Best French Garlic Types
Ail blanc de Lomagne is a white bulb grown in the clay and limestone soils of the French Gers and Tarn et Garonne regions since the 13th century. Lomagne garlic is amazingly fragrant, it has an intense flavor and quite a specific shape and appearance: all of the 8-12 cloves are evenly sized and creamy beige with occasional violet streaks.
When marketed, Lomagne white garlic must be dried and shaped in the traditional way - plaited into braids or packed in nets. Because of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities, Ail Blanc de Lomagne is eaten raw or used for adding flavor to various dishes such as the famous Tourin, a type of French garlic soup.
Ail de la Drôme is a large-sized, white garlic of the Messidrôme and Thermidrôme varieties, grown in the Drôme region in France. Messidrôme produces large white bulbs with a great flavor particularly suitable for cooking, while Thermidrôme produces ivory-white, hardy cloves of a medium intense flavor.
Both types have a characteristically sweet, fresh taste, a short aftertaste, and are soft on the palate. Ail de la Drôme is sold either fresh, dried or semi-dried. Once available only at the local farmers market in Valence, today it can be bought in many other places across the region, thanks to the Association of Drôme Garlic Producers.
Ail Fumé d'Arleux is a pink spring garlic of the Allium sativum family, produced in the Nord region in France. It has a considerably long shelf-life due to the traditional methods of braiding the garlic and smoking it with local peat, lignite, straw, and sawdust.
Since there is not much sun to properly dry the garlic, the smoking process preserves the bulbs and prevents them from spoiling in the damp Nord climate. Arleux garlic cloves are dark pink and after being smoked for at least seven days, develop a unique, pleasant smoky aroma.
This variety of a violet tunic garlic is traditionally grown on the sun-exposed limestone and clay slopes in and around the village of Cadours in the northwest of the Haute Garonne region. After the harvest, Ail violet de Cadours is gently breezed over and dried by the vent d'Autan, a warm and dry Mediterranean wind.
The robust appearance of Cadour garlic is far from being indicative of its delicate and sweet flavor. It is available from early summer and, if stored properly, it can be kept for up to six months. This versatile crop is celebrated at the Fete d’Ail, a festival held in Cadours every August.
Ail Rose de Lautrec is France's finest garlic with pink cloves and white skin on the exterior. It is grown in the medieval town of Lautrec in the Tarn region. According to an old tale, a traveller with no money stopped in Lautrec in order to eat, but as he had no money, he paid with pink cloves of garlic instead.
The owner of the inn planted them, and that is how it expanded throughout the region. Its taste is subtle, sweet and gentle and is used as a common spice, adding that extra touch of flavor to many dishes. Mainly used in the culinary world, it also has medicinal properties as it is long ago proven that garlic is full of vitamins, antibacterial, antiallergenic, and acts as a diuretic.
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