Martha's Method for Peeling Garlic Is Absolutely Genius

One of the most fragrant and delicious additions to any dish is fresh garlic, but even Martha Stewart knows that the task of peeling individual cloves takes time—especially when you need a lot, like in our recipe for chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. There are all kinds of culinary tools and gadgets designed to help home chefs peel garlic with as little effort as possible. Don't reach for your wallet just yet, though; you can power your way through entire heads of garlic without spending a dime thanks to Martha's expertise. What's more, Martha's method saves your hands from smelling like this pungent vegetable for the rest of the day.

Martha's approach requires two items you should already have in abundance in your kitchen—a pair of mixing bowls. Try to find a pair that are equally sized, or one that's small enough to slide into the other, because it'll help you keep errant pieces of garlic and garlic skins in one place for easy cleaning.

Related: Check Out Martha's Garlic Harvest—and Cook Her Favorite Recipes!

Martha first shared this foolproof method for peeling garlic on The Martha Stewart Show, when she had a few extra enthusiastic guests from the New York Giants help her in the kitchen. Armed with a pair of mixing bowls, Martha placed a whole head of garlic into one of them before covering it with the other bowl. The next part is a crucial step for proper prep: Martha uses the bottom of the top bowl to crush the head of garlic into cloves, which eliminates the need for any knifework.

After you've separated the garlic into cloves, cover the garlic with the other bowl, while keeping a firm grip on each so that your garlic doesn't end up strewn across your kitchen. "Now, you hold the bowls like this, and shake as hard as you can—don't let those bowls come apart," Martha says. "Now watch this everyone, all of the cloves of garlic are nicely peeled, like magic!" Shaking the bowl causes the cloves of garlic to magically slip out of their peels, and you can simply discard the rest.

Once you've watched Martha's technique in the video above, you'll never fret over freshly peeled garlic again.