Best garlic crusher: Show that garlic who’s boss with these garlic presses, grinders and rockers

13 Jan 2022

Put the chopping knife aside, and save yourself some time with these garlic presses

Anybody who enjoys cooking from scratch will know that garlic is an absolute staple and a decent garlic crusher or garlic grinder will make adding it into your dishes and dips just that little bit easier. Whether you dislike the smell of garlic on your fingers or just don’t fancy spending time and effort finely dicing with a knife, the best garlic crusher will remove these problems in an instant.

There are plenty of garlic crushers out there on the market and while few are outright expensive, some are suspiciously cheap. Broken or badly made presses aren’t the sort of thing you want cluttering your kitchen drawer. So we’ve put together this guide to help you find the best garlic crusher for your needs, followed by a round up of recommended garlic crushers for every budget.

Best garlic crusher: At a glance

Best for beginners: Heruio Garlic Press | Buy now
Best on a budget: Jsdoin Stainless Steel Garlic Press | Buy now
Best for easy cleaning: Lakeland Garlic Press | Buy now
Best garlic grinder: Yadnesh Multi Crusher | Buy now
Best rockable garlic grinder: Joseph Joseph Rocker Garlic Crusher | Buy now
Best all-round garlic crusher: OXO Good Grips garlic crusher | Buy now

How to choose the best garlic crusher for you

Why do I need to crush garlic?

Garlic mellows when cooked. If sauteed in a pan, it infuses the oil with a delicious aroma. But it can also burn quickly, and if it does, it’s game over for your meal, as the bitter taste is highly unpleasant. That’s why it’s best to crush the garlic, so it liquifies in the oil. With a bit of skill, you can use a knife to do a much more precise job, but if you’re in a hurry a crusher can be a big help.

Are there different types of garlic crusher?

Yes. The main one you’ll find is shaped much like a nutcracker: it’s a hinged, two-handle tool that squeezes the garlic clove through a perforated chamber. Press the handles together and out comes the crushed garlic. These are by far the most common, and most have one key advantage: you needn’t remove the cloves from their skins beforehand.

Another type of garlic crusher involves a container with a rotatable top that contains blades that chop rather than crush the garlic into smaller pieces. The longer you twist, the more you’ll end up with a smooth, puree-like mixture. These gadgets involve a bit more elbow grease on your part, but can also accommodate several cloves of garlic at once.

The final type of crusher is one that you rock back and forth on garlic laid out on a chopping board or other clean surface. The crushed garlic is collected on top of the press, which you can then deposit straight into your pan.

Ultimately, it’s down to you to decide which is best for your cooking.

Can I use a garlic crusher for other ingredients?

Absolutely. You can use the standard and rockable garlic presses for ginger, too – another ingredient that requires lots of care. The twistable garlic crushers that use blades can deal with even more ingredients, from chillies to lemongrass.

The best garlic crushers, grinder and rockers to buy

1. Heruio Garlic Press: Best garlic crusher for beginners

Price: £8 | Buy now from Amazon

This is one of the more affordable garlic crusher on the list, but it’s one that’s been thoughtfully designed. It feels weighty and sturdy and the component that pushes the garlic through the chamber is textured, giving it extra oomph. (This is something that Ikea’s garlic crusher, another budget contender, doesn’t have). It can be opened up to 160 degrees making it easy to add and remove any garlic and while the chamber isn’t removable like most pricier crushers, it’s a solid choice if you’re kitting out your kitchen on a budget.

2. Jsdoin Stainless Steel Garlic Press: The best budget garlic crusher

Price: £6 | Buy now from Amazon

While the absolute cheapest option might not always be the best choice, this excellent value garlic press walks the line between affordability and functionality well enough to be worth your time. The handles are ergonomically curved and the crushing mechanism has a decent weight to it, so repeated use isn’t too strenuous on your hands.

Some users have noted issues with garlic skin clogging up the press after use, so for the best results, you’ll want to peel the garlic before crushing it. This model is dishwasher safe, but we advise washing by hand to prolong its life.

3. Lakeland Garlic Press: Best garlic crusher for easy cleaning

Price: £10 | Buy now from Amazon

The £10 price bracket is where you should settle if you want to invest in an above-quality, standard-style garlic crusher. Lakeland’s characteristically slick and stylish own-brand offering makes for the perfect choice. The handles are ergonomically designed, making it simple and easy to use, and it also has a removable chamber that is convenient to rinse and clean when taken out. It’s also dishwasher-safe.

4. OXO Good Grips garlic crusher: Best all-round garlic crusher

Price: £10 | Buy now from Amazon

The Good Grips range is well known for its quality and this superb garlic crusher is no different. With easy-grip handles, it’s one of the comfiest garlic presses on this list and does a fab job of crushing garlic too. The chamber is extra-large so you can crush more than one clove at once, provided they’re not too big. What’s more, the built-in cleaner helps to push the garlic skin out of the chamber automatically, though this isn’t 100% foolproof and found sometimes you do still need to fish out bits of stray peel. All in all, this is an impressive garlic crusher and while it’s a little more expensive than some of the others on this list, it’s worth the extra cost.

5. Joseph Joseph Rocker Garlic Crusher: Best rockable garlic crusher

Price: £13 | Buy now from Amazon

Standard garlic presses have one major drawback: once you’ve used them, you always need to fish the pulped remnants of the clove out of the chamber, and it’s very hard not to end up with garlic under one fingernail. With the rockable garlic crusher from Joseph Joseph, however, the crushed skin and leftover garlic is left on the chopping board. No mess, no whiff of garlic on your fingers. The only disadvantage is that you’ll need to peel the garlic clove before using this crusher. We have also seen some reports of the handle snapping, but ours is still going strong after several months of use.

6. Yadnesh Multi Crusher: Best garlic grinder

Price: £8 | Buy now from Amazon

This gizmo from Yadnesh lets you chop up several cloves of garlic at a time. You simply pop them into the container and twist the upper component, which has 20 cutting blades that will make short work of the garlic, ginger, chillies and other ingredients you put in instead. We’d suggest this one for fans of South Asian food. For example, you could pop in some garlic, ginger, chillies and lemongrass to make an authentic Thai green curry paste – there’ll just be a little more exertion involved in comparison to a food processor.