As throughout the South West, Languedoc cuisine highly appreciates garlic in all its forms. This oven-baked new garlic can go just as well with grilled meat as with cottage cheese or country charcuterie.
Take a small, sharp knife and slash the top of the head of garlic in each clove to loosen them all. Remove the very first peels. Butter a baking dish, not too big so that the heads of garlic are neatly arranged against each other without being too tight. Use only half the butter for this operation.
Preheat the oven to 210°C.
Arrange the heads of garlic in the dish and add a small knob of butter on each of them. Add salt and pepper. Slide the dish into the oven and cook for 30 short minutes.
Remove the dish from the oven and lower the heat to 145°C. Sprinkle the garlic cloves with 1 small glass of milk and return the dish to the oven. Leave it for about 2 hours, then remove the pods and put them in a pan. Everyone "skips" their garlic cloves and splits them to release the tender pulp.
You can also make this recipe using goose fat. In this case, use hot water instead of milk to wet the garlic heads.
Source:Les Cuisines Régionales de France. Editions du Fanal.
