Why You Should Reconsider Garlic Powder—and All the Ways to Use the Much-Maligned Ingredient

Given the ubiquity of garlic in recipes from all over the world, it's curious that garlic powder is a mystery to so many. Cooks don't understand it, and even among those who do, it's often an overlooked ingredient. Given the variety of products and somewhat overlapping or confusing names for them—garlic powder, granulated garlic, dehydrated garlic, and garlic salt—the confusion is understandable. Let us help. Learn what garlic powder is, how it relates to granulated garlic and garlic salt, and how to use it in your cooking.

What Is Garlic Powder?

It's possible that garlic powder receives such a wary reception because people don’t know what it is. Garlic powder is simply garlic cloves that have been dehydrated and ground into a powder. It can be used as a seasoning just like any other spice, and the key to unlocking its usefulness in the kitchen is to avoid the trap of comparison many fall into. Garlic powder should not necessarily be used as a replacement for fresh garlic. It should be allowed to shine in its own right as a uniquely useful ingredient.

June Xie, a food editor and YouTube cooking personality, rarely cooked savory things growing up, so garlic powder only came into her life in a significant way when she started working in test kitchens. “I understood it as a normal, common American product but never thought it quite nailed that distinctively sweet, delectably layered garlic flavor profile. It seemed very cardboardy and two-dimensional in providing just the garlic scent and slight hint of pungent spiciness.”

Xie now recognizes the usefulness of the ingredient, independently of fresh garlic. “Everything has its place,” she says. “It's not necessary to always rank things linearly. There's room for both fresh and powdered, and they can both be delicious on popcorn or potato salad or tomato sauce, depending on what you're feeling that day.”

Garlic Powder vs. Granulated Garlic vs. Garlic Salt

It’s not uncommon to confuse granulated garlic with garlic powder—the process of making them is similar. While both are dehydrated forms of garlic, granulated garlic is ground more coarsely, and garlic powder is finer. (Think about it in terms of the varying coarseness of cornmeal types, for example.)

Garlic salt is different: As the name suggests, it is garlic powder mixed with salt, whereas granulated garlic and garlic powder are salt-free and simply add flavor without salinity to your cooking. 

Using Garlic Powder in Cooking

Garlic powder has long faced scorn from culinary professionals, particularly during the 1970s and '80s—an era that began to see a shift toward fresh ingredients and away from the canned, frozen, and pre-packaged foods of the 1950s and '60s.

Criticism of garlic powder is perhaps a relic leftover from that time when a dehydrated product might be seen as one of inferior quality. Actually, garlic powder is oftentimes more effective than fresh garlic in lending that distinctive garlic flavor to certain recipes.

"It's quite useful in some recipes, especially in breads or baking and frying applications where the food will be subjected to a consistently high heat," says Xie. "The garlic powder diffuses more readily and evenly into something like bread dough than minced fresh garlic would, but something like gently heated scrambled eggs would probably benefit from fresh garlic more."

Garlic powder is a useful product for adding flavor without adding excess moisture, not unlike milk powder.

Even if moisture is not a concern, garlic powder is delicious on nearly everything. Use it to:

• Season roast chicken (in place of fresh garlic)
• Sprinkle on pizza
• Add to salad dressings
• Add to dipping sauces

Or use it like John Legend does in his legendary macaroni and cheese. Remember that nearly anywhere garlic tastes delicious, garlic powder does too. 

Buying Garlic Powder

Not all garlic powder is created equally. Many inexpensive garlic powders are made not just from dehydrated garlic cloves but also from the papery peel, stems, and other detritus that becomes mixed into the garlic harvest. But in recent years, smaller-scale spice companies, such as Burlap & Barrel, have come to the forefront in their mission to produce high-quality, single-source spices and seasoning blends. This is good news for garlic powder, whose quality is bolstered when it contains only garlic cloves, allowing its depth and complexity to shine through. “If it's a good quality powder, consider using less!” says Xie. “It can be quite potent!”

The Shelf Life of Garlic Powder 

To keep your garlic powder fresh and free of clumps, be sure to store it in a dry, cool area and check that the cap is sealed properly to protect it from humidity. Just like any other spice, garlic powder has a shelf life. As noted by Burlap & Barrel on their website, spices don't get better with age: the faster you use them, the better they'll taste. Generally, spices provide a good aroma and flavor for about three years from harvest, although it depends on the spice and the part of the plant it's harvested from.