Garlic in Korean Cooking
마늘ma-neul
Minced, sliced, pickled and black — the backbone of Korean flavor
Korea eats more garlic per person than almost anywhere else, and it shows: garlic goes into marinades, stews, kimchi, namul and dipping sauces, is eaten raw or grilled with barbecue, and is pickled whole. Few Korean recipes are complete without it.
- Korean name
- 마늘 (ma-neul)
- What it is
- Minced, sliced, pickled and black — the backbone of Korean flavor
- Storage
- Keep whole bulbs in a cool, dry, airy place.
- Substitute
- Garlic powder can stand in for minced garlic in marinades (about ¼ teaspoon per clove), but fresh garlic is far better in namul and kimchi.
- Recipes
- Used in 391 recipes on coo K food
How it is used
Minced garlic (da-jin maneul) is the default form: a spoonful seasons nearly every marinade, namul and stew. Sliced raw garlic is wrapped in lettuce with grilled pork belly, and whole cloves are grilled on the barbecue alongside the meat. Whole bulbs are pickled in soy sauce and vinegar (maneul-jangajji), and young garlic stems (maneul-jjong) are stir-fried or pickled in spring.
Black garlic — whole bulbs aged for weeks at warm temperatures until the cloves turn soft, black and sweet — is popular as a health food and a sweet, balsamic-like seasoning.
Prep tips
Korean households often mince a large batch, flatten it in a freezer bag and score it into squares, so a cube can be snapped off whenever needed. Add minced garlic toward the end of cooking in stews and stir-fries; long cooking makes it mellow, high heat for too long makes it bitter.
🧊 How to store it
Keep whole bulbs in a cool, dry, airy place. Peeled cloves keep about a week in the fridge; minced garlic keeps for months in the freezer.
🔄 Substitutes
Garlic powder can stand in for minced garlic in marinades (about ¼ teaspoon per clove), but fresh garlic is far better in namul and kimchi.
🛒 Where to buy
This is a fresh ingredient, so it is best bought in person at a Korean or pan-Asian grocery store such as H Mart, or through an online Asian grocer that delivers fresh produce in your area. Look for it under its Korean name, 마늘 (maneul).
