Fresh Garlic Substitutes, Ranked by the Job Garlic Is Doing

A fresh clove’s flavor is made on the cutting board. Cutting or crushing garlic lets the enzyme alliinase reach a compound called alliin and turn it into allicin, the source of raw garlic’s bite, and in crushed garlic that reaction is complete within 10 to 60 seconds.¹ Heat stops the enzyme.¹ Every substitute below either carries that enzyme in a different form, as dried garlic does, or brings a related allium flavor instead. Which one works depends on what garlic is doing in your dish.

Quick answer

The rest of the page explains each choice and the other options.

How the ratios on this page are labeled

Every ratio carries one of four labels.

• Computed: based on a measurable physical relationship, with the source named.
• Attributed: a named source publishes this ratio. We quote it as theirs.
• Disputed: named sources give different answers to the same swap. We show each one and do not average them.
• Method: we found no published ratio. We give a direction and a cautious starting point, and say so.

No source we found measured the flavor strength of fresh garlic against any substitute. The figures below are kitchen rules of thumb from extension services, test kitchens and makers.

If garlic is background flavor

In a soup, a pot of beans, a tomato sauce or a spice rub, garlic is one flavor among many. America’s Test Kitchen compared dried garlic products with fresh minced garlic and concluded that nothing comes close to fresh when garlic is a predominant flavor, but that “in a pinch you can use any dried garlic product except garlic salt” where garlic sits in the background.² Of the dried forms, its tasters liked garlic powder best.²

1. Garlic powder

Garlic powder is made from cloves that are usually sliced and dried at a low temperature.¹ The enzyme survives drying and waits for water: ATK describes water as activating alliin and alliinase, which then make allicin.³ That has two practical consequences.

• Wet it before it meets high heat. In ATK’s experiment, garlic powder sautéed in butter before it met any moisture ended up with almost no garlic flavor at all.⁴ For garlic bread, butters and dressings, ATK stirs the powder into an equal amount of water first.³
• Taste late. Powder straight from the jar has not developed its full flavor,³ so a dish tastes weaker right after seasoning than it will a few minutes later.

Ratio (Disputed): Published equivalents disagree, sometimes on the same page:

These are round-number kitchen rules, not measurements, and they don’t agree on clove size. Three more sources checked for this page fall on the same two figures: UC Agriculture and Natural Resources gives 1/8 teaspoon for a medium clove,⁸ McCormick’s spice conversion chart gives 1/8 teaspoon per clove,⁹ and ATK gives 1/4 teaspoon per clove.² Start at 1/8 teaspoon per clove, let the powder hydrate, taste, and add more if you want it. More detail is on garlic powder and garlic powder vs. garlic.

2. Granulated garlic

Granulated garlic is the same dried garlic milled coarser. The Spice House describes its own as having a coarser texture than common garlic powders.¹⁰

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice House says a quarter teaspoon of its granulated garlic is equivalent to one small clove.¹⁰ That is the merchant’s figure for its own product. See granulated garlic vs. garlic powder.

3. Garlic salt, only if the recipe also calls for salt

Garlic salt is mostly salt. ATK says it is typically three parts salt to one part garlic powder,² and its tasters gave garlic salt exceptionally low scores, calling it chemical and super-salty.²

Ratio (Attributed): NDSU lists 3/4 teaspoon of garlic salt as equal to one medium clove.⁵

Salt to take out (Computed): McCormick Garlic Salt carries 540 mg of sodium per 1/4 teaspoon, and Morton Iodized Table Salt carries 590 mg in the same measure.¹¹¹² So NDSU’s 3/4 teaspoon of McCormick garlic salt brings about 1,620 mg of sodium, as much as roughly 2/3 teaspoon of Morton table salt. Cut the recipe’s salt by that much for every clove you replace this way. The figures hold for those two products only; other brands differ.

If garlic flavors the oil at the start

In a sauté, a stir-fry or the base of a pasta sauce, garlic goes into hot fat early. Garlic powder is a poor fit here, because heat applied before the powder is wet destroys the enzyme first.⁴

1. Dried minced garlic (instant minced, flakes)

Ratio (Attributed): NDSU gives 1/4 teaspoon of instant minced garlic for one small clove.⁵ UC ANR gives 1/4 teaspoon of dried garlic for one medium clove.⁸ The two agree on the amount and differ on clove size.

