Garlic Powder Substitutes, Ranked by the Job the Powder Is Doing

Garlic powder is garlic sliced, dried at a low temperature and milled.¹ The drying keeps garlic’s flavor enzyme, alliinase, intact but idle: once the powder meets water, the enzyme and its raw material, alliin, react to make allicin, the main source of garlic flavor.¹² So the best substitute depends on whether the powder’s job is to be a dry seasoning that sticks and spreads evenly, or simply to put garlic flavor into something wet.

Quick answer

The rest of the page explains each choice.

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 garlic powder against any other garlic product. The figures below are kitchen rules from extension services, test kitchens and makers.

If the powder is a dry seasoning

Rubs, blends, seasoned flour and popcorn need something dry that spreads evenly and sticks. Fresh garlic can’t do that, so stay with a dried form.

1. Granulated garlic

Granulated garlic is dried garlic milled coarser than powder. The Spice House describes its own as having a coarser texture than common garlic powders.³ In our judgment it does the same job in a rub and pours more freely from a shaker.

Ratio (Method): We found no published conversion between granulated garlic and garlic powder. Start with the same amount, taste, and add up to double. Two figures from different sources hint that you’ll need more granules: The Spice House says 1/4 teaspoon of its granulated garlic equals one small clove,³ while NDSU gives 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder for a small clove.⁴ Because those are different sources and different products, they are a direction, not a conversion. See granulated garlic vs. garlic powder.

2. Dried minced garlic, ground

Dried minced garlic (sold as instant minced garlic or garlic flakes) is the same dried garlic in larger pieces. Ground in a spice grinder or mortar, it becomes a coarse garlic powder. UC ANR’s home method for making powder is the same idea: dry the cloves until brittle, then process them in a blender until fine.⁵

Ratio (Attributed): Two extension services each list both products against the same clove, and both put dried minced garlic at twice the volume of powder. NDSU gives 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder or 1/4 teaspoon of instant minced garlic for a small clove.⁴ UC ANR gives 1/8 teaspoon of garlic powder or 1/4 teaspoon of dried garlic for a medium clove.⁵ Use 1/4 teaspoon of dried minced garlic, whole or ground, for each 1/8 teaspoon of powder.

3. Garlic salt, only in place of some of the salt

Garlic salt is salt blended with dried garlic. McCormick’s lists salt, garlic, an anticaking agent and garlic oil.⁶ ATK says garlic salt is typically three parts salt to one part garlic powder,⁷ and UC ANR’s home recipe uses four parts salt to one part powder.⁵ Either way it is mostly salt, and ATK’s tasters gave it exceptionally low scores in a garlic test, objecting to a chemical, super-salty taste.⁷

Salt to take out (Computed): McCormick Garlic Salt carries 540 mg of sodium per 1/4 teaspoon; Morton Iodized Table Salt carries 590 mg.⁶⁸ By volume, then, that garlic salt carries about 92 percent of the sodium of table salt. Replace up to the same volume of the recipe’s salt with garlic salt, and expect less garlic than the powder would have given. Those figures hold for those two products only.

Garlic amount (Method): No source gives a garlic-salt-for-garlic-powder ratio. Because garlic salt is three or four parts salt, matching the garlic in the powder would bring more salt than most recipes can take. Let the salt in the recipe set the amount, and accept a milder garlic flavor.

If the powder is flavoring something wet

In a soup, sauce, stew, marinade or braising liquid, fresh garlic does everything the powder does and more. ATK’s verdict after comparing dried garlic products with fresh: “When garlic is a predominant flavor in a recipe, nothing comes close to fresh.”⁷

1. Fresh garlic

Ratio (Disputed): Published equivalents of powder to fresh garlic 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 ANR gives 1/8 teaspoon for a medium clove,⁵ McCormick’s spice conversion chart gives 1/8 teaspoon per clove,¹¹ and ATK gives 1/4 teaspoon per clove.⁷ Read in reverse, that is one small clove for every 1/8 teaspoon of powder the recipe calls for, which is our Method starting point. Taste and add more if you want it.

Timing. Fresh garlic can burn if it goes into hot fat too early. ATK warns that minced garlic added to a hot pan too early can quickly burn and turn acrid and bitter, and suggests adding it after onions or other vegetables have softened.¹²

2. Jarred minced garlic

It is convenient, but in ATK’s tests it gave minimal garlic flavor. Expect to use more than you would of fresh garlic. See fresh garlic substitutes for the test results and amounts.

If the powder is going into garlic bread, butter or a dip

These recipes use powder because it disappears into fat without leaving bits. Fresh garlic grated on a rasp or mashed to a paste with a pinch of salt does the same job, by common practice. Use the same starting point as above: one small clove per 1/8 teaspoon of powder (Disputed).

If you are using the powder after all, hydrate it first. ATK found that powder straight from the jar has not developed its full flavor, and recommends stirring it into an equal amount of water before using it.² Powder heated in butter before it met any moisture ended up with almost no garlic flavor at all.¹³

Why a substitute can taste so different

• Wet versus dry. Fresh garlic makes its allicin the moment it is cut;¹ powder makes it only once it is wet.² Stirred dry into mashed potatoes, ATK found garlic powder harsh and garlicky but not particularly complex.¹³
• Heat. Heat inactivates alliinase.¹ Powder that hits a hot, dry pan loses flavor,¹³ and ground spices in general scorch and turn bitter under intense heat.¹⁴ Add powder or granules with liquid, or after the aromatics.

What isn’t known

• No published measurement converts granulated garlic to garlic powder, by volume or by weight.
• No source compares the flavor strength of garlic powder with fresh, jarred or dried minced garlic. All the ratios above are rules of thumb.
• The idea that garlic juice is more pungent than powder is widely repeated. No source reviewed here measured it.
• No source gives a ratio for using garlic salt in place of garlic powder.

Related

• Garlic powder, garlic, garlic salt, onion powder
• Granulated garlic vs. garlic powder, garlic powder vs. garlic, garlic powder vs. garlic salt
• Fresh garlic substitutes, garlic salt substitutes
• How to dry garlic, black garlic powder uses
• Too much garlic powder? How to fix it