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I’ve tested countless garlic presses in the last decade as a food editor and home cook, from straightforward models to ones with extra features like comfy handles and silicone peelers. There are now models that not only crush garlic, but press it out into even slices, and others that come with nifty cleaning brushes, which can access those hard-to-reach areas that garlic likes to get stuck in. Whatever the features, a good garlic press should push out thoroughly and evenly minced garlic with little effort, and it should extract the most possible bits of garlic out of the clove without unpressed chunks getting lodged anywhere. A quality, well-designed press that pulverizes and minces garlic efficiently not only cuts down on the amount of cloves you need to use for the same output, it also minimizes cleanup because there’s less left behind to deal with.
For this guide, in addition to testing multiple presses (and noting how long they took to clean by hand), I spoke with chefs and experts about the garlic presses they consistently reach for. Many garlic presses claim you can pop unpeeled cloves into the sieves and get good results. While I found that to be generally true, and it cuts down on prep time, it makes cleaning much more cumbersome, so I tested presses with peeled cloves. Garlic skin likes to stick to the little holes.
What we’re looking for
Material
The material a garlic press is made with is just as important as its form as it impacts the tool’s longevity, garlic-crushing power, and ease of cleaning. Most models are made from stainless steel, which is durable and sturdy enough for effective crushing while being generally rust-resistant (though it can rust if you delay cleaning).
Size
There isn’t a huge amount of variation among garlic presses when it comes to size – they’re usually from seven to nine inches — but it’s an important consideration when you’re adding another kitchen tool to your (probably already crowded) drawer. Plus, the right garlic press should feel comfortable in your hand. I prefer presses that can fit two or three cloves so I can work as efficiently as possible, so I’ve noted how many medium-size cloves can fit in each.
Care and maintenance
Many cooks avoid garlic presses because they’re a pain to clean, but in that respect not all garlic presses are created equal. You want a press that can be easily scraped of garlic remnants and thrown in the dishwasher. If you don’t have a dishwasher, the right press shouldn’t have any nooks and crannies that you can’t reach to clean. I’ve noted below which presses come with a handy cleaning brush.
Best garlic press overall
Material: Stainless steel | Size: 6.5 inches, 2 cloves | Care and maintenance: Dishwasher-safe
With beveled holes that gave my garlic an extra-fine mince, this Kuhn Rikon garlic press produced exceptional results with minimal squeezing, thanks to its smart ergonomic design. The stainless-steel press is a bit pricier than many of its competitors, but it outperformed them when it came to the percentage of garlic successfully pressed (virtually all of it) and ease of use. As someone with small, weak hands, I felt like I hardly had to press down on the lever to get a heavy-duty crush. Even better, the sieve swings out, so there’s no area you can’t easily access for cleaning purposes.
The Kuhn Rikon is also the favorite of Valerie Gordon, chef and owner of Valerie Confection in Los Angeles. “The reason, in one word: chic,” says Gordon. “MoMA should carry this tool — it’s easy on the eyes and the hands. Sturdy, ergonomically supportive, and, above all else, it cleans with ease.”
Best less-expensive garlic press
Material: Zinc alloy with chrome plating, rubber handle | Size: 6.7 inches, 2 cloves | Care and maintenance: Dishwasher-safe, comes with brush
This attractive press with a cylindrical hopper is very effective and easy to use, in part because it has built-in studs that crush down on the garlic and help extract the most amount of paste with the least amount of waste left behind. The press comes with a silicone garlic peeler, a simple tube that easily removes the papery skin if you plop a clove inside and roll the tube back and forth vigorously. (Peeling the garlic first results in the maximum extraction, and this tool minimized the amount of garlic juice I get all over my hands.) The press also comes with a handy cleaning brush that reaches the hard-to-access nooks where garlic can sometimes accumulate — something I believe all presses should come with. And the Zulay comes in lots of pretty colors.
