Arleux smoked garlic ✦

Ail fumé d’Arleux

What it is

The braids, called manouilles, hang in closed sheds for eight to ten days over peat, short straw and untreated sawdust, held between 35 and 40 °C — peat cut from the marshes that ring the town. The smoke was never for flavour: it drives the water out, and a braid dried that way keeps a full year.

In the kitchen

Do not brown it — smoked garlic burns bitter far sooner than raw does. Drop the cloves unpeeled into a stock, or confit them gently in fat and squeeze the flesh out afterwards.

Goes with

Potato Cream Chicken Butter Thyme White beans

Same species

Banana shallot Black garlic Calçot Cévennes sweet onion Chives Cipollini onion

In season alongside

Grey shallot Lovage Sweetfern

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