Dayum!
That’s true, but sometimes you want the flavor of fresh garlic, such as when stir frying Asian dishes. In this case, you need to be careful of over cooking it. You need to cook it in the oil on medium heat just until it barely begins to brown. Then take it out and let the oil convey the flavor to the other ingredients. Otherwise, it’ll become too acrid and bitter.
As for garlic salt, I leave that as a last resort, such as when you’re cooking in the middle of the night and the corner market is closed.
“Garlic bread - it’s the future, I’ve tasted it!”
I once had a Chicken Tikka Garlic at my local curry house. Not only were there giant chunks of garlic cooked into the sauce, but they garnished it with two thinly sliced raw cloves. It was most happymaking.
Folks, put this in a risotto. Just the roasted garlic added to a basic risotto recipe. When it is cooked stir in some marscapone and sprinkle on the parmesan. Sheer heavenly comfort food…
You’re not supposed to eat them? I see them as little bursts of hot treats! I usually want a couple more in whatever I’m being served. I don’t mind leaving one behind, but you have to eat a few of them! Gets the endorphins running wild. 
If you’re new to cooking garlic, watch out for burning when you saute minced or pressed garlic. If you burn it, it will be bitter and nasty.
I roast whole heads of garlic loosely wrapped in foil in the toaster oven at 400 for an hour. You don’t have to do anything with the garlic while it’s cooking, so you can go play your favorite computer game. Roasted garlic is pretty forgiving of losing track of time, too. Squeeze the cloves out on some nice bread (preferably sourdough) and have some cheese (blue or Brie is nice), and a mixed green salad, and you’ve got dinner. Do at least one head of garlic for each person.
I managed to get my unadventurous parents to eat and like quiche by saying it was “egg and spinach pie”.
My poor mom was from Minnesota and regarded the vast majority of food as weird and icky. I took this into account when she visited and tried to cook things as plainly as I possibly could.
Once I made “skewered chicken” (I carefully avoided calling it shish kebab), which consisted of chunks of chicken breast on a skewer, brushed with oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper. I broiled them and served them on plain white rice. She wouldn’t eat them, because they “smelled weird”. I worked out that she was bothered by the smell of the fresh cracked pepper, as all the pepper in her own cupboard was pre-ground Schillings and about thirty years old. The real, fragrant stuff was off-putting and nasty to her.
See, this sort of thing makes me sad. It’s not like your mom has some kind of moral failing, but she’s missing out on so much wonderful food.
I love fresh black pepper almost as much as I love fresh garlic. I actually wear black pepper essential oil as a perfume (usually with a few other things in there, like sandalwood and carnation… not garlic, though). Old pre-ground pepper is indeed very different.
To get the skin off, I usually don’t even bother with the knife. I rub the garlic clove between my hands until the loose stuff is off, then lay it down on the counter and give it a firm whack with the heel of my hand. It’s a smoosh and peel, all in one easy, satisfying smack! Then I put it on the cutting board and chop it. The only downside of this method is that garlic juice sometimes squirts out onto the counter. Fortunately, I clean my counters regularly.
Oh, and I second, third and fourth those who’ve said that there is never too much garlic (Well, unless you’re talking ice cream anyway. Then there’s a definite limit.). And if you simmer the spaghetti sauce long enough, the garlic will definitely be edible. It’ll probably be a hair stronger than if you had roasted it, but it won’t be nearly as strong as it was raw.
Giada DeLaurentis is funny when she does this.
sweet and smiling
“…and then we chop the garlic…”
face snarls up and bloodlust fury fills her eyes. Overhead hammer fist slams down on the flat of the knife, rattling all of the nearby dishes
sweet and smiling, her prey vanquished
“…like so. Next we…”
Add the roasted garlic paste into mashed potatoes! Uber-yum!
this is my favorite recipe that features garlic - garlic shrimp
http://find.myrecipes.com/recipes/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=600524
I adore this and it’s fast and easy
My local noodle shop does crisp-fried squid, in a light salt-and-pepper batter, with finely chopped, deep fried chilli and chunks of crispy brown garlic scattered over it.
OMG! Nom nom nom.
Last night my friends and I ordered one portion as an appetizer, then when we’d finished it, refused to order our entrees until we’d ordered two more squids. The restaurant staff looked at us like we were crazy people, but when we were tucking into the third dish and exclaiming to each other the waitress looked at us, smiled, and nodded. I like to think she understood.
Can I come stay with you? Just for a little while…
Shrimp? Squid? Oh, God, I think I have the vapors. […fainting…]
In Goodfellas (1990), mobster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) recalls his days in stir, where Paulie (Paul Sorvino) developed a method all his own: “He was in a year for contempt and he had this wonderful system for doing the garlic. He used a razor and he used to slice it so thin that it would liquefy in the pan with just a little oil. It was a very good system.”
OK, now you’re pulling our collective leg. Squid? Sure. I just had that conversation the other day with a coworker. She said she’d never even taste calamari. (I like calamari with the little octopuses in it in addition to the squid rings, BTW.) But shrimp? I thought everyone who wasn’t allergic or vegetarian has had shrimp.
Speaking of which, my mom used to make scampi when I was a kid. Shrimp and garlic! Yum!
Seriously, though, next time you feel like having spaghetti choose a sauce with garlic in it. You won’t have to peel it, mince it, cook it, or anything else. Just heat the sauce. You’ll get the garlic bits without having to ‘work yourself up to it’. Then the next time you make spaghetti, follow the instructions posted elsewhere in the thread to mince the garlic and toss it into a pan with a pound of ground beef. I use four or five cloves of garlic (you might start out with one or two), minced with a knife, and salt and pepper. Drain, mix the sauce into it, and simmer until it bubbles.
Tried, tested, approved, adopted from now on. I stand corrected. Cut off the woody end, smash it, pull off the skin (it makes this task so easy) then slice finely crossways.
You should have tasted the curry. If I’d had as good a curry as that in a restaurant, I’d be eating there every night. 
For many, spices were bought for the spice rack you got when you were married and the little metal canisters were big enough to last practically forever, which was good because those little canisters are expensive. I do keep a canister of pre-ground black pepper for when I want something to taste like it did in my childhood.
I now buy my spices in big packets which cost about the same as the little bottles from McCormick.
I hesitate to ask, but have you learned that when a recipe calls for eggs, you’re not supposed to add the whole eggs, but just the gooey stuff on the inside? The hard outer part (colloquially the “shell”) is intended to be thrown away.
