There are a couple of times in a year where I find myself with a giant pile of garlic that needs using really soon: harvest, and planting.

Over the years, I’ve tried all sorts of ways to use it. Garlic bread. Garlic butter. Confit garlic. Honey fermented garlic. But salt has to be one of my favourite options. It can use a lot of garlic, it lasts ages, it improves practically every meal, and it makes a great gift.

For Christmas last year I made a batch of rosemary and garlic salt as home-made presents. It turned out pretty amazing, so I thought I’d record and share the recipe.

Ingredients

1c whole garlic cloves, peeled

1 1/4c kosher salt

1/4c dried rosemary

Method

Blend 1 cup of salt and garlic until it becomes a slurry.

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Spread the slurry thinly over the paper.

Bake or dehydrate at 50ºC until dry – this can take up to 8 hours and will make your house stink. Fan bake is helpful if you have it. Beware that going up to 70ºC in an attempt to dry it faster can result in burning your garlic.

Once dry, crumble it back into the blender. Add the dried rosemary and leftover 1/4c of plain kosher salt. Blend until thoroughly combined.

Put into a grinder and use on practically anything that needs some salt.

Will make enough to fill 3 or 4 grinders. Store excess in an airtight glass jar.