Best garlic press with scraper
Material: Stainless steel | Size: 7.9 inches, 2 cloves | Care and maintenance: Dishwasher-safe
Unlike the other presses on this list, the Rösle has a clever scraper that transfers the minced garlic from your press into whatever you’re cooking, so you don’t need to grab a fork or knife to extract it. Kiki Aranita, a chef and also the editor of this guide, has had this durable garlic press in her kitchen for over a decade and uses it at least once a week. “I love how there’s a flipping-up mechanism that makes it easy to dispense the minced garlic into a bowl or pan with a flick of my finger,” she says. “Somehow mincing garlic is something I always forget about until I have the pot of pasta sauce simmering on my stove already, so I always reach for it when my hands are occupied doing things and I don’t want to pull out a knife and cutting board.”
With a fold-out sieve, the stainless-steel press is very easy to clean. Aranita says she has run hers through the dishwasher hundreds of times without any issues.
Best garlic press for comfort
Material: Stainless steel and plastic | Size: 9 inches, 3 cloves | Care and maintenance: Dishwasher-safe
OXO makes reliable kitchen tools that outperform their price points, and this is especially true of its garlic press, which gets the job done well while being the most comfortable press I tested. With its soft, cushiony handles and sturdy construction, it made easy work of the ten cloves I needed for a lentil stew, and the larger-than-average hopper allowed me to press three medium-size cloves at the same time. While the product says it can accommodate peeled or unpeeled cloves, I found that cleanup after pressing unpeeled cloves was a little tricky (I had to use a knife to poke out the skin that got stuck in the holes).
Best garlic rocker
Material: Stainless steel | Size: 9.1 inches | Care and maintenance: Dishwasher-safe
With this rocker version of a garlic press, you’re not limited by the size of the hopper or by your hand strength. “My hands are small, so sometimes crushing garlic one-handed can be tiring,” says Simone Tong, chef at Zoé Tong in Austin, Texas. “With this rocker, you can use both hands” — plus some of your body weight, as needed — “and press into a bowl or plate as well as on the cutting board.” She also prefers this garlic rocker because it’s simple to maintain. “This one is easy to scrape clean and easy to clean after use,” she says.
Shay Spence, a recipe developer based in Key West, Florida, also prefers this press. “While I usually use a microplane for my garlic, sometimes I’ll whip this out if I don’t want quite as fine of a grate, which results in a slightly more mellow garlic flavor,” he says. “I prefer the rocker to the traditional garlic press because no little bits get left behind, it’s easier to clean up, and the rocking motion is easier on the joints if that’s an issue for you.” Most importantly, “It’s more fun,” he says, and I agree: You get to throw your weight around.
Best set with peeler
Material: Stainless steel | Size: 7.5 inches, 2 cloves | Care and maintenance: Dishwasher-safe
Since garlic skin often gets wedged in the holes of the sieve, ultimately making cleanup more difficult, a garlic peeler is a fantastic invention for freeing your clove of its skin without much effort: You simply plop the garlic in the peeler and roll it on your counter. This fantastic, sturdy press from Orblue comes with a garlic peeler and a brush for cleaning, which resolves the most annoying parts of using a press.
Best press for skin-on garlic
Material: Zinc | Size: 7.6 inches, 3 cloves | Care and maintenance: Dishwasher-safe
With a larger-than-average hopper, this press easily crushes three cloves in one go, sweeps off the paste with its built-in scraper into whatever I’m cooking, and ejects the skins right into the trash with its genius little spring-loaded button. It’s the only press that I’m comfortable using unpeeled cloves for because the skins don’t get lodged in the holes. At 14.1 ounces, it’s heavier than some of its competitors (the Oxo is 6.4, Zulay is 8.4, and the Kuhn Rikon is 11), but its heft doesn’t make the task more effortful since it can press so much more garlic at a time and doesn’t require much fiddling with. I also appreciate that the small amount of garlic remnants rinsed right off in the sink.
Other handy tools for chopping garlic
Our experts
• Kiki Aranita, chef and Strategist senior editor
• Valerie Gordon, chef and owner of Valerie Confections
• Shay Spence, recipe developer and food writer
• Simone Tong, chef at Zoé Tong
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