When you ferment garlic, white garlic turns into black garlic. Black garlic has a different taste and is even healthier.
Black garlic is the same bulb as white garlic, but blackened by its own substances. The garlic is fermented for over a month at a temperature of about eighty degrees. This enhances the nutritional value and healthy properties of garlic. The sugars and amino acids react together to produce melanoidin, the substance that causes the black color.
When the fermentation is finished, the structure of garlic resembles a liquorice and the taste is slightly sweet. Black garlic is healthier than the white version because the amount of antioxidants is doubled by the fermentation. The bulb is low in fat, rich in natural sugars and does not leave a bad smell (and therefore no bad breath). You buy black garlic at tokos and delis, but you also find it more and more in the supermarket.
Your body can digest black garlic more easily than white garlic. White garlic mainly contains allicin, a substance that is only soluble in fat. Black garlic contains the substance S-Allyl Cysteine, which is soluble in water. Your body can therefore absorb this substance better.