In our kitchen judgment, dried minced garlic browns fast in hot oil, so add it with or just before the other aromatics rather than on its own.

2. Jarred minced garlic

It looks like the real thing, but it tested poorly. ATK found that jarred minced garlic gave “minimal garlic flavor” in every application it tried,¹³ and some tasters picked up a sourness, most likely from added phosphoric acid.¹³ In a later tasting of seven garlic shortcuts, ATK’s explanation was that allicin is volatile, so garlic cut and packed weeks or months earlier loses much of what made it sharp, and that the acid preservatives in shelf-stable products add tartness of their own.¹⁴

Ratio (Disputed): Sources disagree on how much replaces a clove.

ATK found the flavor weak even at its higher amount.¹³ If you use it, start at 1 teaspoon per clove and taste. That is our Method starting point, not a measurement.

If garlic is raw or the star of the dish

Caesar dressing, aioli, garlic bread, croutons and garlic-and-oil pasta are where substitutes show. When ATK compared dried garlic products with fresh, the results were “glaringly different” in its crouton and garlic bread tests.² The honest answer is that nothing replaces fresh garlic here, but two products came close enough to keep on hand.

1. Prepeeled cloves and frozen crushed garlic

ATK tested seven fresh-garlic substitutes in a lemon-garlic vinaigrette and a garlic-and-oil pasta and concluded: “Ultimately we arrived at two really great garlic shortcuts: prepeeled cloves and frozen garlic cubes.”¹⁴ Its tasters found the prepeeled cloves practically identical to freshly peeled ones, and dishes made with the frozen cubes nearly indistinguishable from those made with fresh garlic.¹⁴ ATK recommended refrigerated garlic paste only with reservations, and rated shelf-stable pastes and jarred minced garlic weak.¹⁴

Ratio (Attributed): Prepeeled cloves replace cloves one for one. For the frozen cubes ATK tested, the maker’s figure is one cube per clove.¹⁴

If you want a fresh, green garlic note

These are different parts of the garlic plant, or a different plant, with milder, grassier garlic flavor. None is a like-for-like swap for a clove, but each works where garlic goes in at the end.

1. Garlic scapes

Scapes are the flower stalks of hardneck garlic.¹⁵ UMaine says young chopped scapes give a mild garlic flavor,¹⁵ and Nebraska Extension calls them milder than garlic cloves, in season May through July and more often found at farmers markets than grocery stores.¹⁶

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. NDSU treats one medium clove as about 1/2 teaspoon minced.⁵ Because scapes are milder, start with about twice that, 1 teaspoon of minced scape per clove, and add more to taste. See garlic scapes.

2. Green garlic

Green garlic is young garlic pulled before the bulb matures; Tasting Table describes it as having a less intense flavor than the standard bulb.¹⁷

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. Use it as you would scapes: start with about 1 teaspoon minced per clove, then taste.

3. Garlic chives

Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum), also called Chinese chives, have a mild garlic taste and smell.¹⁸ They suit finished dishes: eggs, noodles, dumpling fillings and stir-fries added at the end.

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. Start with 1 tablespoon chopped per clove and add more to taste. See garlic chives.

If someone at the table avoids garlic

1. Asafoetida

Asafoetida is a dried plant resin. Gernot Katzer describes its raw smell as remotely like garlic that is not altogether fresh, and says it is absolutely necessary to fry the resin quickly in hot oil.¹⁹ He also notes that it is used by Brahmins who refuse to eat onion and garlic.¹⁹ The compounded powder sold for cooking, he adds, is more than half rice flour and gum arabic.¹⁹

Ratio (Attributed): The Spice People, which sells asafoetida, says half a teaspoon of the powder can replace two minced garlic cloves,²⁰ which works out to 1/4 teaspoon per clove. That is merchant guidance with no stated basis. Bloom it in hot fat for a few seconds before the other ingredients go in. See asafoetida.

2. Garlic-infused oil

For people limiting FODMAPs, a post on Monash University’s FODMAP site, written by an olive oil company, explains that garlic’s fructans are water soluble but not fat soluble, so garlic-flavored oil carries the flavor without them.²¹

Ratio (Method): No published ratio was found. Use the infused oil as all or part of the cooking fat, taste, and add more at the end if the garlic is faint.

