White garlic is the most flavorful; grey or yellow garlic has less taste.
Pink garlic (wrongly called red garlic) is more subtle and flavorful.

Choose garlic with a full, firm head and closely-packed cloves without blemishes or sprouting.

Garlic is so easy to obtain and to keep that it is best to buy it fresh. New garlic keeps for a much shorter time than garlic meant for storing and must be kept in a cool place. It is milder and when roasted in its skin makes excellent purées.

Garlic can be obtained dried, as dehydrated flakes, in powder or as garlic salt. You can also buy garlic purée in tubes or jars which is a good alternative to dried products which have generally lost all their healthful qualities and much of their flavour.

Garlic purée is easy to make: use a blender or mash it together with a spoonful or two of oil.

keep in a cool dry place, well-aerated and protected from frost

New garlic keeps for a shorter time than garlic intended for keeping and must be kept cool. It is milder and can be roasted in its skin in the oven: it makes an excellent purée.

Garlic is sometimes used as a decoration, woven into braids during harvest time. These "manouilles," as they are called in some regions of France, can be hung in the kitchen where they will survive until the next harvest if it is not too hot. Some people counter that the garlic dries out before it can be used; naturally small, warm modern kitchens are not very well-suited to keeping garlic for a long time.

To bring out the flavour: cut a clove of garlic in half lengthwise and flatten with the side of a knife: the oils will be released and all their flavour brought out.

To make garlic more digestible: take out the central germ and steam it for 5 minutes: it will have a flavour with a delicate suggestion of almonds.

Mention just about any savoury dish and garlic will want to jump right in! What would roasts, soups, stews or sauces (think of pesto and aioli) be without garlic? Garlic is suited to almost any sauce or flavouring. It enlivens mayonnaise, vinaigrettes, Mediterranean soups, braised dishes, etc.

A hint of garlic: use garlic in its skin to subtly flavour cooked dishes or rub the baking dish or salad bowl with a clove.

Whole clove
Three methods, three different tastes. In fact, using the clove whole will release the least flavour. This is an excellent method if you wish to subtly flavour a dish.

To flavour a dish without overpowering it you can rub the dish with a clove, e.g. for a fondue or salad.

They even say that in France some chefs, in search of the ultimate subtlety, sacrifice themselves for their art and chew cloves of garlic. Then they need only to blow on the dish to impart the perfect touch!

Sliced clove
this method consists of slicing the clove in half lengthwise and flattening it with the flat side of a knife blade. The oil will be released and all its flavour brought out.

Crushed clove
used to flavour highly-seasoned dishes. Ideally, the garlic is crushed in a mortar, though in modern kitchens a garlic press is sometimes used. Garlic's flavour is most pronounced when crushed.

Steamed
steam the cloves for 5 minutes
miraculously the garlic becomes very digestible and takes on delicate almond overtones

Garlic puree

1. Preheat oven to 100 °C (200 °F). Tightly wrap garlic in aluminium foil. Bake about 1 hour for whole bulbs - 30 minutes for halved bulbs.
2. Using a very sharp knife, cut whole bulb in half crosswise, and gently force "jam" out by pushing on the closed end.
3. For every 6 cloves, blend in 1 tbsp of extra virgin oil - using a fork or a small food processor.
    

Cooking hints with Alain Dutournier, Carré des Feuillants, Paris
My garlic is also chopped, rinsed and blanched. We never use crushed garlic with its bad-smelling yellow juice, nor do we use onion that has not been rinsed and finely chopped -it's aggressive and indigestible. My garlic has been blanched in milk and dried. The combination of garlic and ginger comes from a very ancient Chinese principle: wherever there is a little garlic, there is also always ginger to aid in assimilating and digesting the garlic.