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Making garlic powder at home is a simple process that doesn’t require any special equipment. With fresh garlic and a little time, you can turn whole cloves into a shelf-stable seasoning that’s easy to store and use in everyday cooking. It’s also a practical way to preserve garlic before it sprouts or spoils.

Homemade garlic powder is made by drying garlic completely and then grinding it into a fine powder. Once dried, the garlic retains its flavor well and can be used just as well as store-bought powder.

Below is an easy, step-by-step method for making garlic powder at home.

Ingredients

Dehydrator (or other drying method)
Spice Grinder, Coffee Grinder, or Mortar and Pestle
Knife
Cutting Board
4-6 large Garlic Heads, preferably from your garden or a local farm!

Instructions

Separate the garlic heads into cloves and peel them.
Slice garlic cloves into thin, uniform slices. Uniform slices will dry at the same rate, helping you avoid burning some while you wait for others to be ready.
Lay garlic cloves on your dehydrator trays with room between them for air to flow. Do not overlap.
Set the dehydrator on a low temperature (95 degrees) and set it in a place where there is good air circulation (a porch with open windows works great)
Check the garlic after 10-12 hours. The slices should break in half with a crunch, not bend, when fully dried. It may take up to 15 hours to reach this point.
Once dry, use a spice grinder, a coffee grinder (for spices), a mortar, and a pestle to grind the garlic in batches.
Sift the ground garlic through a fine-mesh strainer to remove larger chunks and keep your garlic powder fine. This will result in a fine powder. Larger pieces may have a higher moisture content, which can cause the powder to clump; set these aside and use them sooner in cooking.
Place garlic powder into a spice jar or other glass container that seals out air and moisture (or a ziploc bag).

What kind of garlic makes the best Garlic Powder?

Did you know that there are hundreds of varieties of garlic? In addition to the basic two categories of “hardneck vs softneck,” there are fun varieties like Georgia Fire, Okenagen Blue, Music, German White, and so many more.

While you may not taste a huge difference when cooking with these different varieties, some varieties are spicier or sweeter than others. Some even last longer in storage or form larger heads.

Garlic powder can be made from any garlic, but make sure your garlic is FRESH. You can use grocery store garlic, but you never know how long it’s been sitting around or how fresh its flavor will be.

If you haven’t grown your own garlic, find a nearby farmer who has, or ask at your local farm market. You’ll find the freshest garlic in late summer or early fall, when the harvest is at its peak.

In addition, because you have to slice the garlic cloves, use a variety that forms larger heads, like German White or Music. These two varieties are known for good flavor and tend to have large bulbs that are easy to cut and provide a lot of “meat” to work with.

How Much Garlic Powder do you get from one Head of Garlic?

Like many homesteading chores, the answer to this one is “it depends.” It depends on the size of your garlic head and how much powder you will end up with. But you might be surprised how much garlic powder you get from each head of garlic!

I tend to use larger heads of garlic, and I have found that 5-6 heads will fill 3 trays of my dehydrator when sliced and fill a spice jar with garlic powder after all is said and done.

A typical spice jar is about 2 oz, so if it takes about 6 heads to fill a two-ounce jar, I estimate that one large head of garlic makes about 1/4 – 1/3 ounce.

If you want to make enough for gifts or a larger jar, you can use that estimate to calculate how many heads you think you’ll need. But of course, results may vary!

0910202043a 1 — For best results, use a dehydrator to dry your garlic.

Do you need a dehydrator to dry garlic?

There are a few options for dehydrating garlic to make garlic powder.

Air Drying – Dehydrate garlic in a warm, dry room by slicing it, laying it on a screen, or using a needle to hang the slices to dry.

Air drying can take quite a long time and has unpredictable results. It will work, but watch your garlic carefully.

In your oven: Dehydrate your garlic by slicing it and laying it on a sheet pan. This works best on parchment or a cooling rack, with air circulating at the lowest possible temperature. With this method, you risk browning or burning the garlic if you aren’t really attentive.

Dehydrator – Dehydrate garlic in a countertop electric dehydrator. With this method, you can control the temperature at a lower setting. You can dry multiple trays at once and keep an eye on the garlic to ensure it doesn’t brown.