Buy it, or make it safely. Homemade garlic oil carries a real botulism risk. UC ANR warns that garlic-in-oil mixtures held at room temperature provide an ideal environment for Clostridium botulinum, the bacterium that causes botulism, and that roasted garlic in oil carries the same hazard.⁸ Its rules:⁸

• Never store fresh or roasted garlic in oil at room temperature.
• Refrigerate homemade garlic in oil for no more than 4 days, labeled with the date, or freeze it.
• Fully dried, brittle garlic may be used to flavor oil, as long as it has not been rehydrated and no moisture gets in.
• Commercial garlic-in-oil products are made under strict guidelines and must contain citric or phosphoric acid; UC ANR says there are no guidelines for adequately acidifying whole cloves at home.

What isn’t known

• No published study compares the flavor strength of fresh garlic with any dried, jarred or frozen form. Every ratio above is a rule of thumb, and the clove sizes behind them differ.
• No source we found gives a ratio for garlic scapes, green garlic or garlic chives in place of cloves.
• It is often said that jarred minced garlic loses its nutritional value when heated during processing. No source reviewed here measured that.
• No published figure was found for garlic juice as a substitute.

Related

• Garlic, garlic powder, garlic salt, black garlic, wild garlic
• Garlic powder vs. garlic, granulated garlic vs. garlic powder, garlic powder vs. garlic salt
• Garlic powder substitutes, garlic scapes substitutes, garlic chives substitutes
• Garlic scapes, garlic chives, asafoetida, how to dry garlic
• Too much garlic? How to fix the dish

Footnotes

1. Garlic, Linus Pauling Institute Micronutrient Information Center, Oregon State University. lpi.oregonstate.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. Garlic Substitutes, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

3. Carolyn Grillo, For Great Garlic Bread, Hydrate Your Garlic Powder First, America’s Test Kitchen, 2021. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³

4. Experiment: Bringing Out the Best in Garlic Powder, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩²

5. Julie Garden-Robinson, Ingredient Substitutions (FN198), NDSU Extension, 2018. ksre.ksu.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

6. In a Pinch Ingredient Substitution (E-131), NMSU Cooperative Extension, 2016. pubs.nmsu.edu · Reference work ↩

7. McCormick Gourmet Organic Garlic Powder product page, McCormick. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²

8. Linda J. Harris, Garlic: Safe Methods to Store, Preserve, and Enjoy, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, 2016. ccfruitandnuts.ucanr.edu · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

9. How to Grind Your Own Spices, Plus Spice Conversions, McCormick, 2025. mccormick.com · Merchant ↩

10. Granulated Garlic product page, The Spice House. thespicehouse.com · Merchant ↩ ↩²

11. McCormick Garlic Salt label, via Stop & Shop product listing. stopandshop.com · Merchant ↩

12. Morton Iodized Table Salt product page, Morton Salt. mortonsalt.com · Merchant ↩

13. Jarred Minced Garlic versus Minced Fresh Garlic, America’s Test Kitchen. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

14. Lauren Savoie, The Best Substitute for Fresh Garlic, America’s Test Kitchen, 2020. americastestkitchen.com · Publication ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

15. David Fuller and Steven B. Johnson, Growing Hardneck Garlic in Your Maine Garden, University of Maine Cooperative Extension, 2013. projects.sare.org · Reference work ↩ ↩²

16. Garlic Scapes, Nebraska Extension. food.unl.edu · Reference work ↩

17. Emmy Schneider-Green, The Difference Between Green Garlic And Garlic Scapes, Tasting Table, 2023. tastingtable.com · Publication ↩

18. Allium tuberosum (PROSEA), Plant Resources of South-East Asia. uses.plantnet-project.org · Reference work ↩

19. Asafetida, Gernot Katzer’s Spice Pages. gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com · Reference work ↩ ↩² ↩³

20. Asafoetida: a flavourful substitute for garlic and onion, The Spice People. thespicepeople.com.au · Merchant ↩

21. All about onion, garlic and infused oils on the Low FODMAP Diet, Cobram Estate, Monash University FODMAP blog, 2023. monashfodmap.com · Merchant ↩