My grandfather ate a clove of garlic daily from my grandmother’s pickles. He was never sick. As a barber, one of his friends convinced him it was bad for him. My grandfather took note and stopped eating it. He got the flu and was in the hospital for three days. Began eating garlic again, never was sick again. Went to feed the cows one morning and laid down taking his last breath at almost 87 years old.
My wife is a great amateur chef and keeps both white heads of Garlic and Purple heads of Garlic handy.
She stores the heads in a big wooden salad bowl covered with an inverted funnel over each head.
She separates a clove or more when she is prepping dinner.
Then, she separates the skin and uses the flat side of her chef’s knife to smash each clove before using them on a wooden cutting board.
If she uses olive oil, the Costco Virgin Olive oil is her standard if she doesn’t have any donated and raised olive oil from some friends’ home grown Olives.