Lansing, IL here.
South of us were cornfields.
“My Dad taught me to make a deep “x” with a knife and stuff a garlic clove down in deep, repeatedly. “
That was what my Grandma taught me.
Found out it was quicker to use a big knife and stab harder.
The more garlic the better!!!
My grandparents always smelled funny, and thought it was becuz they were old. They ate a massive amount of garlic.
Until I started using massive garlic in my cooking and started to smell like my Grands.
It was worth it!
Garlic! My dad grew it in his east side garden and ate lots. A month or do after he passed my mom was sitting in a Wendys getting lunch with her buddies. Old duffers at the next table were talking about hearing about Eddie dying. When one of them said Eddie who, another guy said - you know the one that always smelled like garlic. Mom leaned over and said - that was my husband. My grandpa who had emigrated from Yugoslavia was in the army WWI. Everyone in his company died from the flu epidemic. A bunch of doctors examined him to try and find out why he never got sick. And Grandpa said - because I eat garlic. I grow it and eat it too.