Customer Reviews for Norpro Large Garlic Baker

Norpro Large Garlic Baker
by Norpro

	List Price: ~~$14.25~~ Our Price: $7.36 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Kitchen See more product details

Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Norpro Large Garlic Baker

Customer Review: so-so..
Summary: 3 Stars

I bought this to mimic the buttery-soft oven baked garlic served at a French bistro in Chicago. While the restaurant provides the recipe to replicate their baked garlic , I figured it'd be cool to have a garlic baker so I bought this based on the good review.

My experiences have been okay, but not great. Garlic is soft, but not as soft as I'd like, and takes a looong time to cook (about 1.5 hours to get the garlic soft enough to spread on bread). Also the size is a little tricky: quite roomy for one clove, cramped for two. If I spend 1+ hour baking this in the oven, I wish it was a little bigger so I could do more than two cloves at a time.

Also, the little garlic handle on top is quite useless and makes it impossible, just by 1/2-inch or so, to fit in my toaster oven. So I need to use my big oven, which takes much longer to preheat and uses so much more energy than my handy little toaster oven. Not cool. Oh and if you choose to drizzle oil on top of the clove and it gets on the non-coated surfaces, it will most likely never get out. This was a turn off for me, as I could envision this cooker getting gross after several uses.

After having several mediocre results with this cooker, I elected to use the restaurants's recipe, which called for just using a oven-safe dish filled with 1/2-inch of water, covered in foil. Much better results in shorter time (less than an hour). Buttery smooth garlic you can spread on your bread with butter. Best of all, it FITS in my toaster oven which saves time AND energy!

Bottom line: I'll probably give it away when I move next year.

Customer Review: it works fine, just smelly and god help you if you burn garlic
Summary: 2 Stars

While the base of the product is great and VERY simple to clean out, the terra cotta 'top' is a pain in the butt (impossible to clean) and absorbs WICKED odors. after first use, the top had absorbed a huge volume of the oils used, and the scent permeated the cupboard. by the third use it smelled so bad it was almost intolerable, and then I burned a clove of garlic in it. (ugh) While the base does not absorb the odor at all due to its 'glazing/lining', the top is absolutely unusable now. i would not buy this product again unless it were fully glazed. i have an electric one that is super simple to clean and doesn't smell, and works in very swift time, so i'll stick with that one.

Customer Review: Didn't Work Very Well
Summary: 2 Stars

I didn't find this product worked nearly as well for me as it apparently has for other reviewers here. The first time I tried it I followed the direction and the garlic was barely cooked. I doubled the time the second try and while it was definitely better it still wasn't cooked nearly well enough. User error? I'll get around to trying it again one of these days, but I'm not holding my breath in hope of a superior outcome.

Customer Review: The base cracked the first time we used it!
Summary: 1 Stars

We followed the instructions to the letter about soaking it in water, putting it in the over before preheating, etc... and it came out of the oven with a big crack in the base the very first time. I doubt it will be usable after a second time. I'm not impressed at all.