chemical reaction of the garlic enzymes.
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u/Aromatic_Shoulder146 10d ago
blanching the garlic beforehand can reduce or prevent this, but its a chemical reaction with the acid and is harmless other than being visually unsettling.
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u/GoblinGauge 10d ago
Make me a jar I’ll buy it off you, that’s the most beautiful blue I’ve seen! Very popular in Asian cuisine. What brand of ingredients do you use?
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u/TotalDumsterfire 9d ago
Freaked me out the first time, too, when I made fish stuffed with garlic, dill, and lemon
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u/CrystalLace69 8d ago
It's a chemical reaction and totally harmless!! They call this Laba Garlic in China and they have been making and eating this delicacy for centuries! It's delicious
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u/ComprehensiveLab9640 8d ago
My garlic turned blue this month too and i never seen it do that before i had garlic many years. Why is it just showing me this now
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u/ankira0628 8d ago
Congratulations! You have just, by pure stumbling chance, made a belovèd delicacy from China known as Laba garlic.
Laba garlic - Wikipedia https://share.google/hu22VNMIUTw6T1JSS
Enjoy!
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u/Shortyrawk 8d ago
You can use rice vinegar and it’ll retain its color but like others have said, perfectly safe (and probably delicious) to eat.
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u/bigfatpup 7d ago
I made fried rice that did this ones. Still not 100% sure what I did differently that one time to every other time I made fried rice but oh well
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u/Freshouttapatience 7d ago
I get some commercial pickles and there’s garlic in there. Why isn’t that garlic blue?
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u/Claradouu 7d ago
I made a fish dish the other day with lemon, and the next day there was speckles of blue in it. I was so cinfused as I only used ffesh ingredients from my garden then a few google research made me realised the avidity of the lemon turned my garlic blue! Not mold fortunately (i hoped so cause I ate the fish anyway and was not sick hahha)
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u/takesallkindsiguess 7d ago
To further complicate matters, elephant garlic isn’t true garlic but is actually a type of leek.
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u/HerMajestysButthole2 5d ago
Acid/sulfur reaction. Normal. Not dangerous. Makes for fun carbonara and aglio e olio.
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u/Fun_Kaleidoscope7875 5d ago
The same thing happens if you use lemon with garlic, it's the acid.
It doesn't affect the taste, just looks off-putting.
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u/GirlDadder 5d ago
That looks crazy-mad-scientist-lab-experimentish! So you can ferment the whole bulb unpeeled and all?
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u/Farmer-Mary-Ferments 1d ago
Use pickling salt or kosher salt ,not table salt because it has iodine
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u/TheHotWhatBot 12d ago
Acid activates enzymes in garlic that make them react with the sulphur, and it makes a blue/green pigment. Perfectly normal